Timpack, New Zealand’s leading supplier of timber-based packaging solutions worked with Business Enabling Systems (BES) on a project to integrate its pallet manufacturing software, PalMate, with business management software Sage 300 to better streamline its business processes.
With seven branches nationwide and its head office in Hamilton, Timpack supplies packaging solutions, predominantly pallets and bins, to multiple businesses in the dairy, meat, horticulture and manufacturing industries. The large-scale, complex nature of its production systems meant Timpack needed a sophisticated solution to merge its manufacturing and business capabilities.
Timpack finance and administration manager Sharyn Waldron says they had outgrown their previous ERP software and were looking for a new solution that could integrate with the PalMate software.
“Our previous business and accounting system had good functionality but its underlying technology was becoming outdated,” says Sharyn.
“BES recommended the Sage 300 product because it had the right architecture needed to integrate with a specialist software such as PalMate.”
Sage 300 is a business and accounting software platform for efficiently managing finances, operations and customer data. PalMate brings together sales orders, purchasing, production management, inventory and dispatching and to streamline packaging manufacturing.
Timpack’s goal was to integrate both systems to allow for the efficient flow of information between its manufacturing operations and its back office accounting system.
“Our CEO, Alan Walters, had used Sage 300 and worked with the team at BES in a previous role at another company so he had great confidence in their ability. Once we learned PalMate had the interface needed to integrate with Sage 300, the decision was made,” says Sharyn.
BES managed the integration and implementation of Sage 300 at Timpack between June and October 2017. Sharyn says the process was painless and had minimal disruption to their normal business activity.
“It helped that BES are local and had good knowledge on what they were doing – it was clear they had worked on similar complex integrations before so they knew their stuff,” says Sharyn.
The specific Sage 300 solutions implemented for Timpack included standard accounting applications (general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable and fixed assets), alongside more specialised applications such as invoice consolidation and a platform to exchange large sets of business data with a major customer.
BES also implemented the Qlik business intelligence dashboard solution, which is delivering graphical KPI reporting by branches and across the company, with refreshed data available every 30 minutes.
“BES was able to come in and create a completely personalised interface based on exactly what we needed,” says Sharyn.
