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Multis
Group
5 . The Project
5.1 eBusiness Solution
5.1.1 Business Dimension
Following the rigorous selection process put in place
by BSM, Pinnacle-Online (www.pinnacle-online.com),
a Sage business partner, was selected as the best-in
class vendor for the type of system Multis required.
The new business system was based on Sage Line 500 and
was designed to support five key areas of functionality:
- The
Multis website
- Customer
extranet
- OEM
extranet
- Multis
group intranet
- Links
to digital marketplaces
As well as
being a source of information for potential customers and OEMs, the website
acted as a front end to the customer and OEM intranets, allowing users
to access information pertinent to their needs. This is shown in Diagram
5.1.1.
Customer information and functionality included:
- Product
availability reporting – With a simple
search engine, customers were able to see what inventory
was available at any given point in time.
- Reservations
– Once a selection was made, stock items
could be reserved for later purchase.
- Ordering
– Online ordering was available via the
Customer Extranet allowing customers to order directly
from the website without having to speak to a customer
service representative in Multis. Functionality
for OEMs included:
-
Inventory reporting – The new system made
it easier for OEMs to get real-time information
on inventory levels. The installation of a VPN made
real time updates possible – as soon as a piece
of equipment is sold or bought it is added to or
removed from the inventory list.
- Account
information – OEMs are able to view the
current status of their accounts.
- Forecast
sales data – The forecast sales data is now available to
OEMs allowing them to view expected levels of business.
Inventory Control and sales order processing
Two major requirements for the system were inventory control and sales
order processing. In order to support Multis in the coming years, the
system had to be able to control inventory across both sites and report
on it as though it was all in one location. The system was able to automatically
generate stock availability reports, format them, publish them on the
website and forward them out to customers with little manual intervention.
One of the big failings of the old business system was its inability to
process sales orders. The new system allowed customers to transact directly
through the website with little or no input from customer service staff.
This functionality is vitally important as the company moves forward.
It gives the company significantly increased capacity especially in the
areas of operations and customer services.
5.1.2 Technical Dimension
Since the new system implementation involved use of a VPN (see telecoms
section below) to link both the Dutch and Irish sites, Multis was able
consolidate its resources across both sites.
Some additional hardware was purchased and current hardware upgraded in
order to host the new system. A managed firewall solution was introduced
into the overall IT infrastructure. Capital cost of equipment accounted
for a significant part of the budget spent on the system.
The telecoms dimension
The linking of its two sites was an integral part of the eBusiness strategy.
Up until the introduction of the new system, the two separate installations
were linked using dailydata updates. A decision was made to link both
sites via a VPN (see sidebar). Whilst offering similar bandwidth to a
leased line, a VPN offers a higher level of security which is achieved
using private lines. The service provider (Worldcom) guarantees the contracted
bandwidth as part of their overall Service level agreement.
5.2 Third Party Selection
Using Business System Selection, a very structured and iterative process
designed byBSM, Multis was able to easily identify the requirements for
the new system, build tender documents and, based on the responses, select
a vendor that best suited the needs of the company.
Multis started out with eight potential vendors - a list that was quickly
narrowed down to three following first round ITTs (Invitation to Tender).
The remaining three vendors were then given test scripts and asked to
present their systems to the team based on those test scripts. Multis
wanted to see that the systems could deliver what the vendors said they
could deliver.
A clear favourite was selected from the three - Sage Enterprises - to
be supplied by a Sage approved vendor Pinnacle Online. They went on to
design and implement the system for Multis. Sage Enterprise was chosen
for a number of reasons:
- Sage
Enterprise’s package was flexible and easy
to adapt.
- The
structure of the package better suited Multis’
requirements.
- The
web-linking side of the package was impressive –
Sage Enterprise already had a customer extranet
package.
- Downloading
to Excel was easier – information was exported
from the system in a format that could be sent straight
out to clients and OEMs.
- It
was flexible and easy to expand in future.
- Support
was both country and world wide.
- The
system was easier to learn and therefore adapt to
– the functionality was very straightforward.
- They
had installed sites in Ireland.
- Coding
was done in VB and that was preferred internally
over C++.
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