Heating solutions provider Alde sought a service partner that could offer a personal touch.
Mitesh is the Finance Manager at Alde, the leader in hydronic heating systems for leisure vehicles. Established in Sweden in 1949, Alde today has subsidiaries in Germany, the UK and the USA (where it also focuses on the Canadian market), with distributors and service centres around the globe. While its production is still based in Sweden, 90% of its sales are international.
Alde had recently taken a big step forward in how it manages its finances and operations. The company had recently moved from Pegasus Opera to SAP Business One, having outgrown the former. This had taken much of the effort, time and chance of human error out of tasks such as stock management and traceability, simplified by SAP’s barcoding capabilities. The reporting tools also made Mitesh’s life easier when responding to the detailed requirements of head office, with greater accuracy and speed available.
As a growing business, Alde needed an ERP solution that could scale up as needed. The pandemic had reignited a desire among people to holiday in their own country, but the supply chain had struggled with the administrative burden of a surge in business. The right ERP was critical to meeting customer demand.
Alde was well on its journey to where it needed to be, but one day, there was bad news. Alde’s service provider was unable to continue its support.
A new service provider was needed, one with the technical capabilities to understand the business’s requirements, but also the personal touch needed to work with the close-knit Alde team.
Alde put out a tender for a new partner. Bids were received, with each reviewed for capabilities, credentials and cost. A key differentiator was an assurance that a provider would be the right fit culturally, able to work seamlessly with the team of 18 people in the UK office.
The situation was nerve-wracking, Mitesh admits. He’d gone from a situation where he’d established a strong relationship with a provider to starting over. For all the due diligence done, it was still hard to judge whether Alde would be able to get this trust again with another company.
As a provider of IT services with three decades of expertise in helping businesses grow, Thinc ticked all the boxes for Alde – but it was the focus on people that really persuaded Mitesh and the team.
A series of conversations with our Head of SAP and our consultants took place, including a visit to Thinc’s office in Manchester. This approach continues to be central to the working relationship between Alde and Thinc. Mitesh values the fact that, alongside the assurance of raising tickets for technical issues and improvements, with an average response time of 45 minutes, he can also easily speak to a consultant whenever he needs a quick fix.
“I can pick up the phone on a Monday morning if something is not as expected, Thinc will answer and typically within ten minutes provide me with a solution. That blended environment of formal and informal process gives you something to rely on, but also friendly consultants, with whom you know you get on, and who understand your business.”
The technology has been transformative for Alde. Raising new purchase orders, previously a manual process that could take hours, now takes minutes. Order changes and modifications are applied automatically, rather than taking a user 30 minutes or more to do each time. Alde’s happiness with Thinc’s service can be seen in its feedback scores, with almost 80% of tickets being resolved to the highest level of satisfaction.
But for Alde’s teams, the biggest benefits have been felt in three key areas. The first is in user adoption. To Mitesh’s mind, changing ways of working through technology is half about the quality of the software, half about how it serves the needs of the people using it. Thinc’s focus on helping clients amplify their people’s performance has helped Alde engender real trust in the technology.
The second big change has been in the analytical capabilities at Alde, which has helped Mitesh and the team to look at business challenges with a sharper focus. They’re able to dig into problems and drill down to find the solution – for example, if a report highlights an issue with sales, they’re much better equipped to assess their customer records, orders and what’s been done differently till they land on what’s wrong.
A third benefit has been the clarity the finance department is now able to bring to, and receive from, the business on reporting. Lengthy back-and-forth conversations to get to the bottom of data are a thing of the past. With in-depth reports easily produced, the team can now give the business the insights they need much more quickly by simply asking a few questions at the outset.
Looking ahead, Mitesh is excited about what Alde can achieve with technology. The team has always looked at their ERP investment as one which will continually improve their capabilities.
Thinc is working with Alde on rolling out the latest version of SAP Business One, and the team are already thinking about the next marginal gains can be achieved, for example in tracking returns through barcoding.
We can’t wait to see what our close relationship will bring next.
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