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“SYSPRO’s data drill–down capabilities have given us much needed insights for managing work in progress, streamlining production activities and labor costs, and gaining better inventory controls. We no longer have to guess what inventory is available and where it is. I always tell my staff: ‘the computer doesn’t lie’…and that’s a GOOD thing!”
Brett Gross – Alegacy President,
Customer Profile
For almost 70 years, Alegacy utensils and Eagleware cookware have set the standard of style, quality and value for the world’s most demanding chefs. Based outside of Los Angeles at its Santa Fe Springs, CA, headquarters, Alegacy manufactures the renowned Eagleware cookware line, as well as Alegacy and private label goods manufactured in the U.S. Rolling out new products each year, while maintaining a premium level product at competitive pricing, have been key ingredients to Alegacy’s long–term success.
The Challenges
Many years of deploying and depending upon home–built, patchwork–style IT systems made it increasingly difficult for Alegacy to focus new efforts on growth. Corporate resources were continually
being tapped to code, re–code, and remedy data integration issues. It was also difficult for management to have a clear and detailed understanding of company costs, materials management and inventory availability data.
The Solution
SYSPRO ERP, deployed in 2011, provided a holistic, comparatively low–maintenance solution for addressing a wide scope of variables and scalability challenges accompanying Alegacy’s growth. Alegacy runs a full suite of SYSPRO ERP modules managing everything from manufacturing to financials.
The Outcome
With SYSPRO, Alegacy has supported 100% growth on the same headcount and is leveraging new cost, materials, and other detailed manufacturing process insights that were not previously available with the company’s legacy systems. The ability to handle increasing sales/order volumes while saving 20–25% in anticipated labor/other costs is largely attributable to the SYSPRO system.
Saying Goodbye to ‘Disco Era’ (and Error) Software
The late 1970’s ushered in leisure suits, Saturday Night Fever, and home–grown software at many corporations. Many companies built their own technology backbones and maintained them via a continuous process using internal IT support. Within the next 10-15 years, several major enterprise resource planning (ERP) companies began offering packaged software applications, but many companies found some of these software application prices to be too pricey, proprietary and not integratable with favorite home-built software for customized tasks. Plus, the IT support costs to deploy and maintain these packaged solutions were out of reach for a large percentage of smaller companies.
Things worked “okay” for Alegacy initially with its more modest needs managed via its home–built IT system. But by 2010, it was clear that a patch–and–pray effort wouldn’t bridge to the company’s new, larger volume requirements. System errors were mounting, operational data was impossible to parse and understand, and by 2011 the company had reviewed various vendors and installed/implemented SYSPRO.
“You know you are not going to be able to grow the way you’d like when your top priority is making sure your infrastructure doesn’t break,” said Brett Gross, President of Alegacy. “Nothing we were doing from a technology or operational perspective was state of the art. Every new idea or process required coding a new program. It was time to make a change.”
Understanding Costs, Managing Operational Needs Better
SYSPRO, known throughout the ERP industry for its organically-built (single holistic code) capabilities and superior customer service, was the right solution for this growing manufacturer of cookware and “small wares” associated with cooking. Alegacy was immediately able to get a grasp on the costs tied to business operations throughout the manufacturing, sales and service spectrum.
With growth that has doubled over the last 10 years, Gross believes that SYSPRO has been a major factor in keeping the company on track and running profitably. “We have doubled our size but we have controlled our labor costs through more efficient application/use of labor, and by refining areas that were cost drains.”
Today, as the company continues to focus on delivering new and superior cooking products, expanding its sales efforts and maintaining a high level of customer service/satisfaction, company management says it couldn’t be more pleased with its ERP system. “It may sound unexciting to say that your ERP company provides a great product with excellent service – but I don’t hear a lot of other ERP companies getting those kinds of statements,” said Gross. “We’re very pleased with SYSPRO, it doesn’t break down, it integrates all of our data and it keeps our costs in line.”
