Lyttelton Engineering Ltd, a leading Canterbury marine and industrial engineering firm, was faced with the problem of replacing an antiquated financial system with as little disruption to ongoing business as possible. The company, which has been an integral part of the Port of Lyttelton since 1953, is well known for industrial and marine construction and repair, boiler and pressure vessel manufacture, steel fabrication and machinery design, manufacture and installation. Its largest business is ship repair, but products include everything from large industrial boilers to ski field chair lifts.

“We decided to go with the Greentree business package because it appeared to have the best cost benefits. It is also able to handle job costing, an area in which many packages are weak”

In this environment, having a robust and easily to use financial system was a priority, and speedy implementation with minimal downtime was almost as important. After talking to other companies with similar needs as well as with business partners, the company called upon the Christchurch-based Greentree Business Partner to implement the Greentree business management suite.

"We decided to go with the Greentree business package because it appeared to have the best cost benefits," says General Manager Doug Cockerell. "It is also able to handle job costing, an area in which many packages are weak; and it has a modern, Windows-based user interface. The ability to download and work with data in Excel is an added bonus."

The key product was Greentree's Job Cost, a powerful module of the integrated Greentree business management suite designed to provide an efficient and effective system for managing jobs, while retaining strong integration with other Greentree modules including the core financial management system. The system is based on a proven accounting structure that has been successfully implemented into a range of large organisations across New Zealand and Australia.

Very, very, responsive

The Greentree Business Partner was selected to implement the system due to its good references and reputation. It put into place the core accounting packages of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and General Ledger in addition to the Job Costing module.

“We established a good relationship with the Greentree business partner and the implementation went very smoothly. The Greentree system provides excellent flexibility, and the support team were able to develop a range of customized report templates to meet our specific needs.”

"We established a good relationship with the Greentree business partner," says Cockerell. "They brought in a team of two people, and the implementation went very smoothly, with only a few minor teething problems. The Greentree system provides excellent flexibility, and the support team were able to develop a range of customized report templates to meet our specific needs."

Lyttelton Engineering's new system went live in February, 2003. The data was retrieved from the older, DOS-based system, and migrated to Greentree. Now the firm can get on with the heavy engineering work for which it is known, with confidence that its job costing and financial system is providing continuous support.

About Lyttelton Engineering Ltd

Lyttelton Engineering has been an integral part of the Port of Lyttelton since 1953 and is one of the province's leading marine and industrial engineering / fabrication facilities. The present private company was formed in 1991 and is now one of Canterbury's largest engineering companies.

For more information visit www.lytteng.co.nz