SMIT Amandla Marine utilises Sage 300 ERP, Spindle

In the niche market of specialist marine services, SMIT Amandla Marine utilises specialist human and hardware resources and is at its best when creating tailor-made solutions for its customers.

In order to continue securing business in a highly competitive environment, SMIT Amandla Marine has to invest heavily in new equipment, vessels and technology, including specialist salvage and towing equipment used in various operations around the South African coast. By continuously investing in the latest technology and having a dedicated preventative maintenance programme for vessels and equipment, the company has a dedicated store of highly specialised emergency response and salvage equipment.

The investment in technology, equipment and human resources requires outstanding systems to support the business and, to this end, SMIT Amandla Marine put its trust in AWCape to supply and maintain its Sage 300 ERP (previously Sage Accpac 500) system. However, the Sage 300 ERP system on its own was not enough - SMIT Amandla required an automated and electronic approach for the printing and distribution of payment advices to its 1700 suppliers. AWCape installed and implemented the specialised Sage-approved product, Spindle Professional, which now manages all of SMIT Amandla's requirements and provides a stable base to achieve its goals and more.

Spindle Professional was installed as a regular Sage 300 ERP module and took over the management of payment advices to multiple recipients from a single supplier. The system also automatically generates PDF documents, which are internally stored for easy reference and retrieval.

Large savings were made

Peet Reyneke, chief accountant of SMIT Amandla Marine commented that large savings were made by avoiding manual documents and postal remittances, and savings are maximised by avoiding high-cost bank fees required to advise creditors of EFTs, with the added benefits that creditors not only know how much they get paid, but specific details regarding which invoices and credit notes are included in the payment forms part of Spindle Professional's remittances.

"The payback for this investment will be less than one year, and the more we use Spindle Professional, the more we find new ways of automating existing procedures. The company is excited about the product and its future possibilities." Later this year the company plans to apply an automated and electronic approach for the printing and distribution of customer invoices and debtor statements to its widespread customer base.

Henri Hattingh, CEO of AWCape, commented that his team of ERP consultants are driven towards finding innovative ways to increase business efficiency, and by specialising in Sage 300 ERP there is a wealth of Sage-endorsed third-party developers who find innovative ways to make Sage 300 ERP even better for mid-sized companies.

"Spindle Professional is an electronic and automated document distribution solution that many of our Sage 300 ERP and Sage ERP X3 users in Africa have been looking for. It has been developed in partnership with Draycir International and offers us a real opportunity to deliver greater business value to our distributors and offer even more functionality from our Sage platforms.

The solution is versatile, can be utilised by a number of departments across an organisation including accounts, sales, marketing and customer service functions and it integrates with Sage ERP And Sage CRM. The software also enables organisations to create professional-looking documents, including the company's logo and branding," said Jeremy Waterman, MD of Sage ERP Africa and the Middle East.