Skillbond selects Vection Technology to interface with Sage 1000 to improve order fulfilment processes.
Skillbond, suppliers of around 35,000 products for dental laboratory technicians, including porcelains and laboratory equipment, has recently started manufacturing dental prosthesis sub structures for customers using the latest digital manufacturing techniques and equipment.
The company has selected Vection Technology to interface with Sage 1000 to improve its sales order, works order and order fulfilment processes.
As a longstanding CPiO customer, Skillbond implicitly trusts CPiO to recommend products and services to further enhance the functionality of its Sage ERP system, Sage 1000. After many years of using a third party product to import sales orders, Skillbond opted to try an alternative import solution.
Shaun Chaplin, Accounts Executive at Skillbond explains the reason for the change, “We were experiencing many issues with our original import interface. It was introduced to help automate manual processes, including the creation of sales and works orders, completion of works orders and the allocation of stock to the relative sales orders in Sage 1000. However, the application would constantly crash and there would be no warning to alert us that it wasn’t working.”
The once reliable application was outdated and unable to meet the needs of the business moving forward.
Shaun continues, “Order lines on sales invoices and stock adjustments were being duplicated where transactions were being reprocessed from the point at which it crashed. Works orders were completed and sales orders were being despatched despite there being no stock to allocate to the order, giving us negative stock figures.”
Recognising Skillbond’s frustrations, CPiO recommended Vection Technology. Vection is able to tailor Sage software to offer a more bespoke fit for individual businesses.
Impressed with the company’s capacity to fulfil the business requirements, and with minimal changes to the standard software, the Vection interface was slowly introduced in stages to replace the old application.
“We began with sales and works order processing, introducing the functionality to take emailed orders and create sales and works orders in Sage 1000.”
“The next step was works order processing. The application facilitates the allocation of stock to the corresponding sales order and prepares the sales order for invoicing” explains Shaun.
Skillbond has seen huge improvements since moving to Vection. As the applications are developed using the same programming environment as standard Sage programs, Vection interfaces are fully compatible with Skillbond’s Sage 1000 system and the integration is seamless.
With regard to the benefits of using Vection interfaces, Shaun says, “Vection is much more user friendly. We now get notification emails if any errors occur, such as insufficient stock for a works order to be completed. Sales orders have stock allocated immediately after the works order is completed so we can work in real time. Something the previous application simply couldn’t do.”
The reliability of Vection has also highly impressed Shaun. He comments, “Vection has afforded us a considerable time saving”
“Previously, when the system crashed it took a lot of not only our time, but also the CPiO support desk’s time trying to locate the error, clearing tables, reprocessing transactions and correcting issues, such as duplicated orders.”
“Since installation the Vection interface has been totally reliable. Any errors are skipped and subsequent transactions are processed immediately. Once the issue has been resolved you can double click the error in the Vection Enquiry Menu and reprocess the transaction. This has also fixed the negative stock issue.”
Inspired by the success of the initial Vection project, Skillbond has three major projects planned to further automate its growing digital department.
Firstly, using Vection interfaces Skillbond will gain the ability to produce a consolidated despatch note at the start of each day to see which orders are due to be despatched. This will vastly improve the despatching process.
The second project is auto invoicing which will produce an invoice once all orders from the despatch note have been completed.
The final project will see Skillbond introduce a program where weights of price sensitive products can be captured and recorded as they progress through the manufacturing process.
Shaun concludes, “Our relationship with CPiO has enabled us to maximise our investment in Sage 1000. We have confidence in its recommendations and felt the suggestion to implement Vection applications was advantageous.”
“With the help of Vection Technology, we have adapted a system that was failing to meet our requirements. As a result we now have technology in place that is fit for our business, more so than ever before.”
