“The Axapta software provides a base of Financials, Trades, Logistics, Distribution, Manufacturing, Resources, Projects, Service Management and Retail/POS solutions, all in the one tool set,” says John Crew, Managing Director of Scalable Data Systems.
“In addition it has fully integratable modules for eBusiness, c-Commerce, eShopping, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Human Resources and Knowledge Management. Axapta software can also be tightly integrated with Microsoft BackOffice – offering the ease of use and intuitiveness of popular the Windows software.”
Axapta is an advanced software product for the new wave c-Commerce (collaborative commerce) and ERP II market. Recently it has been hailed by the Gartner Research Group as likely to become the most ERP preferred software (probability 80%) for mid range companies in Europe by 2004.
“Straight out of the box we can provide a full eShopping module (Customer Self Server "CSS") which fully integrates to the Axapta ERP System. This allows sales orders to be updated on-line without secondary entry of data. In addition, the eShopping module (CSS) comes with a full tool kit to allow the client to fully personalise the web screens and data available."
"Another great feature of the Axapta system is the universal access it gives the user to their data. The Axapta database can be accessed from different sources including the Internet and provides the transparency required to follow every transaction of business operations, easily and accurately.”
“For example, we have a client who has set up all of their KPI's to update a couple of times a day on to a consolidation screen console. It can be accessed internally, or via security, from any "Internet Kiosk" anywhere in the world. In fact the CEO has done just that from Berlin”
APPLICATIONS
Kempe Manufacturing, a $70M+ Geelong based Engineering, Consulting and Manufacturing company, chose the Axapta ERP system and plan to have it installed around the world, initially in Dubai, then South Africa, Mozambique, South America as well as at their sites in Australia.
Spokesperson for Kempe, Glen Kempe comments "We chose Scalable Data System's Axapta system because it will centralize all our accounting, across the whole group and create a virtual private network, with the ability to have menus in different languages."
"It is ideal for us as it is designed to be e-commerce ready and will allow us to establish appropriate websites so that our clients can make product inventory inquiries and do transactions easily using a simple password access."
Kempe continues "The systems suits us because it allows our own IT department to work with it. Once trained we will be able to make adaptations as we see fit. It will allow us to develop a system for our unique way of processing data while giving us improved data integrity, potential for payroll flow through, and many other efficiencies especially in Project Costing, Manufacturing and Inventory Management.”
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS
Data management was also a significant problem for Queensland chemical manufacturer, AV Syntec before they installed their Axapta System.
The company, has three divisions divisions, Surface Coatings supplying a range of architectural coatings, Adhesives specialising in the woodworking and joinery industries, and Rebound Ace® Sports Division internationally renowned for its Rebound Ace Tennis Surfaces. It required a system that was flexible enough to cope with the diversity of each Division. Other issues facing the company were time-consuming double entry of data, lack of integration and difficulty in accessing information.
Karen Katavich of AV Syntec comments, “The introduction of batch tracking has improved our stock control significantly and our users now trust the accuracy of the systems stock holdings. This combined with visibility by warehouse, means we are better able to inform our customers on stock availability, improving our customer service and relationships”.
She continues “We chose Scalable Data Systems’ Axapta software because of the functionality and flexibility, and its ability to meet the growing needs of AV Syntec and take us into the future. As a Management Team, we believed that the most important aspect for future growth of our business was a system that would assist us in making better business decisions, streamline our systems, and improve our customer service. Axapta has changed many of our business processes and has assisted in bringing a culture of change and improvement to the company”.
With AV Syntec exporting to 40 countries around the world, Axaptas multi currency facility has been a welcomed feature, as has the systems ability to meet the company’s flexible reporting requirements. Sales are monitored by product, by region, by country, by customer, and by sales Rep, and the system provides easy access in identifying the high and low areas within these classifications.
Another real benefit states Karen is Axaptas ease of use has significantly reduced training time and costs for AV Syntec and contributed to the company continuing normal business processing on day one of the implementation in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
Information is now easily accessible to Branch staff who no longer have to contact head office, resulting in faster response time to customer inquiries. With the added benefit of reproducing documentation as requested, and faxing directly to the customers, this is providing time saving efficiencies and a better service to customers.
AV Syntec have now been using Axapta for over two years, going live in early 2000 with Axapta Financials, and then Axapta Inventory, Sales, Bill Of Materials and Manufacturing on the 1st July 2000. It replaced a CBA financial system, and a customised Wang System which had been in operation for 15 years, handling the majority of the companies information.
THE FUTURE
R&D development for the Axapta software will be a key service for S.D.S. and includes the customizing of Axapta as required by clients as well as the development of new applications for the Axapta Series.
New applications include a Retail/POS and a Payroll Series, Barcode Management Systems, and the enhancement of the Service Management System. These new software products will be sold into both the local and international markets
The immediate future for us is not to just grow for the sake but to provide an outstanding level of service to our clients. We really want to grow more proficient and more efficient. To achieve a level of scale that allows SDS to maintain the high level of service to existing and future customers. This growth will be cautious, but positive reflecting the ongoing success and profitability.
