Dams builds for growth on new visibility engine

Office furniture manufacturer Dams International says it’s evaluating the Geac’s newly launched System21 Aurora ERP system in a bid to improve customer service while simultaneously reducing inventories. Projects director Sean Togher says . “The flexible sourcing rules in the new order capture engine [allow] demand to be sourced from the stockroom, site or country in the most optimal way, taking account of the nature of the item and the customer service level.” He also believes the system’s new ability to design legal and fiscal company and sourcing structures will optimise efficiencies and tax savings, while the automated supply chain transactions will provide a platform for growth without requiring additional resource. “Having visibility of information related to an order throughout the enterprise, regardless of company boundaries, is key to any organisation,” he says. Geac’s new system, dubbed System21 Aurora and aimed at mid range manufacturers, is claimed to combine ‘next generation’ ERP with real-time process management capabilities that reach right down into operational manufacturing. It’s been developed through the firm’s consultative arrangements with its user groups, and the first significant development from the company since its revolutionary but under-used launch of active process modelling technologies about three years ago. Those are still very much in evidence. Alastair Middleton, Geac’s marketing director, says the system provides powerful front-end process-modelling designed to allow organisations to map processes, streamline them, and then activate them, with the software automatically generating alerts for manual intervention. And the firm is building up its business review service to make these work. Says Middleton: “In today’s tough trading conditions all IT investments need to deliver the clearest possible business benefits. So, as part of the Aurora launch, we are making our top business consultants available on a shared cost, shared investment basis to work with customers to target quantified business improvements and process solutions.”