British Motor Heritage in Restoration Boom In 2012, with the London Olympics success and the Queens Jubilee celebrations, we have seen

many reminders about the wonderful heritage and history of Great Britain. APH Computers

client, British Motor Heritage have based their whole business on, as the name suggests,

celebrating British Motoring Heritage. They manufacture a unique range of parts for classic

British Cars at their factory based in Witney, Oxfordshire. The parts are made using the original

tooling and drawings where possible and demand has never been greater for restoring British

Classics like: Triumph Stag, Morris Minor, MG sports cars and of course the original Mini.

With customer demand growing, the need to track inventory with a greater degree of accuracy

had become a necessity and 4 years ago the decision was made to invest in SAP Business One

Enterprise Resource and Planning software. British Motor Heritage are not stopping there, they

are also planning to fully integrate all the manufacturing labour costs. In 2013 the company plan

to start using PPS One the well-known and SAP approved manufacturing add on. SAP the global

software developers have been keen to highlight the success of British Motor Heritage and

selected this implementation as one to use within a global customer case study. The details of

which can be downloaded from our website in the downloads section. Wherever you are in the

world, if you are restoring a Classic British Car and need original parts visit www.bmh-ltd.com to

find a local British Motor Heritage parts dealer.

This issue

Our British Motoring Heritage P.1 Technology Helping Reduce Transport Costs P.2

Is Manufacturing the Answer? P.3

NEW OFFICE LOCATION

During September APH Computers

made a big move to new offices

(well 200 yards away from the old

location). Our new office facilities

will allow us to provide customers

with a greater range of IT support

and training services, whilst still

having local IT engineers available

for our North West based

customers.

Our new address is:

APH Computers Limited, Glencroft House Vale Road Heaton Mersey Stockport SK4 3QR Tel 0161 442 2603 enquiries@aphcomputers.co.uk

www.aphcomputers.co.uk

APH Computers Newsletter Providing Business IT Solutions, Support and Services. ISSUE 01 Autumn 2012

Technology Solutions Saving Transport Costs In the transport industry with constantly

increasing fuels costs, the search is always

on for different ways of reducing operational

costs, without compromising customer

service levels and on time delivery.

Arclid Transport based locally in Cheshire, a

longstanding client of ours, are no exception.

With a constantly changing delivery

schedule, ‘information on the move’ is vital

for controlling day to day operational costs.

Misinterpreting instructions is the last thing

you want if you’re driving a 29 tonne

articulated tanker. A common mistake that

could easily be rectified in a hatchback , with

a quick three point turn (in line with the

highway code).

Not so easy for one of Arclid Transport’s

deliveries, with on time delivery

performance often being monitored by

clients, the room for error is a lot less.

The latest updates to the Global scheduling

systems in use at Arclid Transport helps

reduce this type of avoidable but easily

made mistake to lower level.

Instead of communicating any last-minute

change of instructions to drivers already en

route simply by verbal phone messages, the

APH software system implemented now has

the ability to send the new details by text

message to the mobile phone in the cab.

This means that the driver has a record of all

the details they may need later in the day for

any second and third deliveries. Including

booking in times, specific drop off

instructions or actual changes in delivery

address.

An example of a cost effective systems

update that can help clients reduce

operational costs and allow them to

compete in this extremely competitive

industry, where every minute and on time

delivery counts.

Arclid Transport have been providing

haulage services for over 40 years and are

part of the Bathgate group of companies.

APH Computers have been providing

Information Technology services to the

group for over 15 years.

The best time to call?

With a customer list that includes

most of the major UK banks and

supermarkets, scheduling

maintenance visits is a vital task for

Contacta Systems Ltd. Their Global

software for controlling service

delivery is integrated with tablet

PC’s used by the engineers and the

sales order processing system. This

provides them with an interactive

link to Google Maps that allows

schedulers to selectively display calls

in the same area, and maximise

engineer utilisation.

TRACKYOU……

Follows SAP Business One

New customer, TrackYou Limited,

based in Wrexham supply innovative

vehicle and asset tracking solutions

for their clients.

After reviewing the marketplace for

suitable SME business software they

decided to implement an 8-user SAP

Business One solution. The solution

will support the internal business

processes in finance, sales,

purchasing and service. With a

scheduled go live date of April 2013

we would like to welcome

TRACKYOU to our growing number

of local SAP Business One clients.

Forgot your postcode? Could this actually delay your order ?

In life it is sometimes the smallest things that can have the biggest knock on effect, an

effect that maybe unseen and underestimated by most. With most carriers working off

the postcode provided for delivery, the need to always have an accurate postcode is

now a pre-requisite for quick and cost effective shipping to your customers.

Come on who hasn’t made a guess at the postcode when placing an order?

Working with a client who operates in the B2C sector and uses SAP Business One

software we have developed an integrated ‘postcode look up feature’ this allows the

sales administrator to check the postcode against the delivery address given. Speeding

up sales order processing and keeping a high customers service level.

If you think your sales order processing could benefit from this facility please let us

know. E Mail enquiries@aphcomputers.co.uk

What is the future for UK Manufacturing ?

When JBC Industrial Services based

in Leeds first approached us to

discuss their business software

requirements their business model

made them different than the

majority of SAP Business One users.

