Sterland and Prostix Supply the Building Blocks for PW Saddington & Sons to Save Money and Improve Efficiency

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SS_Saddingtons
Industries:
Retail & Wholesale
Products:
OpenEdge

Challenge

Running the business with greater efficiency, increased transparency, and improved reporting. 

Solution

The Progress® OpenEdge®-based Prostix ERP system from Sterling. 

Result

Customized, easy-to-learn solution, greater employee productivity for accountants and managers. More efficient electronic processes, including billing. 

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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. 

Solution

Saddington’s evaluation of a range of suppliers and software options available was extensive. He explains, “We looked at numerous options in terms of who best to go with and narrowed it down to ProStix and one other.

“We first heard about ProStix through a buying group called NatBuild, which has 37 of Australia’s leading building suppliers as members. Many of the members recommended a supplier called Sterland and their system ProStix. It is heavily used by members who are very similar to us, and this gave us the confidence it would work.”

With origins in the building supply industry dating as far back as the late 1800s, Sterland’s has been offering smart software solutions tailored to those in the building industry for the last 25 years. Saddington describes the two aspects that convinced them to choose Sterland and ProStix over other competitors. “Sterland has the industry knowledge, so they are able to tailor the program to our business. As well as this we had the advantage that the product was already adapted specifically to suit the building industry.”

“It was Sterland’s industry strength and their ability to tailor the ProStix software to our industry that got them over the line,” he adds.

Prior to making their final decision, Saddington visited sites where the software was already in place, looked at installed systems and talked to users and customers in-depth. He explains, “It was obvious that Sterland understood our industry. They displayed a knowledge of our concerns and issues. The sales process was very fact-based and open—they took us to sites and let us meet users—there was no pressure.”

Result

After making the decision to go with Sterland and ProStix in late 2009, Sterland worked with Saddington’s to tailor the system to cater for their wide range of products. Anthony Saddington explains, “Sterland developed a booking and service management system specifically for the roller door division of our business that links to our main system. This is a somewhat ‘out of left field’ for the ProStix product and is a testament to Sterland that they are able to offer this level of customisation.”

ProStix has been in operation at Saddington’s for six months. It utilises Progress Software’s OpenEdge V10.1c in a GUI, Windows based environment and comprises of a single database, across five sites and 49 users. The Progress® OpenEdge® architecture enables Sterland to rapidly develop and deploy leading-edge business applications. Sterland were able to quickly interpret Saddington’s requirements and with minimal coding create the new booking system.

Saddington describes the implementation process. “Implementation was as expected. Staff dislike change of any variety, and it’s been a difficult transition for them, especially given our last system was in place for 20 years. They’ve had to learn a new system on the job while carrying out their usual day-to-day work. Fortunately Sterland have been very helpful during the implementation process.”

“We have a lot of employees who aren’t tech savvy, who can’t send an email, but they can get through our new ProStix system.” he adds.

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