Distributing 1,500 orders to over 500 customers per month, managing 5,000 stock items from over 50 product suppliers in Europe, USA and Australia with a team of 20 is a complex business and requires a powerful accounting and business management suite to maintain a high level of efficiency and performance.

Eurotec Instruments has imported and distributed controls and instrumentation for the HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning), Refrigeration and Electrical industries since 1985 from its strategically located New Zealand offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

“We looked for a system that would take us forward and support our growth. Greentree provides the latest technology available and the platform to develop our business over the next 5-10 years.”

The need for a complete distribution solution integrated with a core financial system on a Windows environment prompted the search for a new system to replace their 15 year old customised system on a Unix platform. There were a number of key drivers for choosing Greentree instead of upgrading or looking for other products on the market. “In conjunction with a hardware review, we looked at which system would take us forward and support our growth,” says Victor Yukich, Managing Director at Eurotec Instruments. “Greentree provides the latest technology available and the platform to develop our business over the next 5-10 years.”

Very, very flexible

Eurotec identified the need to move away from the restriction of its unique and heavily customised system to a more standardised product. Victor explains, “Greentree is a 90% business fit with the advantage of being easily customised in key areas such as import costing. With Greentree we are able to retain all key functions but gain new and extensive functionality with no huge downtime or cultural change. The result is a smooth, efficient system for our 16 users.”

The back order release programme in the Greentree Distribution suite has significantly improved stock management and process control at its three warehouses. Victor says, “Providing excellent customer service while maintaining minimum inventory levels is important to Eurotec. Our inventory management is more efficient now; in fact within six months Greentree has helped to halve the number of stocktake variances we encountered previously.”

Victor continues, “We extensively use the strong back order facility in Greentree. It is based on our old system, but delivers new features that reduce stock discrepancies.” Back order processing has been a major cultural change as the team previously just printed and filed. Eurotec are also using Sales Order and Purchase Order linking for indent orders and aim to use it to improve service by linking all backorders to purchase orders. Greentree’s re-ordering system is also making an impact. “The re-order system has replicated the previous sophisticated system but provides us with a more accurate and detailed stock replenishment system. It shows sales history, anticipates future requirements, examines stock on hand and delivery time frames to create suggested stock re-order quantities,” says Victor.

The Greentree advanced pricing module has been a new and positive process for Eurotec. They now have one price book defining a discount matrix for the hundreds of price and discount combinations, such as by customer, customer tree, stock item, stock tree, etc. Victor says, “We no longer manually look up prices, so we are reducing discount errors and saving time. The price and availability screen provides an immediate answer to queries.” In addition, Greentree’s Import Cost module was an excellent fit to Eurotec’s requirements, as it allows additional costs such as freight, insurance or customs duty to be charged to a “shipment”, including items from multiple purchase orders.

“The implementation went like clockwork and we were issuing packing slips from day one. Greentree is now second nature to our team and we can really rely on it. Changing was not a big issue, we experienced minimal disruptions and no loss in sales activity.”

Greentree has been customised for Eurotec to deliver unique functions and to allow a bespoke shipment process. One order may be supplied from different warehouses, so different packing slips per stock location are created. Packing slips, invoices, credits, statements and remittance advices are now laser printed. “Using laser printers with Greentree has been more cost-effective, easier to configure and greatly reduced the stationary requirements,” says Victor. “This is just another simple yet vital impact Greentree has had on our productivity.” Items are picked, edited and finalised ready for invoicing by the warehouse personnel. Eurotec now use a bar code scanner to track inventory items ‘on-line’, which gives better visibility at stock item level, improved shipment maintenance and streamlined despatch.

Greentree has also had an impact on sales and management reporting. The transfer of information using Excel has been a bonus to the Sales team; enabling them to present product relationship trends, gross margin calculations and departmental performances. “With Greentree our annual budget results and analysis are more easily shared with the sales team, revealing more about our customer and supplier relationships. We use pivot tables in Excel to query the Greentree Sales Analysis to display sales history.” Victor continues, “Greentree is also a powerful tool for month-end accounts. Our information is clear, consolidated and our management team gain so much more from it now.”

Overall, Eurotec has been impressed with how the company has adapted to the new systems in place and how Greentree has impacted the bottom line. “A great deal of planning was required to make the changeover successful, and credit goes to the Greentree team for their scheduling and dedication to make it happen. The implementation went like clockwork and we were issuing packing slips from day one.” He concludes, “Greentree is now second nature to our team and we can really rely on it. Changing was not a big issue, we experienced minimal disruptions and no loss in sales activity. We have gained a modern business system from which we hope to continue to see productivity gains and get the maximum from it.”

About Eurotec Instruments

Established in 1985 as importer/distributor of controls and instrumentation for the HVAC, Refrigeration, and Electrical industries. Eurotec's network covers New Zealand with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

For more information visit www.eurotec.co.nz