Low-fat food manufacturer stays fit with Microsoft software.“When you are up against ASDA and Tesco you need real time information about the margins you’re achieving. Microsoft Dynamics GP gives us everything we want and it gives us the connectivity into other programs we need.”
Paul Vandrill, Finance Director, Anthony Alan Foods Ltd. Business NeedsAnthony Alan Foods Ltd. Is the UK’s leading supplier of low fat cakes and pastries. The 17-person, Barnsley company sells its products, under the Weight Watchers brand, to all the major supermarket chains. This presented Paul Vandrill, the company’s finance director and de facto IT manager, with a challenge. Big companies like Tesco and Sainsbury’s expect their suppliers to plug straight into their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems so that they can place orders and interact electronically. At the same time the company was growing and their existing systems couldn’t cope. Their annual turnover has risen from nothing four years ago to £20m today and they deal with up to 3,500 order line items a week. Big companies deal with this requirement with high-end IT systems and their own ERP software. But a company with 17 employees? SolutionThe solution lay in Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition and Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) software. In addition, Anthony Alan Foods uses the full Microsoft Office System. “The rationale for Great Plains was driven by the connectivity between Office applications, Microsoft’s reputation and its ability to handle the volume of transactions we get through,” says Vandrill. Dynamics GP gives the company the ability to process electronic orders from its customers and integrate them immediately into the financial systems. Because it can export data to Microsoft Office applications, they can extract reports into Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel to get snapshots of the business in near-real time. BenefitsAlthough they bought Small Business Server 2003 to host the SQL database used by Dynamics GP, it had the added benefit of allowing the firm’s managers to share diaries and pick up their email and update the diaries using iPAQs and laptops when they are away from the office visiting clients and suppliers. However, the main benefit of this system is that it gives Anthony Alan Foods the software it needs to punch above its weight. They can connect to IT-intensive customers on the same terms as much larger competitors. Dynamics GP allows the company to keep a close eye on their profit and loss account. Every Monday morning Vandrill exports order information into Access and then uses Excel to produce a weekly profit and loss statement and other key management information. “It’s seamless,” he says. As a small company (at least in headcount), they also appreciate the fact that the combination of Microsoft server technology and Dynamics business applications means that they have low IT costs. They don’t employ a fulltime IT person and outsource routine maintenance to a local firm, Dempsey IT. Thanks to Microsoft software, “we spend less than £20,000 a year on our IT function,” says Vandrill.
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