Johannesburg, 23 Aug 2018
AutoTrader, South Africa's leading online motor-related trading company, has received excellent service from SynergERP for the last 10 years. In the beginning, AutoTrader sought to steadily evolve the business and prepare it for a digital future. The first step in the plan was to find an agile and efficient solution that could morph with the business on this digital journey.
Previously, AutoTrader used a system for finance that was very expensive to maintain and was not well-supported. The reporting procedures used manual processes. There were many instances of this, but the most extreme case the SynergERP team encountered was finding that one employee spent three weeks of her month building reports manually in Excel. SynergERP replaced this with a click-run step instead. It's the difference between walking to Cape Town or travelling by plane; both means of transport will get you there, but one is more efficient than the other.
The need to eliminate manual reporting
Ashley Regenass, CEO of SynergERP, explains when employees build a report manually, they lose perspective on the data because all their energy goes into generating the report. The employee's single desire is to get it done. One needs to move away from this deadline-driven mindset. As a business owner, what you want more than anything else is for your employees to have a sense of perspective and to spend a significant amount of time analysing the data and garnering insights. For instance, Steve in sales is doing incredibly well. The aim will then be to find out why and possibly replicate his success with other employees.
Automating paper-based processes
On the sales side, the entire quote and contract processes were paper-based. SynergERP reinvented the system AutoTrader used and made the process of selling space in a weekly magazine more efficient online.
Autotrader CEO, George Mienie, says moving from a paper-based invoicing and billing system to an electronic one turned out to be the company's most significant challenge. "This was the moment we realised that we needed something else. Then in stepped SynergERP and changed our world," he said.
It's AutoTrader's partnership with SynergERP, and in turn its affiliation with Sage, that has made this project successful.
Faizah Mahomed, Financial Manager of Autotrader, says: "A major plus for me is the relationship we have with SynergERP. The company is like a family to AutoTrader because staff members walk in and out of the office whenever they're needed. The team members always make themselves available."
How SynergERP drives efficiency
It is SynergERP's ultimate aim to help employees become productive and to add value to the organisation. As a business grows, resources become constricted. Once a business eliminates repetitive, manual tasks it immediately increases resource capacity. SynergERP would much rather see a business gain the capacity to focus on finding solutions to customer, process, product, regional or project challenges than wasting time on reporting.
Each company experiences what SynergERP calls "phasing". From day one, clients often have a primary goal they want to achieve, like fixing the sales process. The team at SynergERP focuses on achieving that goal, but does not stop there. New features are added to the system as and when needed. And since SynergERP deals with dynamic clients, the phasing of any system is a continual process. This is evident with SynergERP's long-term partnership with AutoTrader.
In closing, Regenass says: "We are constantly engaged with the business and keep a close eye on where it is going to make sure we can walk that journey with them. We want to understand where each client wants to be in the future and to build on that."
Take a look at what SynergERP has to offer your business.
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