Modus Lighting achieves solid ROI with Accredo Saturn
Accredo Saturn has helped a lighting company streamline its quoting and invoicing procedures, and focus on the most profitable areas of its business.
Five years ago Modus Lighting was still writing customer quotes by hand and generating its invoices on a spreadsheet. But switching on to Accredo Saturn, a locally developed ERP system that could be implemented module by module, has caused a profound and positive effect on the business.
Modus Lighting specialises in supplying top quality light fittings for large architectural construction jobs. The company supplies imported products as well as its own manufactured items, and its quotes and invoices are typically very detailed.
According to finance and systems manager Robyn Thompson it can often take six months for a quote to lead to a firm order, so keeping track of quotes and invoices, plus the components and processes involved in manufacturing, has always been a challenge.
Until Modus started to install Accredo Saturn, much of its paperwork was prepared manually, with lots of multiple handling which created a huge potential for error. "Switching to Accredo Saturn was a giant leap forward," says Thompson, "not only streamlining our quoting and manufacturing, but also improving internal processes as well."
Automating invoices
Modus began its implementation of Accredo Saturn by installing the Accounts Receivable, Invoicing and Order Entry modules. Previously, Modus developed quotes in MS Excel and wrote invoices by hand, duplicating the same information many times. With the new system, salespeople now enter quotes straight into Accredo Saturn, and automatic scripts insert terms and conditions and an acceptance form into every quote before it's printed.
"This makes a huge difference in terms of efficiency," says Thompson. "Once a quote is in our system, we can modify and reprint it any number of times until our clients are happy."
When a quote is accepted, the same information is used to create an invoice or packing slip without having to re-enter any data. For quotes that are not accepted, the information drops into history and is still useful for reporting.
"All of this automation makes life easier for both staff and clients," says Thompson. "Our clients always have the information they need at their fingertips, and staff find it easy to answer enquiries because of the extra details printed on our documents."
Inventory control
Modus went on to install Accredo Saturn’s Accounts Payable, General Ledger and Cashbook modules. Finally, the Inventory Control module went live in 2004, and it immediately began to deliver benefits to the manufacturing side of the business in particular.
Previously, Modus maintained an Excel spreadsheet for each manufactured item, listing the code, supplier, cost and other details of each component needed to make up the product. Every time component prices or details changed, hundreds of spreadsheets had to be checked and updated, creating a huge workload and lots of room for mistakes.
With each manufactured item set up in Accredo Saturn's Inventory Control module, components are now entered once and it's only a five minute job to update details when necessary, as changes filter through to every product using that component.
"Because all of our product data - components, completed manufactured products and imported items - are now in the same system as our quoting and invoicing information, our pricing accuracy has improved 100% over our previous system," says Thompson.
Profitable focus
In addition to simplifying its quoting and manufacturing processes, Thompson says Accredo Saturn has also helped Modus to better manage the business internally.
"Accredo Saturn reports have moved us to a different level in analysing data," she says. "I can check on our best selling products or view sales figures by sales consultant at the click of a button."
Information revealed by Accredo Saturn led Modus to shift its focus away from residential jobs and concentrate on large commercial projects, which were more profitable. “We found out the hard work we were putting into the smaller jobs wasn’t worth it,” says Thompson. “It came as a bit of a shock to some people to realise exactly how much time and effort we were putting into project management.”
After nearly five years of use, Thompson says the Accredo package has “definitely” paid for itself and has delivered a solid return on investment.
"When it comes down to it, she says, "good software is important, but good support is even more so, and Accredo has delivered on both."
Download the case study