In data they trust

Bedford flipped the switch on its new Epicor system on June 1 last year, giving it a month to iron out wrinkles in the new system before the beginning of the new financial year.

While many companies would run new and old systems in parallel to ensure a smooth transition, Bedford management made the decision to go live across the entire company at once - following a 'big boom' strategy that saw all of the company's users go live on the Vantage system on the same day.

Despite the extent of change, that transition went quite smoothly, Ribbons says, which she credits to the time spent by the implementation team on issues such as clarifying business needs from the system, clear documentation, user training and user involvement. "We were fairly prepared when we went live on day one," she recalls.

A month after implementation, the company's meticulous migration planning paid off when financial managers were able to use the data ported from the old system to produce accurate, end-of-financial-year reports - even though Vantage hadn't been running the system for fully 11 months of that year.

Since then, users have come to embrace the accuracy and capabilities of the new system.

A range of reports - based on clean and consistent data - are readily available to support all facets of Bedford Industries' operations. "In most cases they've been able to throw their spreadsheets away," Ribbons says.

More timely reporting supports more timely decision-making, ultimately promising to significantly improve the efficiency and flexibility of the company's operations. Bedford is looking for a five-year ROI for the system, with most of the savings coming from the company's leaner and more accurate operations.

"We've certainly seen some savings in the amount of time it takes to get information out," Ribbons says. "There are definitely time savings in being able to produce timely monthly board reports, and I think we'll start to experience more as users get more comfortable with the product."