Essex Flour & Grain opts for BCPs Accord

Foodservice distributor, Essex Flour & Grain Company Ltd (EFG), is making a 60,000 investment in a 22 user Accord system from supply chain solutions specialist, Business Computer Projects Ltd (BCP) to handle all aspects of its business.

EFG is a long established delivered Foodservice distributor with a history dating back to 1853.  A leading member of the Country Range group, the company operates from two depots in the London area.  It services major public sector contracts, including schools and hospitals, together with hotels, restaurants and pubs across the South East of England, with a comprehensive range of ambient goods.

BCP is one of the UKs top suppliers of specialist Supply Chain solutions to the Food and Drink Wholesale industry.  Clients include BWG, Musgrave. SPAR, T Quality, Serious Foods and Creed Catering.

The investment in new technology is part of an overall modernisation of the business, a high priority being a new, dedicated food service solution to replace the existing IT system.. Other areas will include new warehousing facilities and electronic trading.

EFG takes pride in its ability to provision both private and public sector customers.  The company wanted to improve customer service levels and BCP was chosen following a lengthy selection process reviewing offerings from a number of leading suppliers. 

The investment covers BCPs complete Accord solution including Purchasing, Sales Order Management, Stock Control, Telesales and Financial Accounting and will give EFG a fully integrated system covering all aspects of the business.  The system will be fully implemented at both depots by April this year.

Key to securing the contract was BCPs food and drink industry background and Accords comprehensive functionality, which proved an excellent fit to the EFG business.  BCP worked closely with EFG during the evaluation period to understand the incumbent system and EFGs critical business processes in order to ensure Accord could provide all the required functionality. 

Michael Spinks, EFG MD: We believe Accord will help us to service our customers better and, through that, grow our business successfully. Were convinced that it will provide us with much greater visibility and control across our whole operation, particularly in areas such as stock management, pricing and promotion control.  We hope to go live as soon as possible so we can move forward, improve service and grow our market share.

About BCP

Founded in 1979, Business Computer Projects Ltd (BCP) is a leading systems house specialising in supply chain solutions and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner one of an elite group of IT companies to have achieved this coveted status.

Our Accord systems offer end-to-end, web enabled supply chain solutions for delivered wholesale, cash & carry and retail distribution.  Dedicated versions are available for the food and drink sector where we are regarded as one of the market leaders.

All our systems have been developed using Progress 4GL ensuring they are user friendly and easy to tailor, with powerful, flexible reporting and management information facilities.  Their OpenEdge(TM) architecture makes them suitable for use on a wide range of platforms, giving clients maximum choice and flexibility in hardware and operating system platform selection and allowing easy integration with many other technologies, such as .NET, Java and Web Services.

As a technology innovator, BCP systems are in the forefront when it comes to applying new technologies to the Food Industry Supply Chain. Recently these include Voice technology in the warehouse and using Web Services and EDI-INT for Supply Chain Integration.  We also operate a number of managed services for our clients, including AIMS (Accord Internet Messaging Service) for passing information reliably and securely between sites, an EFT Bureau and an EDI Bureau.

BCP clients include SPAR, Musgrave, BWG, Pets at Home, William Morrison Supermarkets, Pedigree Wholesale.