INDUSTRY
Manufacturing
LOCATION
Global
VERTICAL
Defence
Streamlined decision-making and a quick ROI with Sage X3

Avon Protection PLC is a 125-year-old enterprise
manufacturing respiration equipment used by military,
law enforcement, firefighting, and industrial
organisations.
Decision-making issues due to disparate accounting and ERP systems
Avon Protection used eight separate accounting and operation applications – each with its own reporting engine. There was no consistency, poor visibility and IT resources were stretched just helping others obtain the basic information they needed to do their job. The sheer volume of data to be analysed also caused trouble for Avon Protection, as they used Excel to crunch large volumes of data. This resulted in massive spreadsheets, reaching the limit of the software. It was slow, inefficient and didn’t promote collaboration or sharing.
One integrated system to view inventory at group and corporate level
Avon Protection was thrilled to learn that Sage Enterprise Intelligence (SEI), a Business Intelligence tool, integrates with Sage X3. The company implemented both solutions simultaneously. One powerful reporting engine replaced eight separate programmes. Sage X3 is hard at work in every department of Avon Protection. The Financial Director uses it to view inventory holdings across all locations and receivables at both a group and a corporate level.
Empowering sales team with fast access to inventory data on a handheld device
Across all its locations, Avon Protection has more than 250 users on Sage X3. They primarily use the web client but also have many mobile users. One unexpected benefit of Sage X3 is its value to the company’s mobile workforce. Sales reps travel with a tablet PC and can pull up customer sales history plus various sales and product-related dashboards, allowing them to suggest additional products, and if the customer is ready to order, they can quickly check stock at any of the Avon Protection locations. It has turned Sage X3 into a valuable sales tool. Avon Protection uses the Excel add-in for SEI to produce many of its financial reports, allowing the company to leverage an application most finance personnel are adept at. The software’s scheduling function allows employees and their managers to schedule a menu of reports to be delivered automatically at a specified frequency, placing information where it needs to be and when it needs to be there.
Improved visibility across the company and a quick ROI
Almost immediately, Avon Protection began realising the benefits of its enterprise reporting and its SEI tool. One way to measure the company’s ROI in Sage Enterprise Intelligence was the decreased IT resources required to support employees’ reporting requirements. Users can now get the information they need on their own, as data is accessible anywhere, anytime. Even disparate data can be brought together and shared across the enterprise quickly and easily. This means the company no longer requires analysts or IT technicians to uncover the data. Avon Protection now has an IT staff of just three to support the Sage X3 solution enterprise-wide.
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