B&R Enclosures, the largest manufacturer and designer of electrical enclosures, switchboard systems, and server racks in Australia, has recently seen a substantial benefit through the implementation of SYSPRO, a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

Founded in 1955, B&R is a 100% Australian family-owned and operated company and currently operates manufacturing facilities not only in Australia but also in Suzhou, China, supporting a workforce of more than 300 employees.

In 2012, the company's Director, Tim Bridges, took on the task of transforming the way B&R functioned by leveraging modern technology. He shared, "We'd extracted as much out of the old system as we possibly could. It was holding us back, especially from our international expansion plans. I joined the company to project manage the selection and implementation of a new ERP solution."

B&R Enclosures previously partnered with a large European company and had the option to adopt their existing Tier 1 ERP system. However, deciding that the system did not serve their future plans well, the firm started investigating other vendors. Eventually, SYSPRO and one other ERP system made it to the shortlist. SYSPRO, established by brothers Chris and Phil Duff in 1978, impressed with its flexibility and customer relationship emphasis, aligning perfectly with B&R's own history of solid business relationships.

The new software has allowed the company to install several modules, including General Ledger, Sales Orders, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Material Requirements Planning (MRP), Bill of Materials (BoM), Work in Progress (WiP) and Product Configurator, as well as modules for Reporting and Analysis. The implementation of these modules brought a refreshing change, providing real-time insight across different aspects of the group and ensuring financial data is always up-to-date.

Mr. Bridges said, "We've also eliminated large volumes of month-end journal entries, which has significantly reduced the time required to produce month-end financial reporting."

He added, "SYSPRO's MRP is growing traction in our supply chain management as a valuable tool to drive production efficiencies. The quality of our data remains a key business initiative, and without this MRP is not reliable."

One of the significant leaps B&R made using SYSPRO was the expansion into the New Zealand market and the setting up of a new subsidiary company based on the NZD currency.

"That would have been quite difficult with the old system, but it's been relatively simple with SYSPRO," Bridges commented. He also stressed the importance of comprehensive training to ensure the user group becomes comfortable with the new system implementation.

"Yes, I would recommend SYSPRO. SYSPRO is a platform that we continue to enhance due to its inbuilt flexibility. I don't have a wide knowledge of other ERPs, but I can tell you that SYSPRO is working for us," concluded Bridges.