Image courtesy of Inpress images - Coventry Telegraph 06/07/2010

A COVENTRY IT firm is on the road to success after it completed a quartet of deals with automotive and engineering firms.

Maple Systems, in Westwood Business Park, has completed a deal to supply specialist software to CPP Manufacturing Ltd, which produces bodies and final assembly for Dutch supercar manufacturer Spyker.

The deal with Wheler Road-based CPP, which also carries out work for Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Bentley and Jaguar Land Rover, follows on from a major software installation for the car manufacturer of one of the latest F1 teams and recent deals with local car companies Axon Automotive and XK Engineering.

Maple Systems will now help CPP to integrate enterprise resource planning software Sage 200 into its manufacturing processes for a wide range of customer car build programmes, parts manufacture and special projects.

CPP has also recruited Andrew Briggs, an IT systems professional to lead the multi-site implementation programme of Sage 200 ERP.

The software performs tasks such as automatically re-ordering parts as necessary and will allow the firm to run its manufacturing processes more efficiently and avoid unnecessary delays or costs. Alan Alcock, IT strategy consultant to CPP, said: “We have been using Sage 50, the software package below this, for around seven years now but as the business has grown so have the technical demands of the company.
“We run a large and diverse operation which means this software is essential to help us manage and run the building processes as efficiently as possible.

“There are around ten car assembly stations and various production cells for parts ranging from doors to exterior bright-ware at our plant in operation at any one time.

“If one of these is held up for any reason the whole production line could be hindered and we are keen to operate as efficiently as possible.”

Maple Systems will help CPP to make a transition from Sage 50 to the new Sage 200 system over the coming weeks.

Nic Rowley, business solutions manager for Maple Systems, said he was delighted to add another prestigious name to its client list.

“To have secured yet another contract of this scale is a great achievement for us –especially when we consider the size of some of our competitors in this field,” he said.

“It is also nice to be working closely with a local company based in the city and we are looking forward to the task in hand.

“This is the fourth contract of its kind we have taken on in around an 18-month periodSMT Developments, a manufacturer of specialist electronic boards saw how much economic sense it made to switch to Document Management after a demonstration of INVU from Maple Systems (their Coventry based IT provider).

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Now is the time to invest in Manufacturing Systems

says Maple systems a Sage 50 and 200 specialist based at Westwood in Coventry.

Nic Rowley their Business Solutions Manager commented "Up until the credit crunch the biggest stumbling block to our selling Sage Manufacturing software was not the price, the software's functionality or the return on the capital. The issue was companies were so busy they could not see how they could take this on as well as their day to day activities.

Now with the time but with restricted credit, and for many companies a reduced order book the issue is financing such systems."

Nic commented "The whole project costs can be rolled into one monthly payment using System rental from Sages financial arm - Syscap. With these payments qualifying as a trading expense it means they are tax-deductible, making this a very cost effective route, and also most importantly it won't affect companies other credit lines."

Nic said, "With companies slimming down to cope with the current economic climate, it's important they have the right tools to get control over their businesses - whether it be stock costs/ production blockages/ costing/ planning/ labour utilisation or sub contracting."

"The companies doing this now will be the ones leading the way out of the downturn, making a leap over their competitors".

Sage 50 and 200 systems have critically acclaimed, market leading integrated MRP/CRP modules, which are easy to use, as well as being the most competitively priced systems in their field.

Maple has been a Sage Manufacturing Specialist since 2004, selling the highly successful Sage 50 system. In 2008 just as the credit crunch was biting they became qualified as a Sage 200 Reseller and Sage 200 manufacturing specialist - such was their belief in the software.

For Price/ Functionality Sage 50 Manufacturing the best - Stefan McSweeny of SMT Developments

SMT developments of Warwick and manufacturer of specialist electronic boards purchased Sage 50 repetitive manufacturing software in 2005.

Stefan their IT Manager said "We were very impressed with the price/ functionality of the Sage 50 manufacturing product and it made sense to go this route as the company used Sage 50 already.

SMT were expanding and in a position where manual systems were falling over, we needed some means of controlling production without taking on more people. In addition we were looking to achieve ISO 9002 accreditation and could not see how we could achieve this without a computerised manufacturing system.

SMT are in the fortunate position of not being seriously effected by the current economic downturn and we have been continuing to invest in technology to reduce our operating costs.

Having reached the operational limit of the Sage 50 software we intend to keep commonality of manufacturing systems by migrating to the Sage 200 product."

Sage Manufacturing systems start from £300 a month - fully implemented with applicable tax savings over outright purchase.


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