January 17, 2006

Out with Old in with New

By: Start Staff

Enterprise Resource Planning

Change is never an easy thing to do, particularly when it comes to IT (information technology). Companies invest a great deal in their systems only to have to replace them in a few years. But sometimes certain technologies are kept on for too long and are unable to perform they once did.

Deacom Inc., www.deacom.net, Wayne, Pa., is strengthening its relationship with current customers. The company says its client Finnaren & Haley Inc., www.fhpaint.com, Conshohocken, Pa., a manufacturer of paints and coatings, is switching its retail stores to the DEACOM Point-of-Sale (POS) system.

The POS system is a module on Deacom’s ERP. It will create a connection between Finnaren & Haley’s corporate headquarters and their distribution points, making transactions visible in realtime.

“Our former POS process riddled our manufacturing operations with slow data. Now we’ll be able to check stock and pricing information, and be confident in knowing that information is received on a timely basis,” says Fran Connell, CFO of Finnaren & Haley.

Glovia Intl. Inc.’s, www.glovia.com, El Segundo, Calif., ERP system, glovia.com, was recently adopted by Marflex BV, www.marflex.com, Oud-Beijerland, The Netherlands. Marflex manufactures electric driven pumps systems for ships and offshore platforms.

Marflex plans to replace its multiple legacy systems with the system from Glovia and standardize on it as the single information system. Two appealing features of the system for Marflex are that it is Web based, which the company believes will help improve customer service; and Glovia’s engineer/make-to-order functionality as Marflex manufactures its products to according to specific customer requirements.

In other ERP news:

Research and Markets, www.researchandmarkets.com, Dublin, Ireland, recently released its SMB (small and midsize business) Manufacturing Industry report. The research firm says traditional ERP vendors to the SMB market are beginning to feel pressure as larger vendors, such as Oracle, www.oracle.com, Redwood Shores, Calif., and SAP, www.sap.com, Walldorf, Germany, are paying more attention to this market segment.