Hadley Group, a European cold rolled steel manufacturer, has extended its portfolio of Infor solutions with an investment in Infor PM 10 (Performance Management) software. Hadley Group which had outgrown its Excel spreadsheet based system will deploy PM10 to its manufacturing sites in the UK and Germany in early 2010, and later roll it out to staff in Dubai and Thailand.
The Hadley Group rolls more than 125,000 tonnes of steel every year for international customers in industries including automotive, construction and aerospace. Infor says it It chose PM 10 because it could easily integrate with its existing Infor ERP Baan 5 software to provide some of the essential data feeds for the PM solution. PM 10 was also chosen because of its ability to deliver a complete end-to-end performance management solution, including budgeting, forecasting, planning, consolidation, reporting and analysis all from a single database to ensure data integrity. In order to help users readily adopt the new system, Hadley Group needed a solution that mimicked the look and feel of spreadsheets that users are used to.
Mike Collier, business systems manager, Hadley Group, explains: “In the current economic climate, moving to a rolling three month budgeting schedule, as opposed to analysing out-of-date annual plans, makes perfect sense for better business planning. Our adoption of PM 10 goes hand in hand with a change in our culture as we shift focus from a constant, time intensive analysis of our financial information to management by exception.”
To help identify these exceptions within the business, Hadley Group has also invested in Infor PM Application Studio for enhanced business intelligence.
Beyond performance management, The Hadley Group is also piloting an upgrade from Infor ERP Baan 5 to Infor ERP LN, the latest version of Baan. This is currently being conducted in a test environment in the UK before adopting and rolling out to other sites.
Collier concludes: “Technology is pervasive throughout our group – from the barcodes that track our goods-in right through to the PCs we have in the canteen that staff use to book time off for their own holidays. 2010 is a busy year for us with the roll out of our new PM and BI solution, the deployment of the Infor ERP software to more of our international operations, together with the evaluation of ERP LN. Hadley Group is constantly looking to improve its performance amidst tough trading conditions, and we are very confident of success.”
