Allectra, a leading manufacturer of High Vacuum and UHV components, was founded in 2002 in Berlin. Allectra Limited was started in 2003 in Sussex to promote the products on a worldwide basis. The Allectra sales and service network is also supported by offices in France and a joint-venture in Italy.

Allectra manufacture electrical feed throughs, cables, mechanical components and other items including quick access doors, load locks and vacuum chambers. These components are sold all over the world.

Allectra is actively involved in the development of new products and offers both standard and special components on short delivery and at competitive prices. The product range has been developed to meet the needs of customers such as universities, major synchrotrons and high technology companies.

Allectra’s impressive business growth brought some significant challenges in keeping up with its developing business due to the limitations of its previous IT system.  Implementing Lakeview’s ERP system offered a proven, complete solution that would be implemented company-wide.  The new scalable technology would enable sourcing, distribution accounts, reporting and increased productivity.

In successfully managing this period of business growth, Allectra had to evaluate the effectiveness of its existing operating and reporting systems.  It became clear that the existing solution was unable to operate efficiently under this increased pressure and it needed to be replaced in order to support business growth.

The increased usage of the existing system had slowed down the network considerably and it was no longer able to support multiple or remote users.

Mario Peli, sales director, Allectra, comments: “We outgrew our existing solution.  It was unable to cope with our progression and we needed all of our staff to be able to log into the system at all times.”

The key challenge for Allectra was in supporting higher remote usage from its growing workforce.  The previous system grew unreliable and was buckling under the pressure of increased demand resulting in reduced productivity and internal frustrations.  Similarly Allectra wanted to improve the efficiency of its back-end reporting functions such as purchase orders, sales invoicing and quote generation.

Traditionally these functions were run over multiple unconnected software solutions including the manual inputting of stock information into spreadsheets.

“The existing package needed to be replaced so that we could service our customers better and run the business more efficiently,” confirms Peli.

Allectra required a complete solution that would manage the end-to-end process, from inventory reporting through to delivery and invoicing with minimum manual intervention under one system.  Additionally, the new technology had to ensure multiple users were able to log on in real-time, remotely.

Allectra explored a number of other software options before it selected Lakeview as best placed to meet the increasing demands of its fast-growing business.  In particular, Lakeview’s standard off-the-shelf ERP system offered a proven solution from a financially stable company with a strong track record of success in supporting businesses experiencing rapid growth.

It was important to Allectra that the chosen company was not only the software’s distributor but also its developer.

“We chose Lakeview because they were the designers of the software, allowing us to talk to the developers direct and ensure the solution really fitted our needs.  The fact that, should a problem arise, we only had to pick up the phone and they would have the tools and expertise to fix it, really appealed to us,” confirms Peli.

The ERP package comes in one piece without the need for various add-on applications.

“Lakeview also stood out from its competitors because it offered a complete solution and we could see exactly what we were paying for,” adds Peli.

Visit: www.allectra.com

Technorati Tags: allectra, case study, electrical wholsaler, manufacturing case study

Darcy Spillcare Manufacture boasts 75 Years of innovation, manufacturing, service and supply within the spill care industry.

Today, Darcy uses Lakeview to manage and run their business software and hardware o deliver clarity, sales visibility and efficiency to their daily operations.

Here’s a snippet of the letter from Paul Goff, Financial Director, Darcy Products Ltd to Lakeview:

“Right from the start (and this order has taken a long time to materialise!) Lakeview’s Engineering team has had Darcy and our ongoing IT issues at the foremost of it’s actions, culminating in a proposal that not only just simply replaced old servers but gives Darcy a great stride forward in significant IT improvement’s and as I am sure you will understand within a good budget.

The installation itself overall again was managed very well. We always anticipated that there would be teething issues which is inevitable, but any that arose were dealt with promptly which is all we could ask,

One issue in particular which actually was nothing due to Lakeview was one of our two internet lines failed only a week into our new offices at Kent. Thankfully we had two which I believe was David Beattie’s (Lakeview’s Deputy Engineering Manager) suggestion in the first place. The significance of this was that David immediately suggested how to ensure we still got emails in as this was on the line that failed and then deal with all our VPN users, re-setting them on the working internet line.

I cannot emphasise enough, the failed broadband line was down for about a week and had we not been able to receive emails this would have been disastrous for Darcy but thankfully due to the redundancy planned for IT this did not materialise.

I am now very pleased to report that the IT at our offices in Kent works brilliantly with all reporting fantastic speed, so more output from our staff then!

To find out more about Darcy visit: http://www.darcy.co.uk/

Technorati Tags: case study, hardware, Lakeview engineering, new business win, spillcare

Founded in 2005, Natural Balance Foods is already establishing a strong franchise in the UK for its range of healthy cereal bars and flavour-infused raisin snacks in national grocery and healthfood chains.  Today, its major Nakd and Trek brands can be found in the wholefoods and fast-expanding ‘free from’ sections of Tesco, Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury’s, for example, as well as Boots, Holland & Barrett and independent specialist health food outlets.

Yet in successfully meeting this growing demand for healthier products, Natural Balance Foods has had to meet the challenge of managing rapid growth.  “As a start-up we initially piggy-backed a custom-built ERP system built for a sister company operating in a very different Internet environment, together with spreadsheets and a financial accounting software solution,” says co-founder, Greg Combs.

However, this came under increasing strain as the business rapidly expanded and it became clear that the company needed an integrated solution which would manage the end-to-end process, from receipt of orders through to delivery and invoicing with minimum manual intervention.  Additionally, the replacement system had to enable product full traceability and multiple warehouse inventory reporting..

