Pronto beats SAP to ERP contract

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 05:14

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.”