SYSPRO Case Study

TANGRAM SURFACES INC.

< The CompanyTangram Surfaces, Inc. (well known by its “Centura” logo) began in 1985 when Gino Maddalena opened a 2700 sq. ft. warehouse in Dartmouth, NS, as a wholesale/retail distributor of ceramic tile and marble products. Rapid growth ensued and the company built three brand-new warehouses – one to replace the original rental space in Dart-mouth, NS, plus two new build-ings totaling 70,000 sq. ft. to stra-tegically cover Atlantic Canada.

Mr. Maddalena partnered with a Toronto company called Centura Floor & Wall Fashions to expand Tangram’s product lines to include carpet, flooring and vinyl products and adopted the “Centura” marketing logo. Mr. Maddalena start-ed as an apprentice in the “floor and wall fashions” industry almost 60 years ago and his commitment to customer service is evident in his remark, “This business is in my blood and I want my customers to feel that they are dealing with a friend.”

< The ChallengeTangram had originally installed a popular “generic accounting” software, and as the business grew, the limitations in the software became increasingly apparent. At a planning session in early 2001, Tangram’s management team determined that their computer software must be upgraded or replaced to maximize staff productivity.

Tangram’s Director of Finance, John Walsh, explains, “There were a variety of problems with our previous software; for example, ‘day end’ processing required all the users to exit the system for approximately an hour every day. Serial tracking was handled by ‘third party add-on’ software that repeatedly caused trouble. The standard reports were somewhat limited and we found its report writer rather cumbersome. We were forced to allow inventory quantities to go negative because the system was too ‘batch processing’ oriented and didn’t reflect the ‘latest’ status of available/on-hand quantities. This caused some big surprises during our annual stock count valuations. It also meant our sales team could not depend on stock allocations and frequently promised the same stock to several different customers.”

< The SolutionTangram began seriously investigating business software alternatives. The options were narrowed to two; namely, either upgrade the existing software or

SYSPRO Software Adds Polish to Tangram Surfaces

August 2008, USA

Mr. Maddalena partnered with a Toronto company called Centura Floor & Wall Fashions to expand Tangram’s product lines to include carpet, flooring and vinyl products and adopted the “Centura” market-ing logo.

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< AT A GLANCE <

COMPANY

Tangram Surfaces Inc.

INDUSTRY

Distribution

“There were a variety of problems with our pre-vious software; for example, ‘day end’ process-ing required all the users to exit the system for approximately an hour every day. Serial tracking was handled by ‘third party add-on’ software that repeatedly caused trouble.”

- John WalshDirector of Finance, Tangram Surfaces, Inc.

© 2008 SYSPRO. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are recognized.

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replace it with SYSPRO software. Mr. Walsh describes the selection process as follows: “The closer we analyzed the features contained in SYSPRO, the more we realized what we had been previously missing!”

Staff from all departments attended the demonstrations. “At one point, our General Manager turned to me rather excited-ly during a demo of the sales order processing module, and declared that features in SYSPRO could potentially double the productivity of his customer service team! Similar com-ments about productivity gains were echoed by staff in other departments.”

Mr. Walsh goes on to explain “Our software decision became quite clear as a result of the demonstrations. It became a return-on-investment (ROI) choice - with the highest payback option winning. We ordered SYSPRO in Septem-ber 2001 and went “live” on January 1st, 2002. We acquired a 20-user concurrent SYSPRO license with a full suite of modules for wholesale/retail distribution and financial accounting to run on our central Windows 2000 Server accessed by our staff at all three locations.”

< The ResultAs Mr. Walsh describes it, “The results have been mag-nificent. Inventory quantities are now accurate and de-pendable on a real-time basis. Sales staff can hold their

heads high when committing stock to customers. Landed costs for shipping and brokerage are automatically appor-tioned across stock received on each incoming PO thereby making our stock valuations more realistic and our sales margins more meaningful. Physical inventory stock counts have dramatically improved. It takes less time and variances are substantially lower. In addition, we now have reliable ‘ag-ing’ for all items in inventory – which makes it much easier to pinpoint stock to be cleared. This also means that our monthly financial reports are dead-on accurate including inventory valuations and accrued accounts payable for incoming goods with full purchasing/payables matching. SYSPRO sales order ‘margin protection’ warnings with password protection makes a big difference to our bottom line. The powerful SYSPRO ‘back order review’ program makes purchasing decisions vastly easier than before – and especially useful to ensure all customer back-orders are fulfilled on a timely basis with clarity about what stock is intended for which warehouse and customer. We use the SYSPRO Report Writer to create a wide variety of specialized inventory replenishment and sales analysis reports beyond the many standard reports to streamline decision-making.”

In summary, Mr. Walsh adds “SYSPRO software has dramatically streamlined our lives – far beyond what our previous software could do! It was the right choice to sharpen our competitive edge.”

August 2008, USA

SYSPRO Case Study

TANGRAM SURFACES INC.

www.syspro.com