SBH Cotton Mills, one of South Africa`s largest independent cotton mills, has gone live with SSA`s BPCS general ledger, creditors and debtors. As a consequence it has ensured Year 2000 compliance of its core systems, while improving its reporting and the quality of information available to management. The software and consulting services were supplied by Armada/SSA, the local distributor of SSA software in South Africa.
SBH, operating in the Epping industrial area of Cape Town, has been a key supplier of finished cotton goods to the local textile industry since 1951. Privately owned, it employs 600 people in the spinning, weaving and dyeing of cotton to produce fabric for garments for major chain stores and other outlets and for home furnishing. 15% of its R100 million-plus revenues are sourced from offshore, notably the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France and Belgium.
"We have been using the TIMS manufacturing system from Datatex in Israel for our production systems, and homegrown financial systems on an ICL platform," says Tina Stockdale, financial manager SBH. "Our financial systems had to be Year 2000-compliant. We could have upgraded them, but they were antiquated and not user-friendly, so we felt they had to be replaced."
Other options considered by SBH were Accpac and Impact, but BPCS was given the nod for its extra functionality and its tight integration with TIMS). Implementation began in September and was completed in December. Both applications run on the AS/400, with BPCS running in mixed mode.
"In this mode BPCS is very easy to use," says Stockdale, "with all functions accessible through Windows. Our users can easily gain access to business information, all the way down to the journal."
With the first phase complete, SBH is investigating the multicurrency feature in BPCS, important in the light of the company`s export business.
"We now have a much better view of the business," adds Stockdale, "and our users can easily customise the way they interact with BPCS without knowing the codes. This makes it much easier to use than our previous system."
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