A need to manage financial and operational data, as well as the potential for expansion, has seen recycling giant Remade going live with a business management system from Sage Enterprise Solutions.
Remade - formerly known as BenFin (Benjamin Recycling, Finance and Investment) - specialises in waste management, recycling, security services and labour outsourcing. Established by Steve Benjamin as a one-man business in 1987, it has grown into a Gauteng-wide R100 million operation with Sappi Waste Paper and Consol Glass among its main customers.
At inception there was little competition for the company. In line with international trends, the situation has changed dramatically in recent times, though. Recycling has taken a more prominent place on SA's environmental landscape and has become a multimillion-rand industry.
"We operate a high volume, low margin business. Our primary interest is paper - we handle about 80 000 tons per year. We also recycle some glass, plastic and metal, bringing the total annual volume of material to around 85 000 tons," explains Bryce Blum, the finance and administration director at Remade.
"While we have large corporate customers, our suppliers are primarily from the informal employment sector. We therefore have large electronic fund transfers, many relatively small cash payments, a huge amount of stock and nine operations across the province to manage. Tight controls are vital."
In addition to this core business demand, Remade saw the start of the market's expansion approximately two years ago - new operators and new customers were becoming commonplace. Blum says it was then the company realised that running standalone accounting software at each of its operations would no longer suffice.
"We needed a wide area network (WAN) to link our sites, and financial and operations software that enabled us to collaborate across this network - and manage all critical data - in real-time," he says.
Enter Sage Enterprise Solutions, the local high-end arm of UK FTSE-listed Sage Group. The company offers an enterprise business management system (BMS) known as Line 500. It comprises a core system plus a series of over 60 modules, each of which is suited to a particular element of a company's business requirements.
"Remade needed control over sales orders, purchase orders, warehousing, distribution and extended financials," explains Ashley Ellington, the divisional director for Africa at Sage Enterprise Solutions.
"The company wanted to be able to refresh the system at any point and have access to information on the inbound and outbound transactions that had occurred up to that point. Access to other information relevant to bookkeepers, managers and operations staff was also crucial. Line 500 and the appropriate modules were installed by our implementation business partner, Virtech, to integrate and manage these processes across the WAN."
Remade now has real-time access to all the financial and operational information. The company can manage stock, incorporate planned expenditure and make provision for unplanned costs where necessary. And the users' front-end screens, enquiries and reports can be modified to suit any other specific requirements.
Line 500 also caters for the near- and long-term growth planned by Remade. The company is in the throes of a black economic empowerment deal which, if successful, could result in nationwide expansion.
"Should we choose to expand, we need to have confidence that we can set up a new operation, lay the IT foundations, connect straight into the Sage system and be up and running in as short a time as possible. After this project, it's safe to say that we have that," says Blum.
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