Darling Romery Future-Proof with Sage X3 and T3T
Darling Romery, a dairy manufacturer based in the Western Cape, approached T3T to replace their outdated legacy system and streamline their business processes for growth. We deployed a customised Sage X3 business management solution, optimised their business processes, and provided add-ons to bring Sage X3 to a near 100% perfect fit.
The final outcome? Darling Romery are now set up for the next 20 years for future growth and efficiency.
Key take-aways:
- Their custom-made business software was not keeping up with organisational growth
- The ERP came in at 80% fit, and T3T brought it to a near-perfect 100% fit
- Senior management supported the implementation process, ensuring its success
- Automating their admin-heavy processes has saved them significant time and money
- Management has visibility into every aspect of the business, improving efficiency
- The organisation is now geared and protected for the future
What were the challenges?
Data silos
Darling processes had grown to around 1,500 orders from various depots every day. This was a very manual process, involving a vast amount of data capture and transactional reconciliation. Additionally, analysis and decision-making by management regarding production, sales, distribution and financial trends, was a time-consuming process as each department worked in isolation from the other. These information silos made data capture and analysis susceptible to human error, duplication, and omissions.
Patchwork systems
Calculations were done separate from their old system using spreadsheets, with multiple versions and sources of data being used to process reports, delaying reports even more.
Vulnerable to risk
Between 2011 and 2016 the finance department had identified various risks, particularly around the old system’s lack of upgrades and future security. Darling Romery needed a fool-proof system that they could count on for the next 20 years plus. So the hunt began for an ERP that would work for their particular needs.
What They Needed in an ERP System and Implementation Partner
- Support multi-accounting periods. Invoices must be able to date in advance and be created over two accounting periods (and over year-ends)
- Process very high transactions and sales invoices volumes
- Meet 80% plus of their needs so that minimum additional software development will be done
- Able to constantly change production planning to keep up with rapid changes in demand or product
- The system must always be online
- The system must be the latest technology and be able to adapt and grow with future systems and technology
- Must be able to cater for all (15) companies in the Darling Group that span different industries like sales, branding, financing, property and rentals, olive manufacturing and mixed farming.
We needed a one-stop shop for all our companies. We wanted to compile figures accurately and time efficiently to management of all the companies, but also to consolidate figures accurately on a regular basis to give the shareholders an overview of the whole group. – Henk Bothma, Head of Finance, Darling Romery.
Why They Chose Sage X3 and T3T
After carrying out extensive research, the Darling Romery team distilled their top three ERP solutions. They finally decided on Sage X3 due to its rapid deployment, flexibility, and close fit to their business’s needs.
Similarly, after extensive research combined with seeking feedback from existing customers as well as experts in the industry, they chose Times 3 Technology (T3T) as the implementation partner that could best provide business solutions for them.
As the winner of Sage’s Implementation Partner of the Year for many years, T3T was a well-founded conclusion.
T3T’s Customisation, Development and Implementation
We at T3T carefully analysed Darling Romery’s processes, objectives, challenges and key deliverables particular to an agri-business. Using our careful implementation methodology, we installed Sage X3’s core finance, distribution, sales and manufacturing modules. This immediately gave executives at Darling clarity into the entire business:
- Real-time visibility into nation-wide stock availability.
- Insight into future delivery shortages in advance.
- Automated and accurate reporting.
- Management accounts generated at the push of a button.
- Real-time KPIs are available on dashboards across devices.
- Various workflows and procurement automated.
Additionally, certain enhancements were achieved through custom-development using native Sage X3 technologies, starting with the order intake and extending to accommodate pricing flexibilities.
We also developed a Delivery Manifest module and an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) interface to perfectly meet Darling’s business needs. The Delivery Manifest enables the sales co-ordinators to manage numerous orders linked to routes, supporting account-based sales or COD deliveries. Sage allows the picking of a Delivery Manifest into specific refrigerated locations for the final packing of delivery vehicles. The Manifest also manages returnable crates and, as part of the driver debrief, automates the banking of COD payments, returns and crate invoicing.
“Times 3 Technologies was able to deliver customisations that took the software from an 85% fit for our business to a near-perfect fit against an aggressive timeframe,” says Henk Bothma, Finance Manager of Darling Romery.
It took six months to implement the solution. The deep commitment shown by Darling Romery’s senior management accelerated the implementation and successful go-live, as they invested the right level of resources, scoped the project and define business requirements, motivated staff for upcoming changes, explained the benefits and outcomes, and invested time and money to train all their employees in advance.
How the system has improved performance
Darling Romery delivers up to 1,500 orders from multiple depots daily. In the past, this time-consuming process involved a great deal of data capture and transactional reconciliation.
Since GO-LIVE on September 1 2018, the company achieved significant cost savings by automating most of the paperwork and data capture for:
- orders,
- deliveries,
- invoices,
- returns,
- receipts and
- claims
through the custom-developed Delivery Manifest module and various custom EDI interfaces.
How far the system future-proofed their company
Darling Romery has positioned itself for future growth and efficiency for the next two decades thanks to Sage X3 and T3T’s development and ongoing support.
The system, the people, and the platform are agile and robust enough to accommodate their growth and whatever challenges the future may hold.
