Catching up with fast-moving world

By ADAM GIFFORD

Fast-growing farm equipment manufacturer and distributor Tru-Test is importing expertise from the United States to help it to install a new JD Edwards OneWorld enterprise resource planning system.

Managing director Des Scott said as part of its assessment process Tru-Test asked JD Edwards for reference customers running similar businesses.

"They located an electronics company in Oklahoma, FW Murphy, which had gone from zero to full ERP. It was a business which seemed very analogous to us in size and capability and it seemed a good fit," Scott said.

"We figure it sometimes costs less to pay more so as risk minimisation we are bringing over one of the US JD Edwards people who implemented that site."

Tru-Test is expected to list on the stock exchange late this year.

An integrated tier-one ERP system will certainly help with reporting in the public company environment, rather than the eight IT systems and three ERP systems the company uses now.

Scott said the new system would cost several million dollars, including internal costs, but would pay for itself within two years.

"We have $7 million in gross margins just sitting in our factories because we don't have the systems. Even large businesses are running on spreadsheets."

Tru-Test started out making dairy herd testing equipment, but in the late 1980s branched out into electric fencing and other agricultural equipment, protecting it from cyclical downturns in any particular farm sector.

Among its many brands are Speedrite, Stafix and Pel electric fences, Cyclone fencing and wire products and Hayes tools. It has more than 10,000 products on its shelves. Even though we are a multinational, so we hold inventory in the headquarters as well as in the subsidiaries, our rate of stock turn is too low. It is only two now, and we would like it to be six or eight," Scott said.

While the contract was signed only last week, Tru-Test staff have been working with implementer Cap Gemini Ernst & Young for three months to build the system using an accelerated implementation approach.

The system will run on Windows NT on an SQL Server database on Hewlett-Packard hardware.

Scott said the new system would allow Tru-Test to move rapidly to electronic commerce.

"The reality is our customers will force us to. Half a dozen of our major customers are there and waiting for us. I wish we had it two years ago."