Mechanical engineering contractors, Crowley Engineering, are Ireland’s main supplier of storage silos & bins, second-hand mechanical equipment augers & bio energy equipment. Their 3000sqm production facility in Cork was established in 1972 & employs 80 staff.
Before using Intact
Crowley Engineering previously operated on Sage Line 100 with Tracker SOP, POP, & job costing tailored to their needs. The 13 year old DOS based system started to creek in 2012 with increasing amounts of data. Further frustrations for Séamas O’Dugain, Managing Director, of Crowley Engineering included the lack of control & inability to get information out of the system or to make changes.
The company went to market for a new system & carried out some extensive research using a carefully selected project team. Exchequer, Dynamics & Opera were eliminated when they failed to meet some fundamental criteria. After satisfying the list of criteria deemed important to the project team, the selection came down to Sage 200 & Intact iQ. Intact iQ was selected after satisfying the majority of their needs and was found to be more forward thinking and open to change. Equally, Intact iQ was able to satisfy their very specific job costing requirements.
Pain Points
- For Crowley Engineering, operating on a 13 year old DOS based system caused speed issues especially when running costing reports.
- The lack of information, controls & inability to make changes were also key reasons to go to market for a new system.
“Intact iQ is an important tool for our business. It gives us easy access to key management information which enables us to make better decisions going forward and helps us to review our costs and pricing so that we can continuously improve”
After using Intact
Intact iQ enables Crowley Engineering to do everything their previous systems could do & much more. The key differences encompass how the company now accesses & uses the real-time information readily available to them. Whilst controlling material requirements with livestock visibility is an important aspect for Financial Controller, Séamas O’Dugain, the increased control gained from live work-in-progress analysis is a real advantage.
Tracking committed costs to BOMs has also given him a better understanding of the actual costs on his jobs. In addition, the extensive use of workflows & alerts ensures business rules are enforced company-wide. The level of Excel integration too has superseded his expectations; leading to significant time savings preparing costings reports & management accounts. Huge efficiencies were gained through the electronic transmission of invoices & statements whilst the introduction of Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) sped up their payments process. Intact iQ’s inbuilt flexibility gives Séamas the freedom to continually enhance their processes across their entire business.
Key Benefits
- Accessibility to real-time information on-screen
- Powerful exports to Excel for costing reports
- Increased control through workflow rules and alerts
“I don’t intend to stand still. Intact iQ enables me to continue making changes & I have a number of projects in mind”
Intact iQ gives Crowley Engineering on-screen access to real-time information for better decision-making. It has also given them greater control of their processes, workflows, margins & job costing.
