Balfour Beatty

Balfour Beatty experienced a remarkable expanding process during recent years. Because of that the company faced problems arising from inefficient business structures. Balfour Beatty needed a software system that would grow with them. They needed a streamlined manufacturing solution that would ease production planning and automate the purchasing process. Since Balfour Beatty’s responsiveness was curtailed by low efficacy in handling the production process and a struggling communication with the customers, the right answer was implementing an operative business solution.

 

Balfour Beatty experienced a remarkable expanding process during recent years. Because of that the company faced problems arising from inefficient business structures. Balfour Beatty needed a software system that would grow with them. They needed a streamlined manufacturing solution that would ease production planning and automate the purchasing process. Since Balfour Beatty’s responsiveness was curtailed by low efficacy in handling the production process and a struggling communication with the customers, the right answer was implementing an operative business solution.

 

 

 

“After the implementation we don’t need to deal with each of our profit centres separately, as we had to earlier – now a lot of the transactions have disappeared”, says Keith Churm, Managing Director of Balfour Beatty. The solution generates a capacity reservation which allows Balfour Beatty to look where the issues may arise and get a picture of their 50 work centres. “Axapta enables us to use the capacity planning facility not only to indicate free capacity on one site, but we can do it on a multi-site bases,” comments Mark Nash, Manufacturing director of Balfour Beatty. This helps out a project manager while dealing with shifts and the number of people he needs to put on to areas where the risks of delivery failures are. The system gives the operator a sequence of operations that he is then charged to undertake according to the task schedule. Thanks to the implementation, the output level has increased by an enormous 300%, while the amount of people has stayed the same.

 

 

 

“Concerning purchase parts, Microsoft Dynamics Axapta enables to identify the purchase parts automatically – whether they need manufacturing or purchasing. Purchase orders are now done in just 24 hours, earlier it used to take weeks,” notes Mr. Churm. He adds, “Speaking of automating the process, with the solution created especially for us, we can just plug in the desired parameters or constraints and the system does the rest of it.” In fact, thanks to that solution Balfour Beatty has achieved a 20% stock reduction in 2 years.

 

 

The solution has remarkably improved customer service. Customers can get information more readily and accurately. For example they can take a look into what materials they need to procure and what capacity they need to reserve in just a day. This increases customer confidence noticeably. Columbus IT’s solution allows the access to live information and direct speeches with clients, which saves a lot of time since there are no intermediaries and allows to respond much faster.

 

Speaking of advancements in finance, Balfour Beatty has experienced dramatic improvements. “Our major benefits concern real-time reporting, VAT, bank reconciliations and compliance just to mention a few. For example, 22% reduction in accounting staff overhead is really something to boast about. With only 7 employees needed instead of the former 9, we have saved 2 man years of cost,” deliberates Keith Ravenscroft, Balfour Beatty’s Finance Director.

 

Columbus IT’s implementations do not indicate simply technical solutions – there is much more to it. As Balfour Beatty’s Finance Director Mr. Ravenscroft states, “They are professional and dedicated people, who are really easy to work with. They know the product really well in order to find the best possible solution. Columbus IT’s experts had just the experience we needed. And what’s more – they took the time to listen us first.”

 

Balfour Beatty made a decision to use Axapta-based solution, because it was suitable for a manufacturing business and the company expected itself to grow and wanted a system to grow with them. They needed a solution that would be there in 10 years time. From increasing sales levels and the profitability of business, it is clear that Balfour Beatty made the right choice.