News Archive 2009 - 17 April

AccTech Systems provide AIAC with a breath of fresh air with Accpac ERP

Airedale International Air Conditioning Limited (AIAC), a part of the Modine group of companies, designs and manufactures a complete range of air conditioning products for a global market. For over 30 years, Airedale has been a pioneer and industry leader in the design and manufacture of air conditioning systems. The company's 25 000 m² production facility and £2 million Test Centre in Leeds, UK, designs and manufactures a wide range of chillers, close control and comfort products. The company also has manufacturing facilities in the USA, South Africa and China and employs 450 worldwide.

The primary reason for changing to Accpac solutions was the fact that there was no support for the WANG system. Also, the Accpac products offered good reporting tools and had a manufacturing module.

Inna Nowak, Financial and HR Manager, AIAC, explains that reporting was a problem in the WANG system as everything had to be custom written. AIAC primarily required a system that could cater for its manufacturing and MRP requirements. Accpac ERP, Accpac Insight, MISys Manufacturing and Accpac CRM were the solutions of choice.

• Accpac ERP is an advanced accounting application built on a world-class, object-orientated and multi-tiered architecture. Designed for companies of all sizes, Accpac ERP can be deployed both as a web-based and desktop application, and is the foundation for an integrated set of end-to-end business management applications.
• Accpac Insight is an enterprise-wide reporting, budgeting, and consolidations application, ideal for employees in remote offices and disparate departments who need to manage, distribute, and collaborate from a single, unified source. It allows you to quickly capture and integrate information into meaningful reports and securely distribute them across your entire enterprise on demand.
• MISys Manufacturing integrates seamlessly with Accpac ERP. The software was designed to be inexpensive and easy to use and is a sensible alternative to the more cumbersome and expensive systems. It performs all the advanced functions that small- to medium-sized businesses desire, yet its familiar Microsoft Windows interface makes it ideal for the non-technical user.
• Accpac CRM uses industry-leading technology to foster better business practices and effortless information exchange throughout your enterprise. With Accpac CRM, you can quickly analyse, manage and synchronise sales, marketing and customer care activities across all points of contact. Regardless of how, when, or where your customers, partners and prospects choose to interact with your company, Accpac CRM gives you a decisive advantage by providing comprehensive, easy-to-use tools to successfully manage these relationships.

"Not only is the manufacturing system now easy to use and maintain, but purchasing has also been made a lot simpler at AIAC. From a financial point of view, the financial reporting proved impressive, with our group financial director commenting that it is a lot easier to use and produces superior financial reporting in comparison to a competitor's product the company is using at its UK operation," says Nowak.

Tertius Zitzke, Chief Executive Officer of AccTech Systems, says the implementation went exceptionally well, ultimately coming in on time and under budget. "This, I feel, was due to detailed planning up front and the dedication of AIAC and Airedale in the UK. They dedicated a resource in the UK to extracting as much information as possible from the WANG system, and this made the data conversion relatively painless.

"Having been through a few month-ends with the company since the software was implemented, the main ‘happiness' factor here seems to the ease of processing. The month-end, and subsequent reporting to the UK, is now a painless exercise. Along with this, the purchasing process seems to allow them more control than they had previously. Managers have commented that they can now spend more time actually controlling the business than they had before."

Nowak agrees, stating that certainly from an administrative point of view, processes have improved dramatically. They now have very detailed audit trails, making the identification and correction of errors a lot simpler. Although there's work to be done by the production staff, AIAC feels that there's more effective control overall. There are no more shortcuts (frequently used in the old system) which make data integrity questionable.