Toolquip & Allied, a leading supplier of engineering tools, small machine tools and accessories, relies on Pick System`s D
3
software to run its entire integrated financial, order processing and stock control systems.
The Pick database management system handles more than 50 000 stock items that include a comprehensive range of cutting tools, measuring equipment and abrasive products used by the engineering sector. The system is used for the order processing, inventory and debtors control as well as for the general ledger and other financial aspects.
The Pick based system, with a total investment of R700 000, supports 96 users and runs on a Compaq 6000 Proliant server and on Windows NT as well as Pick D3 for NT. The system is also web enabled, allowing customers to view and order available stock online.
"Electronic ordering is possible via e-mail and customers can view our price list online," says Paul Veit, Director of Toolquip & Allied.
The flexibility of the system was further demonstrated when Toolquip merged with Allied towards the end of last year. The two companies were faced with a dilemma of integrating programs and data from two different systems.
"That was not much of a headache as we anticipated. We converted Allied`s data, in Impact, by moving files to a Unix machine and converting it to Pick format. The conversion went very smoothly," recalls Brian Strappini, the developer of the programs.
The system has also proved to be an efficient financial management tool for Toolquip & Allied. It monitors profitability daily including sales, cost of sales and profits by product group.
"We wanted an open system like Pick that could be flexible to changing business needs. The system is under constant development to suit our growing operational and business requirements. We haven`t come across another database system as smart and quick as Pick," says Paul Veit, Director of Toolquip & Allied.
"The flexibility of the system has allowed us to move beyond the accounting module and build sales, stock and distribution components within the system," comments Veit.
The D3 system is perpetually being refined by Toolquip to take advantage of its unique benefits. Most recently, a module that displays backorders and out- of- stock items has been added. The system has also been designed to be able to call up data on stock items in a myriad of ways.
It can call up items either through an in-house stock number, the manufacturers` or a catalogue code. Should these not suffice, a description search also allows retrieval of the stock data.
The database system is mainly used by internal sales consultants although all personnel have access to the database that runs throughout the company. In addition to being able to handle R32 million worth of inventory, it provides easy information transfer to Toolquip branches in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban. This has saved a lot of time and paperwork associated with processing orders from branches.
According to Adrian Oxborrow, Managing Director of Pick Systems Africa, D3 is the foundation of an effective open-computing system having the flexibility to meet today`s ever changing business requirements.
"Its way of representing information has proven pragmatic for creating real-world applications, in contrast to the other database schema. It was the first nonproprietary multi-user, multi-dimensional database management system to serve the business computing market and is one of the most scalable DBMS available in the market."
"The Pick System is one of the few that imposes no limits on record and file sizes. Its ease-of-use, as a built in design, giving the average end-users far more flexibility to adapt to new user requirements," says Strappini.
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