Challenge
Saddingtons began to re-evaluate their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system when they received news that their current solution was being phased out. Anthony Saddington, the great grandson of PW Saddington who originally founded the company, has been in the role of General Manager for the past six years. He explains, “Microsoft had bought our existing supplier, System 77. They were encouraging us to move to Microsoft Dynamics; however, we had a number of concerns with this option.”
He continues, “Microsoft Dynamics is built to run everything from a fish-and-chip shop to a Fortune 500 company, and we didn’t think that was going to work for us. We are too big to use a solution such as MYOB, and we also felt we needed a more tailored system for the building industry.”
Saddington describes other requirements he was seeking in a new ERP system. “We needed a system that would run our entire business with flexibility, across our wide range of products and divisions. Beyond that we wanted to take advantage of recent modernisations that offered us greater efficiencies in our business. Increased transparency and improved reporting were also important to provide me with more control over our operations.” “We required a functioning ERP system that we could adapt to our industry with minimum fuss,” he adds.