Agricultural machine manufacturer CTM Harpley Engineering is looking forward to landing more contracts, boosting efficiency and raising customer service levels, thanks to a new business software solution from Access Supply Chain.
 
Established in 1950 when Charles Thomas Mountain built his first sugar beet cleaner-loader, CTM Harpley now manufactures a range of agricultural machinery from its factory in Norfolk.
 
The company was using a Unix-based package for accounts and manufacturing processes, but it also relied heavily on spreadsheets and a Microsoft Access database for customer information. It looked at several software suppliers before deciding to award the contract to Access Supply Chain.
 
“In terms of functionality, the Access Supply Chain system offers everything we need and more,” said Andrew Mountain, director and grandson of the founder. “What’s more, it offers terrific value for money, not just in upfront cost but also for ongoing maintenance and support. That’s crucial to a business like ours.”
 
“Our existing software was becoming obsolete and we reached a point where we knew we had to change,” said Andrew. “But that wasn’t the only reason to look for something better - we’ve also started to take on more subcontract fabrication work and needed a way to manage that more efficiently, plus we had two separate customer databases, Microsoft and Unix, with no way of linking the two.”
 
A particular attraction is Access Supply Chain’s 10-stage implementation plan. “We were very impressed by this. When our existing system was installed about 10 years ago, the implementation totally disrupted the business,” he said. “I firmly believe you have to spend time to ensure the implementation is right. Access Supply Chain’s people are really switched on to that part of the process.”
 
CTM Harpley has diversified to mirror the changes in farming and as well as manufacturing harvesting and crop cleaning machinery, the Norfolk-based company acts as UK agent for a leading German supplier. And diversification has not stopped at agriculture – the company spotted a gap in the waste management market and designed a recycling machine to sort building site waste, so ‘harvesting’ valuable hardcore material.
 
Planning for the new Access Supply Chain implementation has just begun and CTM Harpley aims to go live in May. “We are really looking forward to it,” said Andrew. “The new system will make a huge difference in terms of greater efficiency – one system running the whole business, instead of several that don’t link together. And the aspect that will really make it fly is CRM. We will be able to integrate the customer databases into one, and that will enable us to see up-to-date contract data, prospective customer information, and much more.”