JBC provide complete energy

solutions for both the private and

public sector. This includes customer

specific design, installation and

ongoing maintenance of heating

systems. With production of

pipework done off site ready for on

site installation, the business

required assistance with the ability

to cost these customer specific

projects accurately.

The recent implementation of a 25

user SAP Business One solution has

also included a flexible and SAP

approved Add on called Enprise Job

Costing. The addition of this Job

Costing functionality has allowed JBC

to take advantage of and gain the

efficiencies from using the best

business practices that are within

SAP Business One software for core

business processes in Finance,

Production Sales, Purchasing and

Service. Many manufacturing &

engineering companies in the SME

market may see Enterprise, Resource

and Planning software as only for

MTS/MTO standard manufacturing.

However engineering companies

working in a Job Costing and Project

environment can also have a good

quality fit from standard proven

software. Contact us for more details

in relation to Enprise Job Costing for

SAP Business One users.

It would be safe to say that over a long

period UK Manufacturing has suffered at the

hands of other growing nations. With the

world becoming a truly global marketplace,

this makes it extremely difficult for

traditional mass manufacturing to continue

and be competitive in the UK.

With the squeeze on public sector jobs and

the implosion of the banking sector then it is

of no surprise that all these problems put UK

Manufacturing firmly in the background.

With the occasional Isolated snippets of

good news for manufacturing that are seen

only to be dampened by announcement of

more job losses and closure at another

manufacturing site nearby.

What about all the British companies that

provide services to the Manufacturers in the

UK? This is often the ripple effect that does

not make the headlines but these companies

also need a growing manufacturing base in

the UK. The 1% growth in the economy seen

in the last QTR is encouraging, but is still a

long way from anything resembling security

for manufacturing.

As a provider of software systems and IT

services, with an estimated 50% involved in

manufacturing, you would expect the attack

on manufacturing in the UK to have filtered

through to companies like us?

Well for APH Computers the answer to this is

“No, not really”. The percentage of the

customers in manufacturing has continued

at this level. Possibly even more surprising is

that it’s increasing! Specifically recent

additions to the customer base include

Manchester and Leeds based clients working

in Engineering and Automotive Parts

Production.

This trend maybe partly due to the

advancements in manufacturing

functionality available as standard in

affordable ERP software for the small and

medium sized marketplace.

For SAP Business One the level of

functionality that is included within

approved ‘manufacturing add ons’ like PPS

One make the solution a real competitor for

other well established, larger and more

expensive ERP software packages, previously

considered by UK manufacturers.

Another recent piece of news from within

the manufacturing sector which makes an

attempt to halt the waves of sobering news,

include.:

Morgan sports cars a very British

manufacturing brand have expanded the

chain of dealerships located in China. After

an initial launch the success and popularity

of these bespoke sports cars has allowed for

this planned roll out of dealerships. One not

so obvious advantage of a truly global

marketplace.

A UK Manufacturing company that has a

secure business management solution or

ERP software that supports the day to day

operations will always help towards the

future of manufacturing in the UK.

For more details on Manufacturing solutions

and the functionality available with PPS One

and SAP Business One contact us.

Making sense of the signs coming from UK Manufacturing and

welcoming some new and often surprising global customers.

Job Costing requirements

for SAP Business One

Question: Why is Business

Analytics seen as software

for large companies only?

Prohibitive costs of the software and

not having available IT resource are

two reasons why some SME

Businesses would agree with the

above statement.

SAP have recently made the SAP

Hana Business Analytics platform

available for SAP Business One, a

leading SME solution.

The increases in volumes of company

data, number of transactions and

product ranges needed by companies

within the SME market, reaffirms the

thought that the need has always

been there for certain SME’s that are

drowning in data. With this latest

new offering SAP Business One users

can get access to previously unseen

trends in their company data, to

reduce risk and take advantage of

opportunities. All without blowing

the whole years IT budget at once.

Newsletter Autumn 2012

If you have any interesting articles linked to SME manufacturing, IT systems and computers

that support them please let us know and email details to newsletter@aphcomputers.co.uk.

Get your Article Published in Future APH Computers Newsletters

From April 2013, employers will be legally required to report PAYE in real time. This means

that information about all PAYE payments needs to be submitted to HMRC online each time a

payment is made as part of the payroll process, rather than at the end of the year. This major

change in reporting is already being developed into future releases of our Payroll software.

Payroll reporting is changing - operating PAYE in real time.

Microsoft is releasing the latest version of its Windows OS, Windows 8. Unlike previous

installments of the ubiquitous software, Windows 8 is also optimized for use on tablets, and

features an integrated app store (sounds familiar……).

Microsoft Windows 8 release.

A host of new features are eagerly anticipated within the next release of SAP Business One

software (version 9) ,which is due for release in the next 2-3 months, more details should be

available within the next APH Computers Newsletter.

SAP Business One Version 9 release.

Upcoming Events

APH Computers Limited

Glencroft House

Vale Road,

Heaton Mersey,

Stockport

SK4 3QR

Tel 0161 442 2603

www.aphcomputers.co.uk

E mail enquiries@aphcomputers.co.uk