SAP (UK) Limited, a subsidiary of SAP AG, has announced that rubber and plastics Converter LJA Miers will be the first UK customer to implement SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA. The mid-sized business will now be able to have a complete overview of its activity and make informed business decisions based on real-time information.
LJA Miers has been running for almost 60 years and supplies rubber and plastics products to a variety of sectors, including the automotive and construction industries. At the start of this year the company began planning a whole infrastructure upgrade of its IT systems. One area it wanted to focus on was the company's business processes, which required manual data input and so were very time-consuming. This was further complicated by the fact that the company is spread across three different sites. To support the company's growth plan, LJA Miers knew it needed a system that would bring all this information together in one place.
The company completed a thorough review of the ERP market but quickly discounted most solutions due to a lack of functionality. After a live demonstration by SAP and partner Prospettiva, the firm was hugely impressed by the real-time capabilities that SAP HANA offered, at an affordable price, and decided it was the best solution for the business.
Tony Marturano, managing director at Prospettiva, commented, "LJA Miers was looking at a range of solutions, including SAP Business One on SQL, but when we mentioned the SAP HANA platform they were keen to hear more. We worked closely with SAP to deliver a live demo of the product and this was the turning point. Being able to see the speed at which HANA was able to process and deliver user-friendly information opened their eyes to the potential this technology could bring to their business. I also believe that the personal touch played a large part in this win. With SAP at the demo it was clear that all customers are important, not just the large enterprises."
Andrew Miers, managing director at LJA Miers, commented, "Our company is rapidly expanding so we needed a robust, reliable system that could scale up and help push the business forward. At the same time, we wanted to have the latest technology in place to support our forward-thinking ethos. SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA fits that criteria and will enable us to integrate information from across our different sites, in real-time, in order to get a complete overview of the business and process customer reports quicker. The Material Requirement Planning ("MRP") module in particular will help enormously, automating our manual processes and improving internal communication. It is great that a mid-sized company like ours can access innovative, leading-edge technology that is typically reserved for large enterprises." Miers continued, "We are very pleased to be working with Prospettiva on this project; they are locally-based, which was an important factor as we always try to work with neighbouring businesses. The close proximity also means we receive an expert service that is personal and tailored to our business, in addition to benefitting from the on-going development of SAP technology."
"In today's highly competitive business climate, being able to react quickly to changing market conditions is vital," said Will Newton, SAP Head of Business One, UK, Ireland, Benelux and Nordics. "The SAP HANA platform allows businesses of all sizes to access information in real-time and make informed business decisions based on the data in front of them. LJA Miers quickly recognised the potential this could offer its growing business and will now be the first UK customer to benefit from SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA." He continued, "Prospettiva played a significant part in the signing of this deal – their knowledge of the customer's requirements lead them to suggest the SAP HANA platform, which ultimately won it in the end."
The roll-out of SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA, with a manufacturing-specific software add-on from Variatec, is already underway and LJA Miers and Prospettiva are using an online collaboration tool to put the solution in place. The project is estimated to go live on January 6th 2014.
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