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Tilestyle

Company Background

TileStyle is Ireland's leading supplier of ceramic and porcelain tiles, natural stone and related products. Established in 1980 by Jim McNaughton, the Dublin based company originally supplied the domestic market with bathroom and kitchen tiles. TileStyle experienced strong growth in this sector and quickly expanded its services to cater for every aspect of the building industry from apartments and housing developments, hotels, restaurants and bars to nightclubs, shopping centres, leisure centres, breweries and factories. Operating in this artistically and industrially vibrant industry, the company strives to bring the latest designs and product innovations to their customers with a range that includes ceramic, porcelain, natural stone, outdoor paving and walling, mosaics, metal tiles, glass tiles, marble and granite, and swimming pool tiles. In the company's short history, TileStyle has grown rapidly to become the leader in supplying innovative and sophisticated tiles to the Irish market, with exports to the UK, the US and further a field.

The Need to Change

As a fast growing company in a highly competitive market, TileStyle had outgrown the capabilities of their previous accounting system, Datasoft. As the company grew, its business system requirements became more complex and their accounting system struggled to accommodate these growing needs. Also in the run up to the Euro Changeover in 2002, TileStyle's accounting system did not have the capacity to adequately cater for the euro conversion.

To deal with the company's growth and the planned Euro Changeover, TileStyle found that the package required extensive modifications and overall was not a suitable platform to move the business forward. Finding a solution that was flexible and user friendly became paramount to the company's continued growth. After examining a variety of accounting software systems, TileStyle finally narrowed their options down to three packages for further investigation, Sage, Exchequer and INTACT. In the end INTACT proved to be the best fit for the company as Andrew Crotty, Director of TileStyle comments "Sage, after extensive in house examination by their staff was unable to meet our needs in a number of critical areas, for example Batch Control and certain areas of Point of Sale and they were unwilling to make the modifications as bespoke for us. There was also a cost issue in relation to Sage. Exchequer also turned out to be costly and the package was not as flexible as INTACT". The main reason for selecting INTACT, as Andrew explains was down to the flexibility of the software, "...we chose INTACT Software, due to its flexibility and the willingness of INTACT programmers to meet our bespoke requirements in relation to stock control and point of sale".

Project and Implementation Process

The installation of INTACT in TileStyle took approximately two months to develop, test and install, with the project finishing on time for its go live date in November 2001. During this period INTACT Consultants met with key personnel to develop a plan for implementing the software package and to identify key milestones in the project such as training dates, hardware installation and the go live date. Next, data conversion and testing took place and the consultants designed the necessary
forms and reports that TileStyle required. Extensive training ensured all relevant users received maximum exposure to the system before it went live. TileStyle staff quickly took to the system, as INTACT consultants were available on site to provide additional training and deal with queries to ensure the smooth transition from the old system to the new one. During this time, Andrew explains how the company developed an ‘excellent' relationship with INTACT and was particularly impressed with the level of service and dedication that occurred, when the company experienced some unforeseen hardware issues in the first week of the project.

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