A need for seamless integration of its critical business processes has seen The Document Warehouse implement Sage Enterprise Solutions' business management software suite. The move comes hot-on-the-heels of the organisation's acquisition of Compact Box Distributors and its relocation to new warehousing premises in Selby, south of Johannesburg.
Operating since 1999, the previously Midrand-based company started out relatively small managing between 30 000 and 40 000 boxes. However, an increase in demand for archiving facilities around the country has seen it move rapidly into a large-scale operation managing some 150 000 boxes of documents.
"Organisations are required by law to keep physical documents on file for specific periods of time. For large operations this can mean a huge amount of paper has to be kept in safe-keeping and carefully administered - sometimes on a daily basis," says Clive Petersen, financial director at The Document Warehouse. "One can imagine the volume of documents generated by a large insurance company, for example."
Petersen notes that this phenomenal growth precipitated the need for a solution that easily integrated and managed the various business applications that are key to the success of its operation. But the first step was to consolidate the two companies' different accounting systems.
"Document Warehouse had been using Pastel (which was sufficient at that stage for the volumes we were dealing with) while Compact Box was running on Accpac. Once the companies had merged we decided to consolidate on Accpac. However, with the continued growth we also realised the need for a comprehensive warehouse management system to manage retrievals, replace boxes and capture client data, among others functions," says Petersen.
A customised warehouse management package was commissioned but problems arose with integration as Accpac at that stage was DOS-based. Because the company was planning on moving to a Windows 2000 operating environment - coupled with the pressing need for additional functionality such as CTI and Web-based applications - Sage's enterprise suite of business management software was recommended, evaluated and implemented by Sage's integration partner, PQ Tetra.
"The project clearly called for an upgrade path but at the same time we wanted to keep in mind the demands we could expect on the new system in future, so scalability was high on the wishlist," says PQ Tetra divisional manager Stephen Howe. "Coupled with these requirements, we designed a solution that maximised the return on investment over the project lifecycle, reduced its total cost of ownership and afforded Document Warehouse an integrated operating environment for its business applications."
Petersen says Sage offers superb integration of its applications, provides critical management information and reports, speeds-up processes, produces more accurate output data, allows for real-time billing and is cost-effective as far as scalability is concerned.
"We are currently porting from Accpac to Sage Financials and have also recently purchased a company called Fileright which has its own warehouse management system - that is now being modified and integrated with Sage."
The company has ordered other Sage modules such as project planning, project accounting, web enterprise, telesales and CTI. "Sage's Web Client is particularly appealing in that we will be able to offer the full functionality of Sage over the Internet - the aim of which is to allow customers to track their own boxes and files and know the status of deliveries, post request," he says.
"We're poised for strong growth in other centres around the country. In line with developments here at head office, we intend to extend Sage software into these areas, starting with Durban and Cape Town in the near future."
Ashley Ellington, divisional director: Africa at Sage Enterprise Solutions, adds: "Sage Enterprise offers all the advantages of a tried and tested solution with outstanding performance and web capability. It addresses Document Warehouse's current requirements and scales up easily to add more users and functionality to support their growing needs, through a huge range of optional modules and seamless links with third-party software."
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