CUSTOMERS

AVERCAST ANNOUNCES AUSTRALIA’S SEALED
PERFORMANCE BATTERIES AS NEWEST CUSTOMER

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Yatala, Queensland - Located just 20 minutes outside of Brisbane, Sealed Performance Batteries (SPB) distributes an extensive range of portable energy storage products throughout Australia and the Pacific Region. As SPB’s product range and customer base continue to expand, CEO Greg Roberts is committed to continuing their long tradition of delivering excellent customer service and product innovation. SPB recently invested in Avercast Forecasting and Planning modules to help achieve their service and inventory goals. Below are excerpts of a conversation with SPB’s CEO Greg Roberts.

WHY MOVE FROM PLANNING IN SPREADSHEETS TO A SYSTEM LIKE AVERCAST?
"As SPB’s product range and volume continues to expand, we had simply outgrown our spreadsheets. It was taking too much time to prepare our orders, and the methods we were using were basic and didn’t take into account things like trend and seasonality. For a company like ours with lead times between 1-3 months, we needed a capability for a time phased forecast which drives the purchase plan. I had worked with systems like Avercast in previous companies and knew there was a better way. I was happy to discover Avercast could offer an affordable solution for a company our size."

HOW LONG DID THE IMPLEMENTATION TAKE?
"We were live and using the software for forecasting and planning before we even paid for it....a matter of weeks from our kickoff meeting. The Avercast staff worked with our IT consultant to pull all required data directly from our JIWA financial system. Nightly and month end updates are completely automated which means we can just open the software and get to work with the latest information. The implementation was completed on time (despite our aggressive schedule) and 20% under budget. We found the system was very easy to use and easy to navigate – it didn’t require much training at all to get up and running."

WHAT BENEFITS IS SPB GAINING FROM AVERCAST?
"The benefits were instantaneous."

-Efficiency - "Preparing vendor orders went from being a day long process to an hour. As we continue to expand our product range we won’t require additional headcount to manage the planning role."

-Intelligence - "Our finance manager now has a time phased projection of monthly sales, purchase orders, and inventory levels for 12+ months into the future to help manage cash flow and budgeting."

-Strategy - "We have been able to strategically set inventory policies which will allow us to optimize our inventory to deliver both superior customer service and profitability."

-Visibility – "We love the visibility this system offers. The action items and filters screen allow for quick identification of issues and opportunities...at both a detail and summary level. When a vendor requests a forecast of our purchases for the next twelve months that information is right on our screen – and we can give it to them in minutes. This type of visibility really makes you feel in control of your business."