ERP Case study Metals Trading METALS (MANUFACTURING & TRADING)

When dealing in products whose price is influenced by market indices such as the metals or oil, risk is elevated and even more so when paying suppliers or invoicing customers in foreign currencies. Operations control of companies buying and selling cross borders is complex and attempting to run a multi-national organization with insufficient tools or disconnected systems can have devastating results to growth potential and profitability.

Datasoft ERP offers its clients a single cohesive global platform on which trading, manufacturing and service based operations can be run while utilizing strong financial, accounting and treasury tools.

Client at a glance

Client Profile

• $150 million in sales
• Offices in Canada, UAE, China, Australia
• 500+ Employees

Customers Served

• Secondary Market Dealers _ Construction Companies
• Automotive Manufacturers _ Electrical Manufacturers

Business Description

• Packaging & Trading of aluminum, copper, brass, nickel, alloy, lead, rubber and zinc
• Primary and secondary aluminum alloys manufacturing based in UAE
• Yard operations with 250,000 sq.ft of factory and warehouse space
• Procurement from over 15 countries serving customers all over the world

The Situation

With unprecedented growth in the past decade, coupled with a shift in technology focus, the shortcomings of the existing systems became more apparent. As one of the fastest growing companies in the field, there was a strong need to better understand and control all aspects of the business.

Due to the growth of the company, the existing system was unable to properly manage the evolving business and respond to the demands while handling only a fraction of the operations. Core operations could not be optimized nor improved due to rigid sales and purchase modules and too many issues arose due to inadequate inventory and logistics systems. All the other business aspects were managed by spreadsheets and an incongruent financials and accounting package. Too much time was spent manually entering data multiple times in multiple formats. More importantly, imperative information scattered in different systems would be misplaced or was unavailable when needed thus resulting in costly mistakes and improper decision making.

With the lack of real-time information, fluctuations prices in the metals market and foreign exchange price fluctuations resulted in the company running at unacceptable levels of risk, inability to grow and lost profits

After an exhaustive search for replacement software, the client could not find a single software platform that would thoroughly manage the ever evolving processes. Larger ERP packages were found to be generic and inflexible; other ERP packages lacked modules that were essential.

The client was able to demonstrate to their stakeholders Datasoft ERP's flexibility and the comprehensive modules geared and often exceeding their needs. Datasoft was selected to implement solutions that would:

• Integrate all core business functions and operations onto one platform;
• Provide treasury and risk management tools.
• Increase operations control and transparency

The Solution

Datasoft recommended its Datasoft ERP product.

• This approach would further enable the Client to:
• Centralize all aspects of its business including the purchasing, selling, accounting, and expansive logistics cycle.
• Access real-time data and use elaborate treasury tools to manage risk and protect against market fluctuations.
• Control inventory, expenses and treasury through MIS dashboards and tools..
• Allow necessary data for decision making to be accessible from every dimension of the organization.
• Empower executives with real-time financial reporting driving better accountability and control.

The Doing

An experienced team of Datasoft personnel and the client's in-house team worked together planning and preparing for implementation using Datasoft’s proven implementation methodology.

• Datasoft implemented the following modules:
• Multi-entity GL and treasury tools
• Purchasing and Sales
• A/R, A/P and Inventory control
• Logistics

The Result

After a three month implementation, the client went ‘live’ with a seamless transition. The client stated it was the most painless transitions they had experienced. Immediately, the client began to realize the benefits. Redundant tasks were completely eliminated resulting in labour cost savings. Employees now had access to all necessary information, and costly errors rapidly diminished. As new processes and improvement ideas came from the client, updates to the system have been successfully implemented with dramatic results in business efficiency.

Over the past year, the client’s growth has exceeded their intended business plan. Datasoft ERP has been an invaluable tool enabling growth in a controlled and resource-optimal fashion.

The metal trading industry is extremely competitive in which clients are looking to deal with companies that are quick to respond to changing needs and provide reliable service and product and competitive prices. The client understands and controls all aspects of the business and have gained the ability to minimize risk and maximize opportunities.