Nibotechnics

After the management buy-out, engineering company Nibotechnics from Hamont-Achel was forced to invest in an ERP package in the very short term. Using the search terms price, term and production functionality, Nibotechnics quickly came to Microsoft Dynamics and IT partner Offimac. After a super-fast implementation, Nibotechnics now enjoys optimized stock and streamlined invoicing. Further work will be done on the automation of production and further professionalization of sales processes.

Nibotechnics from Hamont-Achel is an engineering company with various activities. It specializes primarily in the production and sale of swimming pool lifts, but also produces goods on behalf of third parties. Nibotechnics has its own blasting and paint shop (powder coating). With this, it supplies painted products to ArjoHuntleigh of the Getinge Group, of which Nibotechnics was still a part until the management buy-out in September 2011. The company is located in Hamont-Achel.

Director Niels Bollen: “From day one after the MBO, we were already producing and delivering. In contrast to a company that starts from scratch, we immediately made a fresh start to a fairly high level, with 2500 active articles. It was therefore important to have an efficient business management system for administration, stock and production very quickly. The time frame was a priority here and I also wanted to know perfectly in advance how much it would cost. As a newly started company, I could not afford any negative financial surprises.”

Offimac presents clear solutions

Nibotechnics worked with Lawson M3 under ArjoHuntleigh, but this package was not an option for Niels Bollen: “Lawson M3 is far too extensive and also too expensive for us. We were looking for something more tailored to SMEs, with a lot of standard functionality for production. Microsoft Dynamics therefore quickly came into our sights. Microsoft partner Offimac was the only one who could deliver the short delivery time within a fixed budget. Offimac also has a lot of experience with production companies and has developed a few standard modules for this. Moreover, Offimac is small enough to be flexible and large enough to continue to exist. The agreements were clear from the start and the collaboration felt good.”

After signing, Offimac immediately got to work and in just six weeks – for implementation and training – Nibotechnics was able to go live with Microsoft Dynamics.

Warehouse in order

Nibotechnics has two warehouses: one for pallets and one for small materials. Under ArjoHuntleigh, the warehouse employees were already used to working with an ERP system. The switch to Microsoft Dynamics therefore went very smoothly and the employees are very pleased with the user-friendliness of the package, which is a lot more flexible to use than the previous one.

The locations are entered by the people themselves, Microsoft Dynamics generates the picking lists, takes care of stock monitoring and automatically calculates the order proposals. In the future, Niels Bollen is considering working with scanners for picking.

The future

The first goal of the implementation was to secure the activity: sales, stock and accounting had to be in order first. In the course of 2012, Offimac will tackle the production (engineering).

“The intention is that a sales order is converted into a production order via planning, and after release into a packing slip and associated invoice. One watertight system in which no information can be lost. The production module has already been purchased for this, but we have opted for a step-by-step implementation, in order not to burden our own organization too heavily,” says Niels Bollen.

Other points in the step-by-step plan are the implementation of the CRM module for quotations and contact management and the automation of the blasting and paint shop.

About Microsoft Dynamics

“Microsoft Dynamics is very user-friendly, you can quickly find your way around it. You don’t have to be a computer expert or learn quick codes by heart to find everything properly. The package also allows you to quickly export lists to Excel, which is useful for all departments. In this way, we can still draw up our own reports without having to immediately invest in a reporting tool,” says Niels Bollen.