Triumph Adler's integrated IT solutionCustomer Story Triumph Adler went from nine disparate IT systems to one intergrated software for sales, distribution and logistics, financials and business intelligence. Improved visibility and better customer service are just a few of the benefits. Company background
The Triumph Adler group's core business is the distribution and service of digitalised systems for copying, printing, faxing, presentation and archiving. Based in Germany, the company's Presentation and Media Technology (PMT) division is growing rapidly in the market for the sale and rental of professional presentation equipment and services.
Triumph Adler PMT consists of small and medium-sized companies with subsidiaries in The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, France, South Africa and the UK. Triumph Adler PMT employs 320 people across Europe and had a turnover of EUR 100m in 2003.
Business issues
Through various acquisitions, Triumph Adler has grown considerably in the last few years. Each new company that was acquired had its own business system. Triumph Adler found itself with nine disparate platforms and many headaches. The organisation needed to work more efficiently and soon realised that integration and a common platform would save both time and money.
Requests for information lead to constant frustration. Documents were in free circulation throughout the company and essentially untraceable. Locating orders was extremely time-consuming and could only be achieved by phone calls and reliance on paper files. Many procedures were performed manually and it was apparent that internal processes needed overhauling.
Triumph Adler has some 30,000 direct customers and 2,000 dealers throughout Europe. In order to provide consistency throughout the company, Triumph Adler had to find an IT solution that would cover its entire business from sales, distribution and logistics to financials and business intelligence.
Solution and capabilities
Triumph Adler looked at various options and went through an extensive selection study, before choosing IBS' integrated business software solution, ASW. The company's main goal was to find a system that was both internationally supported and able to integrate differing structures. IBS was the perfect choice, fulfilling all the necessary criteria.
ASW will provide a central hub listing all stock items, using uniform article numbers. ASW is a scaleable solution and is ideal for multinational organisations like Triumph Adler, particularly for handling cross-company financial transactions over a wide range of currencies and languages.
IBS software provides a totally integrated IT solution, handling the company's financial, logistics and distribution processes, with the aim of reducing costs and increasing profits.
In the future, ASW NetStore will allow Triumph Adler's customers to have real-time access to stock availability, products, credit status and much more. Allowing its customers to take an active part in order handling will result in a lower transaction costs.
Triumph Adler also plans to start using ASW Service to run the service aspects of its business. It facilitates the tracking of products and services rendered, and gives engineers easy access to profitability agreements, machines and customer sites. The company also plans to implement IBS' project management software to manage customer installations.
Implementation
IBS in The Netherlands became the main partner for all European branch implementations. It was logical to start the implementation with local subsidiaries. A high degree of cooperation between IBS and Triumph Adler has ensured smooth communication channels and high competence levels.
Triumph Adler thought it would be under considerable stress during the implementation, especially when switching from several legacy systems. The company anticipated numerousproblems. These fears turned out to be unfounded. It was not necessary to halt daily operations and reports were issued on time.
Triumph Adler's employees were heavily involved in the actual implementation. Their opinions about workflows and needs that should be covered were essential - another reason for such an excellent accomplishment. The process being used is so successful it took only one month for training and for operations to be up and running at the company's French subsidiary.
Benefits and value
ASW works as an umbrella system and is now the common platform for Triumph Adler, resulting in the saving of considerable amounts of time and significant sums of money.
The IBS solution is ideal for the dynamic needs of electrical products distribution, giving Triumph Adler predictable and efficient results - improved time-to-market, reduced inventory days, rapid cash-to-cash cycles, and lower supply chain costs.
Hours spent tracing orders is a thing of the past. ASW makes it possible to track an order from its creation through to delivery, leading to a significant increase in customer service levels.
Logistics has been made much easier and stock availability is now accessible at a glance. The company has made further savings because ASW also controls the technical aspects of Triumph Adler's operation, without the need for costly consultants.
Seamless integration has resulted in higher efficiency with less people, which in turn has led to improved management information, measurable value and greater profitability. This has given Triumph Adler the platform it needed for a fast growing company and the confidence of a truly integrated business.
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