Harley's accelerates its business processes with Sage X3

Harley's accelerates its business processes with Sage X3

Harley's Limited, a Kenyan company that imports and distributes medical equipment and pharmaceuticals into the East African market, has streamlined its business processes and improved agility by rolling out the Sage X3 applications suite. Sage X3 business partner, Synergy Group, consults and supports the Harley's Limited implementation.

Harley's decided in that it would need to implement a modern suite of enterprise applications to support the needs of its growing business. In particular, it wanted to improve visibility into key business information, ensure that it is able to get the right products to those in need as quickly and efficiently as possible, and tighten financial controls.

After evaluating the applications available in the market, it chose Sage X3 as the solution that offered the best fit for its business needs. "Prior to Sage X3, most of Harley's processes were limited and manual," says Rupen Haria, Managing Director at Harley's Limited. "We did not have the transparent view across all our branches, sites, and departments that we wanted."

Centralised servers reduce infrastructure costs

Rupen says that the company has standardised on Sage X3 across all of its sites and branches across East Africa. One benefit of the solution is that it runs off a centralised server infrastructure, which translates into lower infrastructure costs and simpler IT support. It also means that it is simple to upgrade and patch the software, and to deploy it to new sites without additional infrastructure costs.

"Since we've gone live with Sage X3, we have enjoyed a smoother automated sales and inventory process," says Rupen "We have traceability of all transactions and a real-time view that links orders, deliveries, invoices and returns. In addition, we now have better controls in place for shipments because we can dispatch and manage them from a central point."

Automation has also helped the company to save on the operational costs of business processes such as stock counting and inventory management. It is easier than ever for Harley's to see when it needs to reorder stock, understand landed costs, link products to suppliers and manage different costing methods.

Sage X3 has also streamlined a great deal of the work the company used to need to do to comply with various laws and regulations.

Better cash flow management

The Sage X3 solution has also had a positive impact on Harley's cash flow management. Now, the company can automatically send statements and invoices, getting these documents out to customers sooner.

Nishil Haria, Operations Director at Harley's Limited says they are also better able to enforce payment terms, credit levels and charges on late payments. At the same time, tighter management of orders and deliveries has helped to improve customer satisfaction, Nishil notes that the company has benefitted from improved financial reporting and better information for strategic decision making. The solution also features a user-friendly expense management function.

"Distributors in a business such as pharmaceuticals operate in a market which has rigorous quality requirements, high volumes of international trade, and intense customer demands," says Ashley Regenass, CEO of the Synergy Group. "Sage X3 offers them the flexibility, functionality and ease of use they need to respond to their key challenges – optimum inventory levels, controlled operating margins, excellent customer service and a multi-site overview."

Adds Keith Fenner, Chief Sales Officer, Sage X3 AAMEA at Sage ERP Africa: "In this sort of business environment, companies need a solution that integrates key data from across every site, team and customer to help them make the right decisions. Sage X3 enables them to meet the demands of their customers because the information they need is always at their fingertips."