Ensphere helps Fine enjoy the fruits of Sage 200

Company

Fine Agrochemicals (Fine) develops, manufactures and distributes niche chemical products that are used to regulate and improve the performance of fruit and ornamental crops. Established in 1983, today the company which is based in Worcestershire, operates in over 40 countries worldwide from offices in the UK, US, Belgium and France.

Challenges

Fine operates from two key locations; its head office in Worcester and a sister company based in San Francisco. The nature of maintaining an overseas operation, which faces different buyer behaviours and the general complexities of Fine’s operation have created a challenging environment for the business.

Fine operates in a heavily regulated industry. The development and distribution of its products is also complicated because of a need to track and trace a significant number of raw ingredients for a wide range of products. Furthermore, Fine’s entire manufacturing and distribution process is managed off-site across multi-locations. This process encompasses extensive product testing cycles through to the final manufacturing and distribution of all products, which are developed into a range of different formats.

Another significant challenge faced by Fine was the management of its US business. The UK operation also covers the rest of the world and they enjoy a clear benefit from established customer relationships.  This allows them to forecast their customers' requirements to meet specific needs.  The US experiences different buyer behaviour with a more dynamic decision process from customers and a need for Fine to react quickly in order to meet the changing demand.

Fine had used Sage Line 50 to manage its business operations for many years. The increasingly complex business structure and the company’s steady, continued growth however, meant that Fine needed a new solution that would cope more easily with multiple locations and complex stock control.

Solution

Fine explored a variety of solutions but preferred the familiarity of the Sage suite and had confidence in the brand. Sage 200 was recommended as the natural choice. After an initial migration to Sage 200, Ensphere recently conducted a seamless upgrade to Sage 200 2010 adding further functionality.

Sage 200 solves the key issues that Fine had. Importantly, it gives the company considerably improved stock control and enables them to have complete visibility of the raw materials through to finished product, wherever in the world they are at any given time. Crucially for Fine, Sage 200 also provides full batch management enabling all stock to be traced easily should the need arise.

Another key benefit is the multi-location functionality. After the initial implementation was complete in the UK, Sage 200 was rolled out to the US office in San Francisco and replaced their incumbent Quickbooks solution. Users there access via terminal services and have been able to tailor the system to suit their specific customer demands. The UK head office benefits from real time visibility of the US operation and is able to update information, report and manage their system because it’s part of the core Sage 200 solution.

Reporting functionality has been considerably improved. With the introduction of a new report designer in Sage 200 2010, the ability to gain full management visibility and subsequently make key business decisions has been even further improved.

In addition, Ensphere have helped Fine to tailor Sage 200 to a greater extent with the introduction of bespoke programming. These developments have further enhanced the forecasting model and have improved the visibility of physical stock movement, offering particular benefit to the US office.

With the help of Ensphere, Fine also has plans to develop its core accounting and further enhance its reporting functionality so that individuals within the company can make key decisions even more rapidly.

Ensphere

Martin Pritchard, Director of Finance and Administration at Fine, explains their relationship with Ensphere: