News Story:

A Quantum leap for Aldridge Security

Pat Cook, Managing Director of Aldridge Security discusses the benefits of working with one of the UK’s longest established provider of business solutions.

Aldridge Security is the largest trade-only security wholesaler in the UK & Ireland, has over 60 years of experience and was a founder member of the Master Locksmiths Association. The company turns over in excess of £25million p.a., processing 96,000 sales calls and dispatching 180,000 parcels per year, from locations in London and Manchester.

Aldridge combines traditional best practice with an emphasis on adopting innovative new technology, in order to improve its products and services and to remain ahead of its competition. The Company has been a long-term customer of EDP, initially implementing the MERCHANT software application in 1989 and then becoming the first customer to sign up for EDP's hosted managed service solution ten years later.

Aldridge Security's Managing Director, Pat Cook, now takes up the story:

"Aldridge Security has enjoyed a long partnership with EDP and they have consistently provided us with excellent products and first class service. However, ours is a dynamic and challenging market and we cannot afford to take anything for granted. In order to ensure that we retain our market position and continue to grow our business, we undertake rigorous periodic reviews with all of our business partners. In line with this policy, we recently completed a review of our business systems and processes, identifying a number of potential ERP software providers who could provide us with our next generation IT solution."

At the time, EDP was about to launch its new software application, Quantum VS and since our last review, Microsoft also entered into the ERP software market, with its "MSDynamics" branded applications. In fact there was a huge array of products available to us from a range of national and global companies.

Why Aldridge chose EDP's Quantum VS

Pat Cook continues: "We reviewed several specialist products and with Quantum VS , we really liked what we saw. Our detailed evaluation process ended up with a shortlist consisting of EDP's Quantum VS and Microsoft's "Dynamics NAV" package, each of which offered us certain unique advantages.

As you might expect, the Microsoft Dynamics option offered us a vast array of software modules and wide range of potential consulting partners, whereas Quantum VS was more suited to our specific needs, offering us a unique & focused solution.

The decision was taken to implement Quantum VS and one of the major factors in our final decision was our faith in EDP; they were a proven and trusted partner who'd always delivered on their commitments to our business.

We all recognised the need to get the implementation right first time because our business processes some 8,000 sales orders every month and needs optimum 'uptime'. The cost of a late, or failed, installation would have been extremely damaging. EDP worked in partnership with us and gave sound advice to manage the transition.

Delivered on-time & on-budget!

Quantum VS went live earlier this year and the hard work, commitment and determination shown by everyone involved, resulted in the project being delivered on-time and on-budget and we are very happy with the new system. Quantum VS has already brought many significant cash savings to our business and will continue to do so, through effective on-going process management.

Having already implemented the Quantum e-business catalogue and integrated web trading facility with our previous MERCHANT system, we are now processing over £4million p.a. directly via the web. Not only has this given us a significant advantage over our competitors, it's substantially reduced the cost of processing sales transactions.

We had also previously implemented the Quantum VS Sales Intelligence module and this new tool has made a tremendous impact on the way our sales team operates and the results we achieve."

Improved Sales Productivity

Ainsley Hawkins, Aldridge's Sales Director, explains: "The sales intelligence module is very focused and effective and extremely easy to use. Our sales people can analyse all of their opportunities and plan their calls very effectively now, without technical assistance. This has cut our costs and speeded things up enormously, as previously our managers had to produce reports and spreadsheets for analysis. This has all now been replaced and processes that used to take our managers half a day to complete, are now done in minutes.

My team is more focused and has taken more control of the sales process, which has greatly improved our position when negotiating with customers. They can also identify and deal with issues which may previously have been avoided, which has resulted in us securing additional order lines. Our marketing team also uses the software for promotional analysis and strategic planning. For sales and marketing staff, this is the best tool I've seen and it definitely keeps our team both targeted & motivated. The service from EDP is exceptional and we usually get answers to any questions we have within minutes. On occasions, we've e-mailed a question at 6am and had a solution within minutes. We have a great relationship with the EDP consultants and they appear to work the same hours as we do!"

A new way of managing the finance operation at Aldridge

Patrick Jokhan, Aldridge Financial Controller explains how the implementation of the Quantum VS Financials module has changed the way his department operates:

"Since the upgrade, we've eliminated effort and duplication and our financial reporting options have improved beyond recognition. There is now almost limitless flexibility in how we are able to analyse our financial transactions.

Previously, management reporting was constrained but now we can instantly report across departments and cost centres. This is so important as we are now able to analyse our business performance and costs in any way we choose. Direct integration with pre-configured spreadsheet reports also saves time and reduces errors, delivering to our management team the information they need more quickly and efficiently. Even the saving in paper and print consumables is considerable, not to mention the cost of handling and filing the paper output and storage overheads.

Our financial team has been able to streamline its processes and Quantum VS has really helped us in this area. We have also greatly improved our payment schedule routines; the integration of all our accounting processes with our on-line banking system has generated substantial time savings. Processing non-standard payments is much more efficient, the new process gives us more control and saves time, whilst helping to improve our relationship with suppliers.

Changes to our sales ledger processes range from a significant improvement in how we deal with the posting of bank giro receipts, to better management of cash postings. It's now much easier to rectify any mis-posted payment transactions and in fact, it's far easier to view and analyse any financial transactions. So far, we've identified savings of around 50 hours per month across our various finance processes, which are directly attributable to the new system. There are numerous other incremental savings which are harder to quantify precisely but overall, the new system has helped us to improve our efficiency significantly and of course, we've only just gone live. The software will enable us to implement many further process improvements as we continue to develop the system into the future."

Improved productivity throughout the Company

Pat Cook, MD, again: "With regard to sales and purchase order processing, the new software is delivering exactly what the Company wanted and expected. The integrated catalogue facility is particularly useful, offering images, technical drawings, H&S information and even movies! These may be stored in Quantum or accessed directly on-line and this multi-media experience is especially helpful for new and inexperienced staff. We've found this particularly useful at our trade counter, as it saves us picking incorrect goods. Sometimes customers don't explain what they want accurately and if there's any uncertainty, we simply call up the product on the screen so that the customer can see and confirm whether it's the product they need. This has cut down on incorrect picking, improved customer service and speeded up our trade counter process, which is particularly important during busy periods.

The new system automatically produces email sales order acknowledgements, which our customers find very useful and also, our customer service collection note process is much improved. The sales and purchase teams find the new graphical screens easier to use, with the ability to 'multi-task', quickly and effectively, in a controlled environment. Options such as the ability to 'park' orders, and switch screen layouts, have helped to improve the way that we work. It's quite clear the Quantum VS software has been designed very carefully, using the experience EDP has gained over many years. The software is excellent to use, clear and efficient and the integrated catalogue is invaluable.

Finally, Quantum VS's business intelligence tool, myViewpoint, has helped us to manage our business more effectively. It immediately helped our managers to identify potential issues, allowing them to react quickly and effectively in response. We have over 50 unique queries and alerts set up, tailored to our own requirements, so if any of those are triggered, they will be immediately directed to our managers so that they can take appropriate action.

In summary, I have to say that the decision to implement Quantum VS at Aldridge Security has proven to be an excellent one. The project was delivered on time and to budget, which I believe is a fantastic achievement. The new software is ideally suited to our business and the people at EDP really understand what we need."

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