Imagine two companies operating under the division of one larger entity and those two companies deciding to implement the same legacy ERP at the same time. Now, imagine that the implementation went on for three years before the companies ultimately decided to call it quits.

This was exactly what happened to Raumix—a leading supplier of aggregates and sand in the construction industry—and Tosas—a manufacturer and supplier of quality bituminous products for road paving. Based in South Africa, the companies are subsidiaries of Raubex, an infrastructure development and construction materials supply group, that fall under Raubex’s Materials Handling and Mining Division.

The two companies credit the drawbacks of the legacy ERP as the reason the implementations failed. These drawbacks included high deployment costs, configuration issues, siloed modules, heavy customization requirements, the need for a special team of consultants (that didn’t understand their businesses) as well as a frustrating lack of capabilities for integration, field services, remote access, and tracking equipment. Plus, updates by the ERP solution ended up in a complete shutdown for each company, resulting in a loss of business.

Ultimately, executives decided to abandon the legacy ERP for a new solution.

“After three years, we were still not a hundred percent happy with the whole setup. The implementations took two or three years longer and six to 10 times the original cost that was budgeted for the implementation,” says IR Van der Merwe, Divisional Finance Manager for Raumix and Tosas. “So that’s why we looked for an alternative solution.”

One Easy-to-Use Solution for Two Independent Companies

Their search for a replacement ERP solution led them to review several ERP solutions along with a South African construction ERP, SAP Business One and Acumatica. Acumatica easily rose to the top of the list, with executives from both companies appreciating Acumatica’s:

• • Ease of use
  • Affordability
  • Functionality, including inventory management and credit check capabilities
  • Open API that allows third-party application connections

“You do not need a lot of people or consultants with years of experience joined to your hip just to get the most basic of things running,” says Paul Jankowitz, Chief Financial Officer, Tosas. “That is where the system design itself shines.”

Once the decision was made to implement Acumatica’s Advanced Construction Edition, Raumix and Tosas tapped Gold Certified Acumatica Partner Astraia Technology to help them deploy it. Astraia, understanding the pain of their past experiences with the legacy ERP, suggested a phased approach.

“After three months of planning with Astraia, it took us two months to implement Acumatica. That was quite impressive,” says Van der Merwe.

Impressive Implementation Leads to Impressive Benefits

The impressiveness of Astraia successfully getting the two companies up and running in such a short time is only eclipsed by the benefits that came with the implementation. For example, Tosas was able to eliminate its reliance on paper documents (e.g., contracts, material orders, change orders, invoices, etc.) and access critical, updated, real-time information directly within Acumatica, whether they’re in the office, out in the field, or anywhere in between.

Say Jankowitz, “Acumatica provides a very transparent way of operating. Everybody from my most junior person to managers can open any transaction and get right down to the source document, be it an email, a PDF, a letter, or a photograph.”

For the Raumix team, this instant access to data has exploded their productivity, saving them days’ worth of work. Raumix Administrations Manager Anton Du Piesanie says that being in such a fast-paced industry means they can’t wait hours to create a simple order, and with Acumatica, they don’t. He also praises Acumatica’s inventory management and reporting capabilities.

“Stock management is more effective. Management is aware of stock levels and can plan accordingly. Administrative reports are easily accessible. Users can easily navigate the system for reports. These include but not limited to expense reports, asset costs allocations, stock transactions, and open order reports. I also like the ability to trace an expense from a request level all the way back to the bank and from the bank all the way back to the request.”

The long list of benefits cited by the two companies also includes Acumatica’s fixed asset module. Previously, managing fixed assets was an Excel function, but Jankowitz says Acumatica’s integrated module is both helpful and easy-to-use. “It’s very simple and straightforward with minimal effort needed. It just works.”

Finally, Acumatica’s seamless integrations with third-party applications, like Velixo, is an incredibly valuable benefit. Van der Merwe says, “Some operational employees that aren’t used to working on an ERP system prefer Excel, so that add-on was also very beneficial for us.”

Acumatica’s Customer-Centric Roadmap Bodes Well for the Future

Recognizing Acumatica’s potential from the beginning, Raumix and Tosas executives are excited to fully utilize Acumatica’s platform as they move forward.

Specifically, Raumix is already adding Acumatica’s project accounting module, two other Raubex companies have committed to switching to Acumatica, and two more are considering doing the same. And Acumatica’s transparency about its future roadmap—which is, according to Van der Merwe, both thoughtful and customer-centric—is helping them map out their own future.

“You can tell bright minds were creating Acumatica resulting in an intuitive system I’m sure will be able to adapt with the times,” says Jankowitz. “This is just a nicer, cleaner, newer, and tidier design language and design.”

He adds: “There was very little that we needed to change in the (out-of-the box) system to give us the answers we needed. Acumatica’s most basic functionality provided 99% of the requirements that we had for the business. It was very, very simple to get what we wanted out of the system with as little customization as possible.”

To learn more about Acumatica’s user friendly, customer-and-innovation-first ERP solution, contact our team today.