The Davey Group encompasses 14 companies each with its own unique needs and each focused on providing heavy machinery and services to an array of industries including agriculture, mining, forestry and road transport.

Whilst the incumbent business system had been faithful, many external processes and systems had been developed to beef-up its capability and Michael O’Connor, CFO says “we simply couldn’t keep sticking band-aids on it and more importantly, it wasn’t enabling business growth – it just had to go”.

O’Connor says they needed to significantly reduce manual tasks and processes in order to get on top of costs and Greentree’s Job Costing capability and integration were seen as key to achieving this.

Creating the Greentree business backbone
A strategy of managed growth is reflected in a steady as she goes approach and O’Connor says they’re not looking to break any records. He says that “when we realised Greentree had so much to offer we figured we couldn’t possibly do everything successfully all at once so we decided to do things as we grew which has been the best approach for us.”

He estimates the 60 percent reduction in manual processes achieved since Greentree went live 6 months ago is “modest”, and it will provide a sound foundation upon which remaining manual processes will incrementally disappear over time.

“Greentree is becoming the back-bone for the group and we expect this to consolidate over time as we learn more about its capabilities and grow into its capacity,” O’Connor says.

High visibility of cash position
Because things are happening within the business throughout the day, O’Connor says a real benefit for him as CFO is Greentree’s ability to give him a cash position at any moment which is invaluable for proactively managing cash flows. He explains that by the time he navigated the 14 ledgers required to get a cash position, the data was out-of-date and of little help.

The need to beef-up the old system meant developing multiple disparate external systems and processes which was entirely counter productive since it essentially created more work for someone else.

Staff would be required to enter data several times and develop a mechanism to get it in and out which was error-prone and complicated. Those days are gone since Greentree’s modular integrated environment means data is entered once before it flows through updating all relevant modules which O’Connor says has saved enormous amounts of time.

Just scratching the surface
At this early stage, O’Connor concedes they are only scratching the surface but already he can see evidence of efficiency gains in how the business is handling its ‘make to order’ stock. Job cost is helping to get control of materials and labour costs.

The essence of any sustainable relationship is the ability to communicate, provide support and discuss ideas and issues openly and O’Connor speaks highly of the Greentree partner’s ability and willingness to maintain a dynamic partnership.

Populating the HR database with employee data and remote access are just a couple of examples of opportunities for development.

By entering the skills and qualifications of a specialised workforce and then being able to leverage those skills to grow contracting opportunities is an area O’Connor is keen to tap into.

Remote access will help connect mobile staff to the office and improve communications.

For more information

Greentree
Graham Hill, Channel Manager
Email: graham.hill@greentree.com
Ph: 0800 313 313
Fax: 09 366 3889
Web: www.greentree.com

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