Financial management at Vesuvius Rand Steel has been considerably eased over the last year, following the company`s implementation of SunSystems Ledger Accounting, the core module of the SunSystems financials suite.
Vesuvius, a service provider to the steel, iron and foundry industries, is a subsidiary of Vesuvius International Corporation, which has a network of production plants consisting of 30 sites in 17 countries, with its head office located in Brussels.
"We have very strict worldwide deadlines for the submission of financial data," says Walter Schoch, financial manager at Vesuvius. "The company closes on the last Friday of every month and monthly financial reports have to be sent to Brussels, and to our holding company, Cookson plc, in London. The immediate availability of information provided by SunSystems Ledger Accounting is of significant value. Any delays in the submission of reports, even from one company in the group, can cause serious backlogs."
The SunSystems module was installed by iLanga Systems, a company in the Business Unusual group, which specialises in high-level financial solutions that provide realtime financial intelligence.
The installation took place in 1999, to bring Vesuvius in line with other companies in the group and to ensure that its financial system was Y2K compliant. SunSystems Ledger Accounting is used for running the ledger, processing financial accounts at month-end, conducting bank reconciliations, debtor and vendor control, age analysis and stock control.
"The product is very different to other ledger systems because of the flexibility of its analysis codes," says Schoch. "This allows us to analyse financial data according to area, product line or division. Our product line includes a full spectrum of refractories and systems for pouring and casting applications, and our business is split between the steel and foundry divisions. The flexibility is therefore of great benefit as it enables us to customise our accounts and structure them in detail according to our business requirements."
The Ledger Accounting module was installed with Vision, a business intelligence tool that provides an intelligent link to SunSystems products, and allows for the analytical power of Excel to be applied to SunSystems financial data. By providing enhanced spreadsheet connectivity, it also supports more comprehensive financial analysis. Vision enables a diverse range of report styles, formats and printing options. "Transferring data is a simple process with Vision," adds Schoch. "Our in-house DOS-based system, VicSys, is used to record sales and generate reports. The reports are then transferred into Ledger Accounting as text files. Because of SunSystems` compatibility with other systems, this is done rapidly and easily."
Other features of the Ledger Accounting module include an integrated ledger design which ensures that accounts are always up to date and in balance, open periods which allow for the system to be configured according to an organisation`s posting and reporting requirements, and analysis tools which enable reporting on all business aspects and provide a solid foundation for decision making.
"SunSystems facilitates financial analysis by providing realtime, customised financial information. This factor, combined with the product`s flexibility, ease of use and easy integration with other systems, accounts for its increasing popularity in the South African market," says iLanga Systems MD, Dion Retief.
"iLanga Systems won the business on the basis of its commitment to the success of the project, and its collaboration with Vesuvius in enabling the transfer of static data into the new system," concludes Schoch. "We now have a maintenance agreement with iLanga, but because the system is basically self-operating, our maintenance requirements have been very low."
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