Case Study: Moving from SAP to UniData

THE CHALLENGES FOR LYPPARD AUSTRALIA

The business formerly known as Provet Supplies (Vic) Ltd, keen to expand their Victorian and South Australian distribution activity to the National stage, developed the opportunity to acquire the national business of a prominent competitor Lyppard Holdings Ltd in late 2005.

The new merged business renamed as Lyppard Australia Limited commenced trading in October 2005.

Managing Director Mr Brian Oakley whilst aware of the many challenges to be overcome remained focussed on the enormous opportunities this presented to the business, the shareholders and the staff.

Intuitively he recognised that a commonality of business process and data in all locations would enable the speediest introduction of efficiencies in all sales and warehouse locations whilst delivering economies of scale to the National administration enabling the accurate measurement of performance at all levels.

Cognizant that he did not wish to inherit the large I.T. overheads of the acquired business and aware that Provet had no internal I.T. resources.

Brian made the decision to outsource his entire I.T. requirement to a trusted single source provider to manage the integration of the business onto a common, efficient and stable platform.

Uniware Pty Ltd was selected as this partner. A project team comprised of key stakeholders at Lyppard and Uniware was formed to plan and execute the strategy.

Prior to the acquisition, Provet Supplies (Vic) Ltd were running the business on the Distrib/Pick ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) system. This system whilst deemed to be highly efficient and easy to use by both management and staff was perceived to have some issues for the moving forward strategy. These being; acceptance and adoption by new employees of the merged business due to its "Green Screen" interface and; the adaptability to new technologies to support the requirements of E-commerce and integration with Veterinary Practice management applications as demanded by Customers.

Lyppard Holdings Ltd at the time of acquisition were using the SAP system. This system, with a high cost of ownership, inefficient business processes and associated hefty telecommunication costs for the National Private Network, had not enhanced the business. Thus was dismissed by Brian Oakley as a suitable platform to move forward with.

Brian Oakley and the project team were committed to providing the Shareholders with the quickest possible return on investment and implementing efficient, measurable and replicable processes in the most cost effective and timely manner.

To meet these commitments it was decided to move all operational and administrative process to the AusVantage ERP suite from Uniware operating on IBM's Unidata Database Management System with key target dates set within the implementation plan. These targets comprised logistical, I.T. infrastructure, ERP system implementation, and E-commerce enablement.

The most significant step was to have all locations processing on the new Ausvantage ERP suite within 3 months of merging the businesses. This was achieved with the last branch coming on line in January 2006.

Uniware 's I.T. services organisation managed the change from an Expensive Private Network to a stable and efficient Virtual Private Network reducing overall voice and data costs by 50%.

The cultural challenges and fears of implementing a new ERP system were quickly overcome when, during training sessions, the system users identified the significantly reduced number of steps to manage customer orders to fulfilment making it easier for them to meet their KPI's.

Indeed the overall ease of use and process efficiency of the system, when compared to the old time intensive methods, was well received by all.

Today; Lyppard operate a highly efficient business processing over 200,000 order lines each month with a turnover of approximately $150,000,000 per annum and continuing to capture market share.

Approximately 25% of orders are received electronically from the web ordering system, integrated Vet Practice systems and PDA devices. On-line ordering continues to grow steadily.

Orders are processed in all locations on the wireless and paperless Ausvantage Warehouse module.

Tomorrow; Lyppard Australia Limited is well positioned for continued growth both organic and through acquisition.

Brian recently commented to his board "we have now squeezed all possible efficiencies within the business and it is now time to take the next step."

Lyppard is now seeking to replicate this success with further acquisitions and the systems are all in place to facilitate this corporate agility.

"Uniware is a very innovative company to deal with, they are constantly improving their products and Services. Their support is excellent, you talk to real people. They are very professional. I believe they are great value for our business."

Brian Oakley
Managing Director