“The upgrade to SYSPRO 8 was without interruption to our business. The team is eagerly exploring ways in which company procedures can be improved to be more efficient.”
Janet Shackleton – Perfect Potion, General Manager – Finance & Operations
Customer Profile
Founded in 1991 and based in Brisbane, Australia, Perfect Potion is a privately-owned manufacturer and retailer of organic skincare and aromatherapy products. The Perfect Potion team is dedicated to creating an innovative and diverse range of holistic natural aromatherapy products that not only nurtures the body, mind and spirit but also respects the delicate balance of our environment.
The Mission
A long-term SYSPRO customer, Perfect Potion identified a need to upgrade from SYSPRO 6.1 to SYSPRO 8. The goal was to use the new features available in SYPRO 8 to improve business processes.
The Solution
SYSPRO’s internal implementation team upgraded the company from SYSPRO 6.0 to SYSPRO 6.1 and then to SYSPRO 7 using three staging servers. This was followed by the upgrade to SYSPRO 8.
The Outcome
Within a short time, Perfect Potion’s staff found that SYSPRO 8 saved them time and improved some of their business processes. The new solution also provided the enhanced reporting and business insights needed to support the growing business.
Why SYSPRO
Perfect Potion has enjoyed steady growth since first signing on as a SYSPRO customer in 2005. Although the company was still running successfully on Version 6, it was looking for more accessibility to link to websites in its path towards becoming a paperless manufacturing plant. To this end, the decision was made to upgrade to SYSPRO 8 and deploy the full capacity of the system.
A Swift, Smooth Upgrade
The upgrade was carried out over the space of 4 weeks, during which Perfect Potion performed a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process and tested its current business processes on SYSPRO 8 in a test environment before going live.
This approach highlighted any issues and allowed for staff training. As a result, the upgrade and UAT process were fairly simple and Perfect Potion’s staff were able to navigate SYSPRO and Avanti, SYSPRO’s web interface, with ease. “The upgrade went smoothly. There have been no hiccups since the day we went live, not one blip on the radar – highly impressive,” says Janet Shackleton, Perfect Potion’s General Manager: Finance & Operations.
“Although we are still in the early stages of delving into how to optimize the potential of SYSPRO 8, it is gratifying that we are already hearing excited cries from our SYSPRO users as they discover new features.”
Increasing Efficiencies through Automation
With a manufacturing inventory of 500 and a retailing arm of 800 products, Perfect Portion uses SYSPRO to accurately track and record everything from the Bill of Materials to sales in its 18 stores across Australia. Prior to the upgrade, the teams in Perfect Potion’s stores ordered their stock manually which, given the volumes being processed, could lead to a great deal of human error with inevitable cost to the company. “One of our goals with SYSPRO 8 is to automate a lot of the order processing – that would be a massive plus,” Shackleton says.
The company is already enjoying the automation of the emailing of reports. This feature saves the teams time and is of particular benefit to members of management who are frequently offsite and are now able to receive reports anywhere and anytime. “We’ve been investigating SYSPRO’s Point of Sale (POS) module and are very excited about the prospect of bringing both our manufacturing and our retail arm under SYSPRO to help enhance efficiencies,” Shackleton says. “By using this technology more effectively we will be able to enhance our offering to our customers, for example through value-added promotions.” Another potential candidate for automation is the receipting of raw materials. Perfect Potion is keen to automate the printing of starting materials and testing protocols, as currently a team member has to go to a folder and print them out from there.
Adapting in Style
Perfect Potion’s SYSPRO users have adapted to the new system in style. “Because SYSPRO is a modular system, there hasn’t been huge upheaval for our users. It’s been an easy flow to adapt to the changes,” Shackleton says. “It gives us space and time to point out new features as we go through each individual process. Some of the teams are exploring independently and have shared their excitement about the new functionality they have found.”
“Upgrading to SYSPRO 8 was seamless. The ability to do live postings of transactions to the general ledger has been a huge saving. Predictive text has been a huge time saver. The visual aspect is cleaner, bright and easier on the eye. The ability to email invoices to customers seamlessly has led to better customer service. Expanded fields which allow for full product name and detailed r eference on Jobs has been a huge asset. The customization of layouts to remove visual noise has been great.“
Perfect Potion Team Members
