Getting your priorities right

Having a powerful ERP system that delivers against your most exacting needs has become something of a 'must have' for many businesses. However, unless the system can be trusted to stand up to the rigours of a full-on operation, every day of the week, what is perceived as an asset can soon become little more than a liability. If your current system is at breaking point, it is time to look elsewhere. This was the situation in which Hillier Nurseries of Romsey, Hampshire, a family-owned company with a great tradition in professional horticulture, found itself. The system it was using was no longer able to cope and needed to be replaced as a matter of urgency. Highest performance Most worryingly, there were no longer enough hours in the day to process orders during its peak period (Easter) and, as the largest grower of trees, both field and container grown, in the UK and one of the largest in Europe – with a vast customer base – it was a situation that couldn't be allowed to continue. Hillier Nurseries had to replace its legacy solution with one that would perform at the highest levels. After reviewing available solutions, it decided on Emerge IT's Priority ERP solution (see panel, below) and, from there, the initial go-live was rapid. "Normal expectation for this size of implementation would be around 15 months," states Emerge IT managing director Phil Nicholls. "Hillier achieved this in just 15 weeks. Certainly, the success of this project was helped by the thoroughness of approach of both the Hillier staff and the project consultants from Thinkers Ltd." What, though, were the major factors that persuaded Hillier Nurseries to opt for Priority? According to the company's comments, delivered at Emerge IT's User Conference in 2011, it was sold on the solution for several reasons: - Priority is easily adaptable to suit Hillier's unique needs - It is designed and engineered not only for maximum flexibility, but also to put that flexibility into the hands of the customer's project team, not the development team - Layout of customer documentation easily under your control. Easy to email customer documents as PDF attachments - Users like it - We believe in the people from Emerge. In the first year of running Priority, Hillier Nurseries achieved a 25% increase in orders and it also reports that it did not spend such long hours on order-taking and fulfilment, as opposed to previous years. Moreover, since moving to Priority, Hillier Nurseries has seen a number of business benefits, such as: - Responding better to customers - Creating a more agile company - Being able to change its customer offerings and services more quickly and easily - Building a more efficient company. Reaching all of these landmarks has involved Emerge IT's Priority solution in several ways, in order – among other benefits – to cut down on paperwork, eliminate data re-keying and reconciliation, and streamline the company's processes. On top of that, Hillier Nurseries' finance department has recently reported a reduction in the duration (and therefore cost) of external auditors by 60% with Priority, due to ease of reporting and access to data. Undoubtedly, having such a flexible product as Priority is vital for Hillier Nurseries. "The horticultural industry has unique challenges, which mean that the use of a standard solution would introduce compromises that they couldn't live with," comments Emerge IT's Nicholls. "Today, especially, it is vital that such organisations run as efficiently as they can, which means they must have a solution that is configurable to them." Meanwhile, in the lead-up to the 150th birthday of Hillier Nurseries and Garden Centres, it continues to strive to meet a goal that has not changed since its origins back in 1864: always to supply its services to the highest calibre. Emerge IT: serving a wide market Emerge IT specialises in providing eBusiness and ERP solutions to a variety of manufacturing and commercial organisations. Its Priority ERP solution is an industry-wide application, serving many diverse industries. - Highly flexible, any changes to Priority are forwardly compatible with all future releases - Available both as on-premise and hosted in the cloud - Highly scalable, from an entry level of five users, up to thousands of users - Providing functionality that is integrated in the same operating environment.