Integratech & Appleton Woods Case Study
Integratech is a leading IT Services provider based in Worcester, UK. As a SAP Business One specialist - the preferred ERP solution for businesses globally - the company engages with multiple customers who rely on SAP to support their day to day operations including financials, purchasing, inventory, sales, customer relationships, production control, project management and HR.
In 2018, Integratech was approached by UK-based Appleton Woods, a long-established manufacturer and distributor of laboratory equipment globally. The company, who had implemented SAP across their business some years prior, was experiencing a number of technical errors during its sales order process; and with SAP central to their entire operations including the sales function, it was critical their systems were reviewed in full and a resolution found quickly. When their existing reseller partner and a second SAP specialist both failed to overcome the issue, Appleton Woods turned to Integratech.
After conducting a full systems audit, the Integratech SAP team were quick to determine two key areas where changes were necessary. The first – a software issue – highlighted a need to upgrade to the latest version of SAP Business One, to comply with the HMRC’s ‘Making Tax Digital’ legislation and also, to improve on how sales figures were captured and reported accurately into the accounting team. Second, a series of bespoke add-ons implemented by a legacy services provider to manage stock allocation, automated reports and EDI was operating inefficiently and preventing an automated data flow.
As a long-term SAP partner, the team at Integratech had worked with Cindercone on a number of integrations projects across their SAP Business One customer base. Magma was put forward thanks to its proven ability to integrate any systems; in this case, Appleton Woods’ future e-Commerce systems, EDI and Corexyz solutions used for ordering, scanning and warehouse management.
Magma quickly tackled two key inefficiencies that were causing the customer pain. First, sales orders were not automating and remained in draft mode, awaiting manual approval to complete. Also, system limitations meant that orders from just two suppliers could be accepted, thus, causing a bottleneck and subsequently slowing down order processing times. Now, with legacy add-ons removed and Magma installed, the entire process is automated with orders flowing through systematically and only red flagged when Magma recognises a data discrepancy. It also facilitates having additional EDI customers without incurring further expense, resulting in a much faster sales order process; improving the customer experience. Magma works in sync with the latest version of SAP Business One seamlessly and efficiently.
A number of our customers are now using Magma to automate their business processes. With Cindercone, it is much more than the solution they provide to our customers – it is the attention to detail they provide and time they take to understand every component of the customer’s issues and what they are looking to achieve in the long-term. We have spent many years now working with the team at Cindercone and the Magma toolkit. When it comes to systems integration and process issues, we position Magma and the team at Cindercone every time.”