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Multis
Group
1 . Overview
Galway based Multis Group (www.multisgroup.com)
is a re-manufacturer of high-end computer equipment
for the second-use market. Much of the work undertaken
by Multis is for large multinational IT brand manufacturers.
This service involves the acquisition of disposed assets
and remanufacturing them to meet both the brand manufacturers’
standard and the configuration and service requirements
of customers. The equipment sold by Multis is rebuilt
to an ‘as new’ standard, ensuring functional
quality to the latest serviceable revision levels of
hardware and software as prescribed by the manufacturer.
Unlike many SMEs who took advantage of the Enterprise
Ireland eBusiness Accelerator Fund, rather than simply
putting new technology in place, Multis chose to look
at the company as a whole and then identify what needed
to be done to ensure the ongoing growth and stability
of the organisation.
From this investigation, a list of business requirements
was developed and the management team then identified
the best ways to fulfil those requirements. One of the
elements within this list was the organisation’s
business system. The current system had been in place
since 1997 and would be unable to manage the volume
of activity that the company’s growth plans entailed.
Multis needed to upgrade or replace its business systems
in order to facilitate its future growth plans.
As part of this strategic consultation process, a number
of objectives for a business system were identified:
-
Provision of an end-to-end solution – The business
system needed to support end-to-end supply chain
connectivity - looking at the process of stock movement
from point of purchase, to arrival at Multis, remanufacture,
sales, delivery and invoicing.
-
Ability to interact with business partners automatically
– By providing an online system, Multis could
provide a better service to customers and OEMs.
-
Better access to information – Multis customer
base had a large requirement for information and
required access to that information on an as-needed,
self-service basis, without ongoing input from the
teams within Multis.
-
Provision of online transactions – Multis wanted
to provide customers with the ability to transact
online.
There
were two ways in which these objectives could have been
achieved:
-
Stay with the current system, upgraded to include
an order processing system or
-
Replace the current system with an entirely new
package
It
became pretty obvious early on in the process that a
new Business System was required. A lot of the future
functionality required was unavailable and the current
system was operating near to full capacity. It is important
to note that this decision wasn’t predetermined
at the start of the review but was made as a result
of it.
Additionally, Multis had an issue with the consolidation
of information between sites. The two sites – one
in Galway and one in Holland were running identical
systems but with a mainly manual consolidation process.
This was likely to become even more cumbersome as the
volume of transactions within the company grew. Following
a business process consultation program with Galway
based consultancy firm BSM, Multis chose Pinnacle-Online,
a Sage Reseller, to provide the new business system.
The new system supported five key areas of functionality:
-
The Multis website
-
Customer extranet
- OEM
extranet
-
Multis group intranet
-
Links to digital marketplaces
The
new system was hosted in Ireland with users in Holland
linking in via a Worldcom hosted VPN (Virtual Private
Network) that guaranteed bandwidth and security of access.
The business strategy and decision on whether or not
to change the company’s current business system
took longer than originally planned but this time was
made up in the development and implementation phases.
Development of the new business system processes and
procedures commenced in July 2001 and the installation
was completed in November 2001, in line with the original
plan. The system went live on November 2nd 2001 about
5 months after vendor selection.
The time that the team managed to regain in the development
and implementation phases was due, in part, to the foundation
work that had happened in the earlier stages. Decisions
made early on, and the time dedicated to strategy, gave
both the team and suppliers a clear roadmap to follow
and everyone involved knew exactly what was expected
of them.
The benefits for customers and OEMs were almost immediate
and included:
- Stock
availability – Inventory availability is now
viewable online populated with data from the business
system.
- Fully
integrated system – All inventory & sales
order processing transactions are now fully linked
to the general ledger in real time.
- Customer
extranet – Customers can check details of their
Orders & account online without the need for
the assistance from Multis staff.
The entire project was a great success for Multis,
not only in deliverables to Multis but also in how
the company was viewed from the outside (by customers
& OEMs for example).
Major
benefits included:
- Enhanced
competitive advantage - “We knew we would get
benefits from it but the benefits we are seeing
are far greater that we could have envisaged”,
said Sean Keenan, MD of Multis.
-
Less resource issues – Multis now has the capacity
to dramatically increase the volume of business
it processes without adding greatly to its administration
overheads.
- Real
time access – The introduction of the VPN means
that there is real-time access between the company’s
plants.
-
Capability – Brand manufacturers have been
impressed by the sophistication of Multis’
systems.
-
Cost reduction – The implementation of the
eBusiness strategy has resulted in significant cost
savings. There were many lesons learnt by the team
in Multis during the eBusiness project:
-
Have a solid infrastructure – Organisations
need to have a solid IT infrastructure on which
to build for growth.
-
It’s a business thing – It’s important
to identify where the company is going and to plan
the eBusiness strategy from there – any IT
project should be based on the company’s business
requirements.
-
Vendor selection – Take time in choosing a
software vendor - it’s vitally important to
select the right one for the company.
-
Involve everyone – It’s important to understand
staff requirements of the system and the processes
they follow
on
a day-to-day basis. If there is resistance to change,
a new system will never be implemented properly. Although
the eBusiness Accelerator Fund element of their eBusiness
strategy has been completed, development of the functionality
and design of the Multis eBusiness system is ongoing.
Like many of the organisations that took part in the
Enterprise Ireland program, the needs of both Multis’s
OEMs and customer base are dynamic and the system needs
to react to these changes in requirement.
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