Providing an evolving range of services to the commercial catering and bakery sector, Miller’s Vanguard knows well the opportunities and challenges that come with growth. One constant that the team can rely upon is the support of Thinc as its Sage 200 partner.
Miller’s Vanguard is the UK’s premier service maintenance and equipment supply company within the commercial catering and bakery industry.
From its beginnings as a bakery a century ago, Miller’s Vanguard has grown today to provide services spanning from deep cleaning and planned maintenance to facilities management and heavy machinery engineering. The business is now part of the UK-based AFE Group, which in turn is owned by Italian-based Ali.
Around ten years ago, the responsibility for the IT department was taken on by the Finance Director. Dean Rooney was appointed soon after as Information Systems Manager to oversee a number of vital transformation projects. We’ve been working with him closely ever since.
From the earliest days of our work with Miller’s Vanguard to the present day, the number one challenge facing the business has been managing growth. Under Dean’s tenure, the business has modernised much of its IT ecosystem, leaning into the flexibility that comes with SaaS solutions, seeking best-of-breed tools for each department.
Sage 200 has been one part of this tapestry of systems that the business uses to manage its diverse operations. Having migrated to Sage 200 from the Sage 50 accounting tool around a decade ago, the team used it primarily for finances, with some processing of purchase orders and sales orders, and a separate system handling the bulk of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) tasks.
Ultimately, Miller’s Vanguard has required a technology partner that can not only ensure Sage 200 works smoothly day to day, but also work with the team to find solutions to meet its evolving needs.
As the business has grown, the need for sophisticated, integrated solutions has increased. One example of this was a need to upgrade its capabilities for managing customer contact data. The sales team contacted Dean to investigate whether a new customer relationship management solution (CRM) could be sourced. Another major requirement came when the finance department of the only other service-based company in the Group needed to be absorbed by the Miller’s Vanguard team.
As each new requirement emerges, Dean and the team feel comfortable bringing them to Thinc, whether it’s a significant project to be discussed with their Account Manager, or a quick fix from the Support Team.
For the CRM project, Dean and his colleagues were researching a number of solutions when they approached Thinc. We introduced them to Sicon CRM, a solution designed to integrate with Sage 200, and arranged a demo for the team. Soon after, they’d decided to go with this and we were able to install it at speed.
We also supported them with the merger of finance departments from the two service companies. Both departments were using Sage systems, but the other company used a different Sage partner for its support – Dean was tasked with consolidating the system and to choose one partner with whom to go forward. Having closely reviewed each partner, he chose Thinc. “That decision was mine, and it was very easy – the only choice was Thinc,” he says.
We then worked with Dean to bring everything into one system, on one server, consolidating the licensing and creating the new companies.
While projects such as these demonstrate how we’ve supported Miller’s Vanguard, to Dean it’s simpler to quantify. When he reflects on the years he’s been working with Thinc, he doesn’t think of particular moments, but rather the consistent quality of service the business receives.
“For me, I see success as the lack of business interruption. If you were to ask the finance department what their number one goal is, then they’d say month-end and year-end reporting. We’re always on time with this. I see that kind of steadiness as the main success,” says Dean.
Whether it’s integrating a CRM solution or managing essential upgrades, major projects are completed without fuss. “It always goes on time and on budget – it never seems to be a panic,” Dean says. Similarly, the support the team receives on more ad-hoc issues and queries is exactly what’s needed. “The first and second-line support is excellent,” he says. “You get a quick response from the technicians – people who know what they’re doing.”
As for the future? The team is looking to migrate more of its stock management and ERP processes into Sage 200, tapping into the capabilities of the solution and the complementary addons that we work with.
Whatever comes next, we hope to continue providing that steadiness that Dean values so highly, and to be at Miller’s Vanguard’s side as it continues on its growth journey.
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