Navision Software has announced that Hoechst Roussel Vet, a world leader in Animal Health products, has shown a 60 percent IT cost saving since converting from SAP to Navision Financial Software. But even more important is that Navision Financials enables Hoechst Roussel Vet South Africa to improve the efficiency of the entire business with an easy-to-use system, reducing the effort of managing the system and increasing significantly the effort of delivering customer-orientated services and relationships -- an overall key strategy of HR Vet globally.
It has therefore been a corporate strategy of Hoechst Roussel Vet headquarter in Germany, over the last two years, to implement Navision within mid-size subsidiaries. Because of its importance and the global support service offered by HR Vet internally, every Navision project is managed and directed from Hoechst Roussel Vet headquarter, supported by German experts.
According to Hoechst Roussel Vet corporate business systems manager Steffen Chalupny, Navision software meets all strategic objectives in regard to cost-effectiveness, rapid deployment, high flexibility and gaining enormous benefits by using a standard product in many countries. "We believe Navision Financials has a high degree of standard fit to the way HR Vet operates. Our experience in all of our Navision-sites has been very positive."
Hoechst Roussel Vet SA is the twelfth Hoechst operation worldwide to implement Navision Software. The recognised Navision Solution Centre in South Africa, Datrix Solutions, was responsible for the sale and on-site installation.
According to Hoechst Roussel Vet business services manager Louis van As, Navision Software is better suited for mid-sized companies with between 50 and 150 users. "Not only is the product user-friendly and easy-to-install, we have seen a 60 percent cost-saving on the day-to-day running costs. Navision Software is easy-to-adapt, and the cost is 15 percent that of SAP. We expect to see a return on investment for the entire installation within the first year."
Navision Financials is the flagship product of Navision Software and is also one of the main reasons why Hoechst Roussel Vet chose this solution. The product takes a holistic approach and is designed to be used in every department in the company as opposed to traditional accounting packages that only handled the accounting side of the business.
Navision managing director Keith Mullan says Navision Software is currently among the fastest growing providers of enterprise business solutions for the middle-market. "Being an international company, Navision has been able to provide Hoechst Roussel Vet with unlimited support worldwide. We even flew someone in from abroad to ensure a smooth installation."
Since the decision was taken in February 1999 to roll-out Navision Software, it took approximately three months for the entire implementation. Van As says Datrix Solutions played a huge role in achieving these deadlines. "If it wasn`t for Datrix, I don`t believe we would have met the deadlines for implementation. Being on-site for most of the time, they were very involved in the day-to-day implementation and their support was outstanding."
Datrix Solutions project manager Maria Svane Laursen says they are experienced in supplying companies with financial systems. "In addition to offering Navision Financials we also customise, service and support the solutions as a whole. Datrix Solutions applies professional project management techniques to deliver quality within time and budget."
Hoechst Roussel Vet has regional offices throughout South Africa and the staff who use this software are mostly responsible for data capturing. However, after implementing Navision Software and due to its ease-of-use, it was apparent that the users were excited and confident using the new software. Prior to Navision Software, users had to exit programs in order to launch others. With Navision Software, users can toggle between different Windows and programs, this makes the software considerably more time and cost efficient.
"Our staff are very impressed by the screen menu`s which are exceptionally user-friendly, it makes the package very attractive for users who have limited computer skills. They were especially delighted by the usability and the general feedback was very positive. Navision Software is robust, very stable and the biggest advantage is that transactions are done in real-time, irrespective of the location. For example, printing from Johannesburg to a Stellenbosch remote printer is just as fast as printing locally and even more so, there is no time delay in the speed of remote transactions, they appear immediately," enthuses Van As.
Dr Peter Oberem, the executive director of Hoechst Roussel Vet SA concluded, "Navision is one of the tools we are employing to maintain our competitive edge by enabling us to improve our customer service standards."
Navision Financials offers a true client/server solution and with 32 bit capabilities, can easily support systems like Microsoft Windows NT. It runs in a complete graphic environment, making it easier to operate and information can be quickly assessed.
For more information contact Navision at (011) 315 2000 or visit the Website at www.navision.co.za.
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