Congratulations to the Business Improvement Award Winners for 2010!

 

Now in its seventh year, the Business Improvement Awards have completed another successful edition! The awards were open to all customers that implemented Microsoft solutions in partnership with Professional Advantage throughout 2010.

 

There are seven categories rewarding various achievements.


We would like to congratulate the winners and also thank all customers who participated in this competition for their contributions.

 

 

Overall Winner Business Improvement: Animal Supplies Wholesale

 

Animal Supplies is the largest distributor of pet food, accessories and supplements into the pet specialist channel in Australia. Over twenty years of experience in the industry has given Animal Supplies insight into trends and market dynamics, helping the organisation to lead the way in national distribution.

 
Animal Supplies wanted to make better use of technology in areas such as reporting, transaction processing and warehouse management. They also required a more simplified control of customer pricing levels and at the same time have instant access to market intelligence based on Customer Sales by Brand which they can make readily available to their suppliers.


With Professional Advantage's assistance Animal Supplies replaced their old accounting software and they implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP with a number of add on modules; Rockton Smartfill, Omni Price, Trinity Vendor Price Management and eConnect for Sales Order management with price checks.

 

 

Primary benefits received

  • Improved customer service with e-ordering
  • Reduction in pricing credits by 70%
  • $120K savings in admin cost (ordering, reporting, credit processes)

 

 

Overall Winner Newcomer of the Year: Abergeldie

 

Abergeldie was established in 1994 with the aim to carry out complex civil infrastructure and building construction contracts throughout eastern Australia. The Company has offices in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane and Canberra.


Abergeldie were looking for a solution that is capable of supporting the Abergeldie Group of Companies and its consistent year-on-year growth.  They wanted to implement an electronic procurement system to help streamline their purchasing and invoice approvals but be consistent with their current business processes as well.  Abergeldie wanted to establish a more efficient month end process with consolidated reporting to reduce the reliance of fragmented reporting from different applications.


With these clear goals in mind Professional Advantage worked together with Abergeldie to provide a solution which included Microsoft Dynamics GP, WennSoft Job Cost and Equipment Series, KwikTag, WorkPlace eProcurement and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. 

 

Primary benefits received

  • Access to live project data vs.  one month old data
  • Recovery cost on plant increased by 70%
  • Invoice approval time reduced from 7 days to one day
  • Purchasing process is 100% compliant vs. 60% previously

 

 

Financial Excellence: Allflex Australia

 

Allflex has been leading the industry with livestock management systems that incorporate the latest design technologies, materials and manufacturing processes. Allflex provides superior product design and performance, reliable on-time delivery in full, dedicated technical support and exceptional customer service. 


The key objective for Allflex was to replace their legacy systems with one robust application. They were also looking for a low maintenance solution so their technical team can focus on continual business improvements.  Automation of the process from order receipt to despatching was important to reduce manual intervention and cut down on error rates and reduce time taken to process orders.


Professional Advantage were able to help Allflex achieve the desired outcome, by implementing a number of components including Microsoft Dynamics GP, BankPro, EMailPro, Smartfill, Omni Pricing and Chargeback processing.

 

Primary benefits received

  • Reduced time from orders to despatch by 50%
  • Reduced despatch errors by 72%
  • Annual savings of $113,900

 

 

Reporting & Business Analysis: Johnny Appleseed GPS

 

Johnny Appleseed GPS supply useful GPS systems and associated devices, and advice on such, to all users and potential users of the Global Positioning System.   They specialize in Garmin, TomTom, Navman, and Magellan GPS and in-car navigation, Polar Heart Rate Monitors, Trimble, Getac and Omnistar GPS and DGPS for GIS, Haicom GPS for PDA, HP handheld computers, and PC and Macintosh software to aid in the use of GPS.

Johnny Appleseed GPS have been using Microsoft Dynamics RMS as their retail system.  They were looking to add intranet reporting to their current solution.  They wanted the flexibility to create intelligent reports to further analyse sales data from RMS.  They wanted to be able to publish these reports on their intranet and make them available to key decision makers within the company to help drive their business, training efforts and sales.


Professional Advantage staff worked together with Johnny Appleseed GPS to achieve the desired outcome. The technologies involved in the complete solution include Microsoft Dynamics RMS, PA Customer Marketing, Silverlight 3, and RIA services to integrate ASP.NET 4.0 and Silverlight solution. 

 

Primary benefits received

  • Casual staff wages cut by up to 50% in certain areas
  • 90% of stock sold within 30 days
  • “Sales are up, productivity is up and friendly competition between sales staff is up”

 

 

Teamwork: Cancer Council of NSW

 

Cancer Council of NSW is a community funded, community focused cancer charity dedicated to the defeat of cancer. Through the development of prevention strategies, research into new treatments and cures, and by providing clinical and emotional support to those affected by cancer, Cancer Council work towards realising their vision of a society where lives are not cut short by or their quality diminished by cancer.


Cancer Council of NSW wanted to adopt a system to facilitate collaboration among their team members.  They chose SharePoint 2010 to achieve this.  The aim was to build an intranet to create and share knowledge, ideas and expertise. This also helped team members communicate more effectively to support operational efficiency.


Professional Advantage assisted Cancer Council of NSW in putting the system into place using SharePoint 2010, additional web parts and synchronisation of profiles.

 

Primary benefits received

  • Dramatic cut in email traffic
  • Better access to information across organisation
  • Estimated $130K in productivity gains due to improved search facility

 

Operational Excellence: Best Bar

 

Best Bar is a leading steel reinforcement supplier in Australia, delivering a diverse range of reinforcement solutions to the civil, commercial and residential construction industries. 


Best Bar were looking for a solution to help automate their inventory by eliminating paper-based transactions, adopting a barcoding approach to data capture to improve speed and accuracy thus giving staff real-time access to inventory information.


The complete solution that Professional Advantage helped put in place included Microsoft Dynamics GP with the added implementation of Panatrack Auto Data Capture Solution to automate the logistics and procurement processes.

 

Primary benefits received

  • Elimination of paper-based inventory transaction and duplicated data entry
  • Real time access to inventory information
  • 160 hours per month in productivity gains

 

 

Customer Service: Roland DG

 

Roland DG is the leading supplier of solutions to the Graphics Arts, Design and Technology industries. Roland DG's products are manufactured using industry leading techniques and standards; whilst minimising environmental impact. The Roland DG Care programme encompasses a complete range of premium services which creates peace of mind for the customer to allow their imagination to soar.


Roland DG were looking at refreshing their infrastructure system in a number of ways.  They wanted to upgrade their system to take advantage of the latest technologies available, providing them with a modern platform capable of supporting and enhancing their operations.  Roland DG wanted to reduce the risk of hardware failure downtime and loss of productivity by implementing a new system with advanced fault tolerance and rapid recovery capabilities.


Roland DG teamed up with Professional Advantage to put in place a number of solutions and upgrade their current infrastructure system using existing and new components.  The following were implemented; Virtualisation with Microsoft Hyper-V; Disaster Recovery with Data Protection Manager (DPM); Systems Management with System Center Essentials (SCE); Remote Access and Security with Threat Management Gateway (TMG)

 

Primary benefits received

  • 30% reduction in insurance premiums
  • Protection of est. $1.5m gross profit
  • $60K IT staff savings