When regulatory changes meant Roften Galvanizing needed to leave its trusted system behind, a bespoke solution integrated with Sage 200 gave assurance for the future.
Roften Galvanizing has been serving the needs of businesses in the North West of England and North Wales for almost four decades. Based in Ellesmere Port, the independent company provides services such as hot-dip galvanizing, shotblasting and industrial painting. The team prides itself on the quality of its service and competitive prices.
Responsible for 60 people in roles crossing finance, HR, compliance, production and transport, Managing Director Alison Humphreys needs a solution that enables all of these departments to work together smoothly and efficiently. Galvanizing is a business that has particular requirements, meaning many companies in the sector have sought a bespoke tool to manage their business.
For nearly 20 years, this is exactly what Roften had. But when new UK requirements for accounting came along, a new solution was required.
The Unix-based technology Roften had been using was doing everything the company needed. It had been adapted from a solution created by a fellow galvanizer, based in Ireland. “If I could have said, can you convert the old system into Sage, I’d have been happy with it because there was nothing wrong with it,” reflects Alison.
However, the push from the UK government to make tax digital meant that VAT returns would need to be submitted online – something that the tool couldn’t do without further development. The company that had created the technology has ceased to trade, meaning it was impossible to comply with the new rules using the current system.
Alison and the team knew that action was now unavoidable, but they had a worry: the needs of the galvanizing industry are very different to others. Roften had explored other solutions in the past but were left disappointed by the capabilities on offer.
Roften had two fundamental needs. Firstly, it needed an ERP solution that was able to help the team manage the processes unique to their business. Secondly, it needed a solution that afforded the development capability and support to ensure it can react to future change without any further disruption.
On the first point, Roften was looking for a bespoke front-end that would enable it to manage jobs in a similar way to how its teams were used to working, and which smoothly routes jobs between departments.
Functionality for booking jobs in and out, which is standard in most systems, wasn’t enough. For example, in the galvanizing part of the business, Roften needs the flexibility to price work by overall weight of goods, but also to part-dispatch items. Simple pricing by item does not work for how the business operates.
For the second point, it was important to Roften that it could rely on the assurance that an established software provider can offer. Sage 200 emerged as the option that gave the best blend of functionality, flexibility and future-proofing, and, following a recommendation, the team approached Thinc to work with them as their technology partner.
A phased approach to implementation wasn’t an option for Roften. All data sources from the business needing to be working in sync from day 1.
Alison and her assistant manager Gillian engaged with the Thinc team to explain what they were looking for in their solution. Sage 200 provided a lot of the standard functionality required, but for the more complex, bespoke requirements of the galvanizing operation, we built a bespoke job management system that integrated into the platform.
Alison spent time involving her wider team in discussions on what they needed the tool to do. Thinc produced training videos and a test environment for them to use, which allowed Alison to get a clear picture on how well the new solution worked for the team. Thinc also looked at their requirements and made suggestions for additional functions, such as a nominal ledger structure.
The Roften team are now fully up to speed with the functionality, with input times every bit as quick as they’d been with the previous solution.
“We’re pleasantly surprised about how quickly the guys in production and dispatch have taken the new system on board. They’re not necessarily computer savvy, more production orientated, and so we’ve been pleased that they’ve been able to adapt so easily,” Alison says.
The top-to-bottom system allows full compliance with digital taxation, along with much greater capabilities on recording history and reporting, doing away with many manual processes that needed to be carried out in CSV files.
As well as the ongoing project work, Roften is now supported by the helpdesk at Thinc – something that wasn’t available with their previous solution. And working with Thinc has meant that the team can now look to further development. We’re already looking at further reporting requirements, improvements to their document management and streamlining how dispatch notes are issued.
A big advantage for Roften has been the business continuity benefits of moving from an on-premise solution to the cloud, which has made updates and maintenance seamless with minimal downtime. Crucially, it’s also meant that changes that are out of Roften’s control – such as legislative or government requirements – can be more easily absorbed in future.
For Alison and her team, this is exactly what they need – a solution built to meet their specific requirements, able to meet whatever the future may bring.
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