Epicor iScala gives a lift to Cavotec's global business strategy.
As a multi-national company, Cavotec Group relied on various different local solutions across its offices to meet business management needs. However, as the company went through further global expansion, adopting a single solution across all offices became imperative. The platform needed to be versatile enough to meet the local requirements of each office, as well as easy to roll out and implement across the various Cavotec sites.
The chosen solution was Epicor iScala, offering simplified business functionality alongside rapid implementation time. With the release of Epicor Scala 2.2, Cavotec have embarked on a project to create a regional database structure that will allow for more timely consolidated reports. With 80% of the organization now running the same core applications and more business divisions upgrading on a weekly basis, Cavotec are reaping benefits in both technical support and financial reporting.
Cavotec Group is a global provider and world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative mobile power supply solutions. Main marketplaces are Ports & Maritime, Mining & Tunnelling, Steel & Aluminium, Energy & Offshore, Airports, and Automation. With seven manufacturing companies located in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden, and 24 sales and service companies, the Cavotec Group serves more than 30 countries on five continents.
A Global System with Local Capabilities
"One of the major reasons we chose iScala was for its multi-currency functionality," comments Leena Essén, Group Financial Director at Cavotec. "We are a global company, so we need to be able to pay and receive invoices and create reports in different currencies. Our business management system has to approach this need at a local level. Furthermore, we operate in many of the countries that are Euro members, and we will be using the Euro as our base currency in all offices”
For the same reasons that multi-currency capability is an issue for Cavotec, so is multi-language functionality. "Again, this is an issue of making an enterprise-wide system meet individual local needs," comments Essén. "Epicor iScala is especially strong in this field, with Epicor iScala available in the local languages of all our office locations, alongside English, which we use as our base language. As well as aiding our local subsidiaries, it makes the sharing of information between these offices much easier. And from a personal point of view, I like having the system accessible in English whenever I visit other offices."
Essén adds, “We have now decided to upgrade all our 28 business units and divisions to iScala 2.2 as it provides us with some key benefits at both an operational and feature level that we find very useful.”
iScala 2.2 provides several powerful features that Cavotec are utilising. A major addition is the drop invoice and direct shipment functionality that has allowed Cavotec to implement an improved centralised warehousing system that has helped increase bottom line turnover.
For the Cavotec IT department, another beneficial feature of iScala 2.2 allows them to restructure the backend databases to use regional methodology that reduces the number of remotely managed resources. The ability to quickly separate and reconnect iScala to different database backend also provides a useful tool in fault finding, migration and maintenance.
Standard Implementation Means Rapid Deployment Worldwide
Although Cavotec does have many offices around the world, some of these are start-ups in emerging markets, and therefore consist of few staff. "In offices like this, all personnel are responsible for all roles - sales, managerial, financial and so on. There will be no in-house IT support, so a system that cannot support simplified business functionality would not be viable," says Essén. "However, Epicor iScala offers us exactly the functionality we need, as well as professional support at a local level, so it is equally as suitable for implementation in our smaller offices as in our larger offices."
When rolling out a system across global offices, ease of implementation is always an issue. For Cavotec, this was no exception. "The first office to install iScala was Sweden, where we worked out exactly what we wanted and were then able to run tests on this scenario," Essén says. "Since then, Epicor has managed a rapid roll out programme using this template and we are now running in Australia, Finland,
Germany, Hong Kong, China, the Middle East, Norway, and two companies in Sweden, the UK, USA and Canada. By year end, all the group companies will be using iScala. With an average implementation time of three days per site, other less compact systems could not offer us this speed, which is necessary when working on a global level."
Epicor used its standard Signature Implementation Methodology as a basis for the implementation of Cavotec's solution. The template was built by Epicor consultants working in conjunction with staff at Cavotec's headquarters to determine a chart of accounts and article structure that could be rolled out across all the Cavotec offices worldwide. The process was so user-friendly that Cavotec's IT Manager and CFO have been able to implement the system themselves.
Benefits
"Epicor has greatly improved our business processes at Cavotec," continues Essén. "For example, we make specially engineered products rather than mass produced ones, so the individual logging of these products is especially important. Epicor provides us with the capability to do this.
The various systems Cavotec used before meant there were problems in having one nominal code for the consolidation of files. Now, however, customers and suppliers have the same customer and supplier number across the company, regardless of location. This code system rolled out from head office has provided the company with one centrally managed system for collecting and processing invoices from all sites and also from suppliers. "We now pay invoices from one central database and this has drastically reduced the administration time involved in the financial process," says Essén.
With the move to iScala 2.2, the IT department now has centralised administration functions for remote sites which reduces IT support costs for sites without local IT staff. This consolidation process is helping the finance department by allowing the group to move to a much more centralised accounting procedure with high accuracy real-time reporting. The project to move to a fully consolidated reporting solution spanning all 28 Cavotec businesses is due for completion by the end of 2006.
Essén concludes, “Our initial choice of Epicor iScala was the right choice for us to create a global solution and the move to iScala 2.2 is helping us consolidate and refine our business processes for the benefit of our localised operations and customers.”
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