Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 04:14
IT Industry -
Deals
Mid-market software vendor and developer, Pronto Software, has beaten off the competition, including SAP, to win a contract with the Australian-arm of Freeworld Coatings, a global specialised coatings company, to implement its ERP solution across Freeworld’s recently restructured Australian operations.
Freeworld Coatings operations manager. Joseph
Eid, said the company would deploy PRONTO-Xi to consolidate its IT
platform and replace existing legacy systems throughout its Australian
operations.
Eid said Freeworld, a successor to the coatings division of Bristol
paint manufacturer Barloworld, was after a robust ERP solution that
would provide the flexibility and efficiencies to support its
restructured business. The company had reviewed other organisations
including SAP, however found that “alternative solutions were not as
flexible and customisable as PRONTO-Xi.”
According to Eid, Freeworld is deploying PRONTO-Xi in a progressive
approach with the implementation of a range of modules including
financials, manufacturing, CRM and laboratory as the first phase. He
said its Australian operations recently went live after a swift
implementation plan of 12 weeks.
“The quick turnaround on implementation suited our business given we
were in a rebuilding phase, but allowed us enough time to understand
the modules so we could properly set up our systems and processes.”
Eid said the company can already see positive signs of improved
efficiencies and cost savings, adding that “we’ve noticed that tasks
are processed a lot quicker now. Our accountant was originally using
MYOB for our financial entries and has found that the transition to
Pronto has resulted in an 80 per cent decrease in her workload.
“We were impressed with Pronto’s multi-company and multi-currency
capability. Being able to access all global reports from the one screen
allows us to log into the program while overseas, which has created a
huge buzz with our international customers.”
Pronto Software’s Managing Director David Jackman said the company’s
partnership with Freeworld Coatings was “representative of PRONTO-Xi’s
ability to underpin a complex, global operation.”
Jackman said that as part of the rapid implementation of PRONTO-Xi,
Freeworld has also chosen to deploy Pronto’s SaaS model, Pronto Hosted
Services (PHS), which he said will enable the solution to be managed,
monitored and maintained offsite.
And, according to Eid the SaaS model has saved the company “a
substantial upfront investment and eliminated the need to train
suitably qualified support staff.
“We felt it would be best to have the experts manage our IT
infrastructure. We no longer have to worry about downtime or
maintenance issues and are able to keep our costs down as well as
ensure a stable environment.”
According to Eid, ease of use was found to be a key benefit of
PRONTO-Xi, which he claimed has “a lot of intuitive logic behind it
that makes it easy to operate,” and that its “deep functionality will
be instrumental to our business growth going forward.”