The Requirement
Countrywide Healthcare Supplies had been using Sage line 50 and spreadsheets since the company was established in 1996; however they had outgrown the system. With a turnover likely to exceed £8 million during 2012/2013 and with around 70 staff and 30 users requiring access to the system at any one time, Sage 50 was unable to meet their user and data demands or provide the functionality needed over and above accounts. It was not only user access and speed issues that had led them to look for a new system. The visibility of information across departments made it difficult to maintain high customer service levels while the need to constantly re-key sales orders meant the potential for errors was increased.
The functionality offered by Sage 50 limited the effectiveness of warehouse and despatch operations and the success of their contract interiors service highlighted further issues with limits on the number of line items per sales order they could process. Overall existing system capabilities were limiting business growth and with new contracts in the pipeline Countrywide Healthcare Supplies knew they needed to upgrade to a system which could cope with a continually increasing demand.