Samarind switches on to customer's needs
Samarind’s software developers have proved real livewires for components distributor Plus Opto. Geoff and Sheila Woods, who run the company from premises at Leigh, near Manchester, have employed Samarind for more than five years. One of the software development team’s major successes for the company was in upgrading their processing ordering system.
‘Plus Opto had an old, DOS-based system which Samarind upgraded to a Windows-based, bespoke system, with many enhancements,’ said Geoff Woods. ‘In the development of it we enjoyed a close working relationship with Samarind which we are keen to continue.’
Miranda Pothiawala, co-director and head of the software department at Samarind, explained: ‘We redeveloped the system for Plus Opto in Visual Basic and Microsoft Access. We named the bespoke software POPS (Plus Opto Order Processing system) and it now handles all their sales and purchase order processing and stock control. It includes bar-coding facilities and full integration with Sage Line 50.
‘Sage does offer order processing and stock control but it simply isn’t up to Plus Opto’s requirements. It is unable to cope with the volumes of data involved and can’t provide the multi-currency facilities Plus Opto needs. Sage was also unable to offer another of Plus Opto’s requirements, an order scheduling facility which allows one line per order being delivered in multiple drops.’
‘It’s particularly useful for us that Samarind are Sage-licensed,’ said Geoff, ‘because they are able to link in their bespoke software with our existing systems. The new software has certainly made us more efficient and it will save us money, too. Thanks to Samarind, we’ll be able to manage our head-count to our advantage – why have three people doing a job when one can handle the software and it’s more efficient?’ The Woods were so impressed that Plus Opto has also subscribed to a customer relationship manager to monitor activity such as quotations, inquiries and contacts made.
‘This has been of huge benefit to us,’ confirmed Geoff. ‘Existing products on the market are unwieldy – they’re written for everybody, as it were. But Samarind’s program has been tailor-made and user-configured for us.
‘We’ve also asked Samarind to support our network. It’s essential for all distributors to have a stable, reliable computer system and we wanted Samarind on board to ensure that that’s what we have. ‘Samarind’s team are able to access our server remotely, which will minimise any inconvenience and gives us a certain peace of mind. They are a very approachable, flexible company and their engineers are able to communicate clearly in plain English. Samarind do a very good job for us and I don’t see why the relationship shouldn’t continue for another five or even ten years.’