A single solution from Exel for ERP and FSM is a game-changer for a Kent security manufacturer.
Dartford-based Safetell, a manufacturer and installer of security solutions such as bullet-resistant doors and partitions, and attack-resistant screens for use in banks, recognised that the business systems on which it depended were no longer adequate for its needs.
It required tight integration between the manufacturing system, which orchestrated the production of its products, and the field service system that managed the subsequent installation.
Safetell’s Pegasus Opera manufacturing system, in use for almost 20 years, was based on Microsoft’s Visual FoxPro database language. Tesseract, the company’s field service management system, was SQL-based and more modern. But the two systems were not properly integrated and required complex and manually-intensive data feeds in order to communicate.
“There was a lot of manual data entry, with a significant potential for error,” recalls Andy Norris, Safetell’s IT manager. “Coupled to a significant increase in business activity, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep the two systems synchronised.”
A move to the modern SQL version of Opera would incur expenditure on migration and still leave a gap in regard to the required level of Field Service functionality. Whilst integration between an SQL version of Opera and Tesseract could be achieved, this would incur further costs and may never be completely seamless.
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