“In selecting a Lakeview system, we recognised it had the essential flexibility and scalability to meet the current and future demands of our business and our customers,” he confirms.  “This has proved without doubt to be the right decision, as we now have the perfect springboard for taking the business on to the next phase of its exciting growth.”

Technorati Tags: case study, food & beverage erp, food customer, food erp, natural balance, new business win, organic food erp

Wiltshire-based Doves Farm Foods is a specialist supplier of organic, fair trade and gluten-free flour and foods to both the retail and wholesale markets. For more than 20 years the company had relied on a basic book-keeping package, which had proved increasingly inadequate in meeting the needs of a successful, growing business.

Since installing a Lakeview system in 2004, Doves Farm Foods has doubled its turnover, without the need to increase its finance team. At the same time, the Lakeview solution’s manufacturing functionality has enabled the company to fully comply with the latest EU food regulations.

Challenge

“We recognised the need for a modern, integrated management information system which combined a comprehensive accounting package with full stock traceability,” says director of finance, Malcolm Squires. “At the same time, it needed to be able to scale with the growth aspirations of the business.”

Having looked at several options – and visited two existing Lakeview food industry customers – Doves Farm Foods found that Lakeview was the only provider who could satisfactorily meet both requirements.

“As a supplier of food ingredients and finished products, full stock traceability – from receipt of each ingredient, through batch manufacture to final distribution to the end-customer – was especially important,” he confirms.

Solution

The decision to go with Lakeview in mid-2004 proved especially timely as, within six months of installation, full traceability became obligatory under new EU legislation.

With implementation taking place at the end of the company’s financial year, Doves Farm Foods switched over to Lakeview without parallel running with the existing system.

“However, we did some testing off-line as the annual accounts were being completed and the Lakeview system proved flawless in delivering accurate financial results.”

Other departments have also benefited from Lakeview’s expanded reporting functionality. The ability to analyse sales and profitability by individual customer, product and product group has improved marketing and sales planning and pricing strategies. And, with the ability to access and manipulate data over any specified period, this has automated the process of analysing and reporting government returns on a calendar year basis, saving time and improving accuracy.

Results
In meeting the very specific accounting requirements of the food supply industry, Lakeview’s flexible pricing approach has delivered three further important benefits.

First, Doves Farm Foods’ previous accounting system required discounts to be set up on the system on a product-by-product basis: with Lakeview, by contrast, common discounts can be input by product group. “This was less problematic for large retailers carrying a restricted range,” says Squires, “but Lakeview saves us considerable inputting time in the case of those wholesale customers who take 100 or more of our products.”

Similarly, before implementing Lakeview, agreed pricing could only be set up as ‘list price less discount’, which had become increasingly cumbersome as Dove Farm Foods had moved to a system of net pricing with three quarters of its customers. Lakeview’s ability to price in both formats not only saves time but always presents accounting information in a customer-friendly format.

And, with a support team providing ‘prompt and highly responsive service’, Squires believes that, “Lakeview provides us with a flexible and scalable accounting and manufacturing support tool ideally geared to the needs of our business.”

Visit: Doves Farm Foods

Author: Angela Kennedy, Marketing, Lakeview Computers Ltd

Technorati Tags: case study, Doves Farm Foods, food customer, food distributor, food erp, Food manufacturer, new business win, organic food specialist

Leyton Lighting is a UK manufacturer of lights and lighting for kitchen, bedroom, bathroom furniture, display cabinets as well as external, outdoor and garden lighting. Leyton Lighting supply lights and lighting products to trade clients worldwide.

Why Lakeview?

Over the years Leyton Lighting outgrew their original business software solution and it became evident that a more integrated, scalable industry specific solution was required to allow for further expansion. When it came to selecting a vendor, Lakeview proved to be the clear choice by demonstrating industry knowledge and the business requirements of the lighting and electrical wholesale sector.

Leyton Lighting, in partnership with Lakeview are working together to achieve greater visibility and control over stock, and deliver the benefits of a fully integrated solution to further increase performance in customer service and delivery.

About Lakeview

Lakeview are providers of industry specific business software solutions to measure and improve financial effectiveness, streamline operations and integrate processes.

Visit: Leyton Lighting

Author: Angela Kennedy, Marketing for Lakeview Computers Ltd

Technorati Tags: case study, lighting erp, new business win, News

Doves Farm Foods finds flexible software solution through Lakeview …

Doves Farm Foods is a specialist supplier of organic, fair trade and gluten-free flour and foods to both retail and wholesale markets.
Since installing Lakeview’s solution for food and beverage companies, Doves has doubled its turnover.

The challenge

“We recognised the need for a modern, integrated management information solution that combined a comprehensive accounting package with full stock traceability. It also needed to scale with business growth. And, as a supplier of food ingredients and finished products, full stock traceability from receipt of each ingredient, through to batch manufacture to final distribution to end-customer was especially important,” says Malcolm Squires, Managing Director of Doves.

The results

In meeting the specific accounting requirements of the food supply industry, Lakeview’s flexible pricing approach delivered many further benefits. Doves’ previous accounting system required discounts to be set up on a product-by-product basis: With Lakeview, by contrast, common discounts can be input by product group.

“This was less problematic for large retailers carrying a restricted range, but Lakeview saves us considerable inputting time in the case of wholesale customers.” says Squires.

Similarly, before Lakeview, agreed pricing was set up as ‘list price less discount’, which become increasingly cumbersome as Doves moved to a system of net pricing with three quarters of its customers.

Lakeview’s ability to price in both formats not only saved time but presented accounting information in a customer-friendly format. And, with a support team providing a ‘prompt and highly responsive service’, Squires comments, “Lakeview provides us with a flexible and scalable accounting and manufacturing solution ideally geared to the needs of our business.”

Technorati Tags: case study, Doves Farm Foods, food customer, News