Johannesburg, 11 Aug 2008
The recent installation of Sage Line 500 Version 7 at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe Limited has streamlined its critical business processes, as well as given staff efficiency and customer service a welcome boost.
The company, previously known as Circle Cement, has found that its accounting, stock, estimates, orders, invoicing, reporting and sales processes have been greatly improved since the Sage software replaced two existing software programmes.
Sage Line 500 Version 7 provides real-time information on stocks and account balances, captures orders, reconciles them with the payments office, creates an invoice and, once payment has been made, releases and dispatches the order. It also has the capacity to take on production functions, providing accurate information on materials used and products manufactured.
Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe Limited has been using the new software since January, and Managing Director Johnathan Shoniwa says this now brings the company in line with the Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi companies which have been using Sage Line 500 and report that it has significantly advanced the sharing of information between the sister companies. "The system is flexible and has good control functions. We are not currently using all of these, but the capacity to introduce them is a great asset."
One of the functions the company intends to introduce is a weighbridge control option, which automatically captures the weight of loaded trucks, making it easy to ensure that trucks leave with the correct amount of cement. If the weight is incorrect, the truck will have to return to the loading bay to check whether any bags are missing or underweight.
"Sage Line 500 is very flexible. Before we implemented it we used to have two systems which were not always easy to integrate," says Shoniwa. "Processes which were previously done manually are now automated, which adds tremendously to time saving."
Although there are currently 150 companies, 20 of which are publicly listed, using Sage Line 500 in Zimbabwe, Lafarge was the first to implement Version 7. Chips Computing Services Sage Division General Manager Charles Kuyayama said the Lafarge project was implemented in record time, using an entirely local skills force. Implementation began on 1 December 2007 and the system went live exactly a month later, without any staged implementation taking place beforehand.
Farai Matanhire, Chief Finance Officer, said the availability of training and support from Chips Computing's Sage Division was one of the major advantages, as training for previous installations had to take place in South Africa. He said the licence was also more affordable than most other systems, an important consideration in the current economic environment.
"The new software allows for all our accounts to be done within the same system, in a much shorter time and with less people involved. It has particularly brought ease in tracking records and accounts receivable. Everything is now automated, leaving less room for errors and more room to concentrate on improving our sales," Matanhire says.
Sage Line 500's efficient control and tracking of orders, its provision of ready access to customer account balances and its automated analysis means less time is spent analysing customers' orders, which in turn means they are not kept waiting while manual checks are done. The system can track orders by date, customer or by status to see whether an order has been paid for or not. Lafarge Sales Consultant Petros Tiriwepi says the new system has impressive stock control capabilities. "We can now sell what we know we have and can instantly tell customers whether we are able to meet their orders or not." In addition, checking a customer's account balance usually meant phoning the accounts department, which in turn meant keeping the customer waiting. With Sage Line 500, the accounts department can immediately access the balance.
The software comes with add-on options to deal with a variety of scenarios, including one that can cater for the large number of local currency zeros.
Share