Manufacturers press on with Sage 200

The company
Founded in 1972 A W Precision has grown from strength to strength with a £4.75 million turnover site. It employs 110 staff in the UK head office and has sites in America and Belgium. The group manufacture punches and dies for the press tool stamping & automotive industry.

A W Precision’s client base lies largely in the motor trade including Ford, Jaguar and General Motors but also has large non motor industry clients such as Hotpoint and Dyson. With an ideal central location of Rugby, Warwickshire the business has a large market share in Europe.

AW precision believes that by maintaining its manufacturing plants in the UK and Belgium it can more successfully compete against its rivals based outside of Europe. It boasts up-to-the-minute technology and machinery and is keen to drive greater competitiveness through improved business solutions. Overall the business produces approximately 180 orders each day for its 3500 customers and can fulfil these orders easily within the UK.

“We chose our business software and providers by the quality of service they offer. Professionalism is also a major selling point for us and played a big part in choosing CPiO as our support providers.”
Andy Whitworth, IT Manager

The challenge
During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the company ran a MAP 4 MS DOS System. Over the next 2 decades A W Precision experienced huge growth and transformed from 2 workers in 1972 developing an individual item for one market, to a high demand manufacturer producing a large quantity of orders daily and supplying an extensive customer base.

Then, on the back of a key employee retiring, the company’s bespoke finance and production software was evaluated. It was decided to look into a more advanced system to deal with the daily running of the company’s growing client base. A major part of its business process was accurate stock control and word processed invoicing. The demand also grew heavily on PDF produced pricing, printed and online brochures, and these documents were proving difficult to maintain.

The solution
When perusing the marketplace for the best software solution for the business requirements, A W Precision identified Sage 200 as the best fit for the business. It compiled a short-list of three resellers in the Midlands that could offer the support it needed to continue. Although CPiO proved to be more expensive than its two competitors, there was an immediate trust built between them which was of major importance to A W Precision.

The business chose to run Sage 200 financials module which has given it access to an extensive range of management reports and easy integration with Microsoft Excel. It also uses Sage Payroll and finds it to be a very robust solution.

The benefits
A W Precision is currently running the finance module of Sage 200 and the staff using it have taken to it very well. The benefits of using Sage 200 were immediately visible in the day-to-day processes, freeing up staff time to complete other responsibilities. “The entire implementation process went quickly and very smoothly and we were live within two months of choosing CPiO. Our relationship with the CPiO support team is faultless.”
Andy Whitworth, IT Manager

The future
Moving forward the business believes that it has the solution in place that can scale to match growth and development in the future. A W Precision aims to bring the Belgian site online as Sage 200’s flexibility and functionality will allow all systems to link up and create a simpler communication process.

The business is always looking in to new ways of improving technology on the shop floor from new machinery to expanding its list of suppliers. The company now feels it has the right solution in place to give management more time to concentrate on strategic decision making.