CryoService

Putting the fizz into CryoService’s business management processes.

Having outgrown their previous enterprise resources planning (ERP) system, the management of CryoService, the UK leader in specialist liquid gases supplies, thought long and hard about a replacement strategy. Should they go for another package or would an in-house solution based on best-of-breed applications software suit them better?

Financial Controller, Neil Grimshaw explains, "It was argued that some aspects of the company’s business, which involved the supply of special gases, equipment rental and distribution, were highly specialised and therefore warranted a more bespoke approach."

CryoService is a fast moving company, having more than doubled its sales turnover from £11.5 million to £25 million over the last five years. Liquid gas is an essential commodity and the business has three main divisions, providing cylinder and mini-bulk supplies for applications covering science, leisure and manufacturing engineering.

Management relies heavily on data and the company’s existing ERP facilities were not very flexible in this respect. There were also concerns about continuing support due to the change of ownership of the supplier.

After much discussion the decision was taken to go for a packaged system. It was reasoned that this would meet the core requirements for financials and other more generic functions. An absolute fix would be essential for the remaining 20 per cent, the crucial applications.

As the selection process progressed, the way in which the team from IFS (UK) was able to address these cardinal requirements was to become a deciding factor. The steering committee approved the IFS proposals and phase one, covering 100 users went live in August 2004, less than twelve months after the contract was awarded.

The solution

IFS was able to incorporate all of the requirements for the Special Gases Division into the standard IFS infrastructure without any additional modifications. The main task was in developing new applications software to handle the equipment rentals requirements. This covered equipment movements and contract hire status, taking elements on and off contracts.

Credit control was an area in which the previous system offered very good functionality. In this instance however the reporting side of IFS, provided adequate reporting tools that more than made up for any functionality gap.

The other main area of concern was long term support. As Sales and Marketing Manager, Noor Ali comments: "We were looking for a partner capable of continuing development for future requirements. We want to carry forward ideas for customer access via the Internet and the use of mobile personal data and all the electronic interfaces that these would require."

Implementation

Since the system being replaced by IFS was relatively new, CryoService had an advantage in that many of its team were already experienced in the process of implementing an enterprise business management system.

The first conference room pilot was held in early February and subsequent pilots followed in April and July. During this period there was intensive liaison with IFS programmers at High Wycombe who were working on modifications to the Service Management module to accommodate the rental equipment requirements.

Go live was initiated with a weekend session during August to cut across the financials data in terms of outstanding invoices. Compared to previous experience, the implementation was "relatively painless".

Benefits – administration time reduced

For Noor Ali, the modifications to the Service Management module to cover equipment hire were very successful. "The software offers great flexibility. On the rental side there are various options for payment by day, week, monthly in advance, or in arrears. It allows for discounting and automated charging. Although it has been customised for our operations, it could be adapted easily to suit any business operating equipment hire."

It was the requirement for the Special Gases Division which really demonstrated the strength of the core IFS software This business is highly specialised and involves mixing gases of differing properties together. Procedures are controlled by a fixed bill of materials which must be followed precisely. There are also strict quality control requirements and the products are supplied through a bespoke cylinder rental system.

Says Neil Grimshaw: "We originally thought that this section of the business would have to be left until a later stage. But it just dropped straight in. On realisation, the only modifications were those relating to the rental functions."

"General improvements include the introduction of bar-coding for material tracking, a more flexible shop order system, double entry stock control, and the use of the IFS priority reservation system to manage the stock of cylinders."

CryoService has created its own application enabling service engineers to access the database from mobile terminals. Combined with IFS, these have made a notable impact with administration time being cut by around twenty hours a week.

Mobile terminals have been introduced for tank installation and maintenance, enabling engineers to access the database and update works orders while offsite. They are mobile technicians and whenever a part is used from their van, the stock record gets updated directly. Previously the process relied on hand written documents and was vulnerable to communication errors. The information may be two or three weeks old before details are posted and any errors resolved, before eventually getting invoiced to the customer.

For Neil Grimshaw, the biggest single win is in the ease of getting data out of the IFS system in a format that is useable. "We are using this facility to offer key customers specific routines, extracting data from the system and sending it to them in e-mail form. They think this is great because we can supply them any information they want and it‘s easy to set up without getting involved in any complicated programming operations."

Project support

In comparing the support provided by IFS to their previous experience, Noor Ali said that whilst he learnt a lot from both implementations, IFS provided better quality and more consistent support which is very important.

"A good project manager, and a good team of people who are willing to understand your business are key to the success. The IFS project manager, Steven Ward had a great deal of empathy with our business objectives."

Neil Grimshaw adds; "Another thing which impressed us was the fact that IFS consultants were prepared to visit in their own time. After a particular modification had been delivered, they would often pop in during the weekend to see how the testing was going."

For additional information, contact:

Christine Murphy, Marketing Manager
Telephone: +44 (0)1494 428900
Fax: +44 (0)1494 428907
E-mail: christine.murphy@ifs.co.uk

"Another thing which impressed us was the fact that IFS consultants were prepared to visit in their own time. After a particular modification had been delivered, they would often pop in during the weekend to see how the testing was going."
Neil Grimshaw
Financial Controller, CryoService

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