Member Article

Cloud signals financial savings for British manufacturing firm

Signal Group, the leading UK manufacturer of gas analysers, systems and accessories for monitoring emissions to air, has chosen Advanced’s Business Cloud Essentials integrated ERP cloud-based solution to manage both its sales and manufacturing processes. It hopes the move to the cloud will provide greater visibility across operations and will help drive 10% cost savings from better procurement processes and reduction of inefficiencies. Since 1977, Signal Group has been manufacturing state-of-the-art gas analysers to test VOC (Volatile Organic Carbon), vehicle and engine emissions, tobacco smoke, impurities in special gases, emissions from power stations, catalyst efficiency testing, and boiler/burner combustion emissions. Using over 500 different kits, made up from 12,000 different parts, Signal Group has to liaise with multiple suppliers and manage many sub-contractors while some products require additional work, such as being plated, before they can be used. Gaining control of costs and areas for greater working efficiencies are important drivers of changing to cloud technology. “We’d used our previous system for over 30 years, and it was creaking at the seams – crashing regularly and suffering from viruses which caused months of problems. We tried a cloud solution for a different area of the business and were soon convinced it was the way forward. We quickly wanted to bring the flexibility, remote access and ability to have greater visibility to our sales and manufacturing processes,” says Jonny Clements, Financial Director at Signal Group. “We are extremely confident that the better view of our costs and tracking of timings across the various stages of the processes will deliver significant cost savings and help to streamline activities. With a cloud service, we also benefit from a simple monthly price with no hidden costs, and we’ll be able to monitor the resulting impact on the business quickly,” Jonny concludes. Mark Dewell, Managing Director – Commercial and Third Sector at Advanced, adds: “British manufacturing companies such as Signal Group are the life blood of the UK economy and the importance of ensuring they continue to prosper cannot be over-stated. We want to ensure such businesses can take advantage of the opportunities driven by cloud technology. Moving to an integrated ERP cloud strategy is fast becoming the right choice for many to drive efficiencies, innovate in the way processes are managed and make significant savings – all drivers for growth and success. Real-time access to relevant information also helps to ensures businesses become more nimble and flexible, helping to gain a competitive edge.”

The implementation is due to go live during January following a transition of data from the existing system.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Beardsley .