Inventory management at this leading Far North Queensland supplier to the engineering and mining industries is not for the faint-of-heart.

Gilbert Group QLD supplies over 500 world class products encompassing 36,000 items out of four regional centres to north Queensland’s biggest mining operations. They also run two 24/7 fully equipped hydraulic and mechanical engineering workshops which have helped to keep the massive Mt Isa mines operational for over a decade. But the key driver for a new accounting, finance and inventory management system was relatively simple according to Ryan Lacaze, Gilbert Group’s Financial Accountant, “We needed one fully integrated windows-based system that was easy to use and stable.” Frustration with the error prone dos-based system they were using was another driver in the decision to move the business to one modern easily audited system.

“We needed one system that could do everything and Greentree is a fully integrated mid-market accounting system that does everything – it just works.”

Just over 18 months have gone by since Greentree went live and Gilbert Group haven’t looked back, in fact the implementation of Greentree module, Approvals & Alerts and add-on Qlikview, have provided even greater business value.

Qlikview enables easy period comparison and deeper analysis

With 36,000 potential sale items on-hand, sales analysis and reporting is a strategic business activity and a core part of the inventory management process. Lacaze says that sales analysis in the old system was “cumbersome” at best but since implementing Qlikview for Greentree, comparison of the current sales period with the same historical sales period is now so much easier. Such a frequently performed task would have previously required a complex query to be constructed but this is now a thing of the past which translates into more time spent analyzing and a lot less time spent creating queries. Lacaze is looking forward to reaping similar business benefits when he starts using Qlikview for inventory analysis and reporting.

Email alerts about system availability saves time and tempers

Business continuity is a major issue for any well run operation looking to anticipate and manage any system downtime in the most transparent way possible and to this end Gilbert Group implemented the new Greentree module Approvals & Alerts. Lacaze says this saves heaps of time since staff no longer need to manually check all systems are running because Approvals & Alerts sends an email message to the appropriate staff member giving him/her a status update or an alert when scheduled procedures don’t happen when they’re supposed to.

“We used to have someone check the entire system at various times of the day which was such a time-consuming task but [with the new Alerts module] there’s no need to do this anymore which is great - staff can get on with other essential tasks.”

“We used to have someone check the entire system at various times of the day which was such a time-consuming task but there’s no need to do this anymore which is great - staff can get on with other essential tasks” says Lacaze. “We’re greatly impressed with the other valuable time-saving benefits we’ve found in Greentree,” he adds.

About Gilbert Group (QLD) Pty Ltd

Gilbert Group has been supplying the hydraulic, engineering and mining industry in Queensland, Australia for the past decade. The business started in the carport of the Group’s founder, Greg Gilbert, in the mining centre of Mount Isa, North West Queensland. The fledgling business soon became a significant contributor to the repair and maintenance services that helped to keep the giant Mount Isa Mines operational.

Specialising in hydraulic and pneumatic repairs, the business grew to embrace the needs of its expanding clientele and soon began to offer spare parts and equipment to those industries plus the mining sector. Today the Group provides Solutions to its clients supported by a 500 plus product range with the majority being maintained and serviced by the Group’s tradespeople.

For more information visit www.gilbertgroupqld.com.au