Spearmark International
Industry : Licensed Character
Merchandise
Scenarios :
Manufacturing Business Processes
Introduction
Navision Integrated Manufacturing system and partnership
approach provides Spearmark International with rapidly deployed business
information solution.
Company background
Spearmark International Ltd has been trading as a family business since 1908
and has progressed through a diverse product range including toys, games and
character merchandise. The company is now firmly established as Europe’s
leading Licensed Character Housewares Company specialising in the areas of
room décor, tableware and most recently a range of energy saving, cool
running bedside lamps. Examples include Mugs, Tumblers, Plates and Lunch
Boxes with characters depicted like Harry Potter, Barbie, Spider Man and The
Tweenies.
The Company now occupies a large site in St. Neots, Cambridgeshire,
comprising Storage Warehouse, Assembly area and Offices and now employs
around 70 Staff within Warehouse and Distribution, UK / Export Sales,
Operations, Accounts, IT and Research and Development functions. A second
company-owned Warehouse facility is situated in Sandy, Bedfordshire and
there are several external Outwork Centres for sub-contracted assembly work.
The Business Need
The company required a Management Information System that would allow them
to effectively manage and grow the business. A key requirement for the new
solution is that it must be fully integrated and pay for itself by improved
efficiencies in the business process. Although management information could
be extracted from the existing systems, this was a time consuming exercise,
which must be rectified by the new solution. Existing systems in use within
Spearmark consisted of an array of financial and office systems accepting
both manual and computerised data entry. Tetra CS3 was being used for
ledgers, inventory, works order processing and MRP. . SAGE is used for the
payroll function, and Excel was used for a variety of financial procedures.
Manual methods were still being used for cash & batch books and bank
reconciliation.
Selection Process
Emphasis was placed on the expertise of the supplier in the provision,
commissioning and support of any solution, as well as the ability to meet
all the requirements from one source. After careful evaluation of potential
suppliers who could meet these criteria, Anglia Business Solutions were
approached to carry out a detailed analysis of existing processes and
procedures, and to supply a solution model for the potential replacement
system using the Navision Attain suite of software.
Spearmark specified that any potential system should meet several key
requirements. These included the provision of a single totally integrated
business management solution accessible throughout the whole organisation
and that could expand as the business grew. The new solution also had to
address some functionality requirements, such as the ability to communicate
with external partners via email and fax, to cease printing on dot matrix
printers and eliminate the need to use pre-printed stationery.
The Solution
The Navision Attain solution implemented by Anglia Business Solutions
utilised several Navision Modules, including; General Ledger, Sales &
Receivables, Purchases & Payables, Inventory, Warehouse Management,
Manufacturing, Report, Data Transfer, Form Designer and Table Designer. The
project also included other services such as project management and
customised user training.
As part of the solution model, Anglia carried out a detailed Infrastructure
Audit to ascertain the suitability of the existing hardware and network and
to ensure that the infrastructure would also support the company’s growth
plans.
Navision was used to replace existing financial systems in the areas of
General, Sales and Purchase ledgers. Navision Attain’s integrated facilities
are used to accept periodic accounting transactions across all modules and
to control the complete finance system, thereby replacing the Tetra CS3
system.
Navision report writer facilities are used to create user-defined reports
for both Statutory and Management Accounting purposes, avoiding the need to
report through Excel.
Two major areas where the Navision solution has greatly reduced
administration time is the in production of VAT & Intrastat returns and cash
& bank management. Data was extracted manually in order to produce the
Statutory VAT Return each quarter. This function is now automatically
completed in Navision using a definable VAT Return template to produce the
report. Intrastat Journals were also previously produced manually, which
could take up to two days to prepare. These are now also produced
automatically by Navision using EU Trade transaction entries.
Cash & bank management procedures for Spearmark’s 4 main currency accounts
were carried out using 8 manual cash books maintained for each of the Sales
& Purchase ledgers. This information was also re-keyed into the Tetra CS3
system, creating the potential to introduce data errors. In addition, manual
procedures were also used for Bank Reconciliation and Petty Cash. Standard
Cash Manager granules in Navision now replace all manual operations. Real
time bank transactional information is maintained for each account including
the posting of Interest and Bank Charges. Spearmark utilised the Lloyds Link
system to manually process certain payments. Navision functionality was
amended to automatically produce an output file that could be read directly
into the Lloyds Link program.
Navision sales order functionality is used to enable on-line entry of all
data relating to sales orders, replacing the existing cumbersome processes.
Navision functionality was also enhanced by Anglia Business Solutions to
include a function to import the individual EDI files from each of
Spearmark’s major customers. The EDI information is converted directly into
sales orders and sales order lines. A customer invoice can also be sent via
EDI eliminating the need for a printed invoice.
A further crucial requirement for Spearmark is the ability to facilitate
Material Resource Planning (MRP) across multiple locations, as stock is also
held at an external warehouse facility and several outwork centres. This
functionality was essential to minimise inventory.
Standard features from the Navision Attain Inventory module were used to
provide required functionality such as; multiple units of measure, product
analysis groups, codes, re-order points, pricing and price group codes. The
Physical Inventory Journal provides Spearmark with stock count functionality
across multiple warehouse locations.
Navision Warehouse Management functionality is used to facilitate the
efficient and traceable receipt, put away, picking and shipping of goods,
taking into account the specific requirements demanded by Spearmark’s major
customers.
An unusual requirement for this solution is the need to manage royalty
payments for the use of the various character designs and the ability to
calculate rebate payments to Spearmark’s customers. Standard Navision
functionality was easily tailored to meet this key requirement.
Benefits
Darren Price, Spearmark’s Finance & IT Manager, comments ”Our current system
did not allow the flexibility to meet the changing requirements of the
business. In Navision Attain we could see that the computer system could be
adapted to meet our business needs rather than change our processes because
of the predefined computer requirement. We knew that if we were to realise
our full potential we needed a fully integrated, modern and flexible
business management system. Using Navision we now have a solution that meets
the needs of all of our 20 users providing one source of information and a
complete up to date view of the performance of the business”.
Working to tight deadlines, the project was completed within 4 months and to
budget.
Services Required
Windows Network Infrastructure Audit
Data Transfer from Tetra CS3
User Training
Navision Software Development
Documentation Design Services
Software & Hardware
Navision Attain
Financial Module
Manufacturing Module
Warehouse Mgmt Module