Speciality chemicals firm gets ERP live in the US and UK within four months

The company, which serves the industrial water treatment, desalination, pulp and paper and oilfield process markets, needed to get up and running fast, following buyout by private equity firm Close Brothers. BWA needed an IT backbone, including ERP and telephony systems, and it needed it fast – so that it could move out of its former parent Chemtura’s premises and avoid costly monthly maintenance fees for use of its ERP platform, a combination of SAP and Adage systems. Says Paul Turgeon, president and COO of BWA: “Since implementing Ross Enterprise, we have exceeded our targets for working capital, inventory turns, and days sales outstanding. We also now have a deeper and broader view of the business than we did with our previous systems. “While we could have implemented the same systems that we were familiar with from our parent company, it was critical that we chose a solution like [this] that fit our chemicals business by design and therefore could be deployed quickly and cost effectively.” He makes the point that roll-out of the entire system across two countries took just four months. But with that done, adds: “This out-of-the-box, cost-effective and vertical-focus application enabled us to boost our operational effectiveness under some very challenging conditions, allowing us to perform at peak levels.”