How do you, as a growing organisation, retain control of your processes? While also reducing the amount of manual work that allows errors to creep in? Sibo Fluidra, a distributor specialising in connection materials for (swimming) ponds, swimming pools and sprinklers, was faced with the above challenges. SIBO Fluidra supplies a product range of over twenty thousand items to a large number of installers, retailers and online shops in more than fifty countries. Precisely Automate proved to be the key to enabling SIBO Fluidra to quickly and easily enter and update the data for all these products. Ctac assisted SIBO Fluidra in this task, helping to ensure that they got the most out of the software.
Laszlo de Kleijn
Datamanagement & Analytics adviseur
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Customer
SIBO Fluidra
Reading time
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The challenge
Lots of manual, error-prone work
SIBO Fluidra started in 1993 from a shed in Heeswijk-Dinther. But the organisation soon outgrew its premises. It moved first to a small industrial building and later to an even larger location. And when SIBO continued to expand and added a 1,000-square-metre warehouse at this larger location, the organisation faced an administrative monster task. “For that new warehouse, all locations and routings had to be created. Because for your processes, you need to know exactly where a product is and what the walking route is,” says John Serier, IT Administrator at SIBO Fluidra. “Then you’re talking about several thousand locations. All those locations had to be entered manually by someone. That person then spent a week doing that.”
"Ctac really thinks along with us."
John Serier, IT Administrator SIBO FluidraChoice of Ctac
Ctac implemented Precisely Automate at SIBO Fluidra and continuously helps the organisation to get the most out of the solution. “The cooperation with Ctac is very pleasant,” says Serier. “If we have a question, Ctac always comes quickly with the answer. They also actively think along with us. We started using Precisely Automate because we had a particular problem we wanted to solve. But Precisely can do much more. Ctac shows us that. They point out possibilities to us and help us look at how we can improve our processes. We appreciate that enormously about Ctac.”
About the project
20.000 products
A product range of 20,000 items. Each with their own variables. We moved from manual entry to a simple upload at the touch of a button.
Fewer mistakes
Less manual work means fewer mistakes. No more incorrect decimals points or commas. Or an order for 81 units instead of 18.
From days down to minutes
No more sitting manually entering data for days on end. With Precisely, we can apply 2,000 price changes in less than two minutes.
Solution
Easy input, fast action
SIBO Fluidra uses Precisely Automate mainly for work they used to do manually. Serier: “For example, when we need to change data on a large scale. Such as prices, article names and discounts. For every action for which we would have to do more than ten manual actions in SAP, we now use Precisely Automate.”
This process now runs smoothly within SIBO Fluidra. “We can usually work with fixed files and formats because we often make the same type of changes. The relevant departments deliver their data to me, I make sure it is entered into Precisely Automate.” For Serier, this process runs like clockwork. “If I get a file with two thousand price changes, it takes me less than two minutes to turn it on. After that, I can go back to doing other work. This is really ideal. If only all my work was that simple,” he laughs.
Wondering what your organisation can achieve with Precisely Automate?
Looking at SAP S/4HANA
SIBO Fluidra is looking beyond current needs. We have been looking at longer-term options for some time now. Serier: “We’ve been inching towards replacing the ERP and WMS systems for several years. We’re currently still using SAP ECC, and we’re exploring where we want to move to. It could be SAP S/4HANA, as Precisely Automate integrates seamlessly with it. If we go down that route, we’ll definitely look at what other options the software provides, including its deployment for the migration to SAP S/4HANA, and see how we can set that up.”
"Ctac is a very pleasant partner and supports us optimally. Ctac is definitely a partner that can support us in the future more than just with Precisely Automate."
John Serier, IT Administrator SIBO Fluidra
