About Ercol
Ercol Furniture Ltd is a third-generation family business founded in 1920, which designs, manufactures and sells furniture for the living, dining and bedroom space in the home.
The Challenge
Like many businesses, Ercol had implemented a legacy system around the year 2000, to address the risks of Y2K compliance.
Despite the business changing significantly since the original implementation, the legacy system had not been developed further, with the system ultimately being sold onto another vendor. Ercol, therefore, found themselves one of only approximately 25 users of the software remaining in the UK. The business had, therefore, become reliant on an increasing number of offline systems (mainly spreadsheets) to support processes. A specialist CRM solution had also been implemented to support Customer Service processes, but this was not integrated with other systems.
The Support Provided
AHC was engaged, as independent ERP consultants, to undertake a detailed review of Ercol’s processes and define its requirements for a new ERP system. We then helped Ercol identify and evaluate ERP vendors / systems with the functionality to address Ercol’s requirements.
Once a vendor and system was identified, we supported the implementation of the chosen ERP system at Ercol, providing project management and change management support.
David Finch
Managing Director, Ercol Furniture Ltd.
We engaged AHC to work with us to review our business processes, tender and select our new ERP system and to assist with the implementation process. We selected to AHC due to their extensive ERP market knowledge, independence and cultural fit with our organisation.
Jacqueline’s help was invaluable throughout our ERP project bringing independent and informed knowledge to the table. Her thorough and methodical approach to the ERP software tender and selection process ensured that we made the right decisions. Her support during implementation involved liaising with the vendor consultancy team, documenting agreed configuration and keeping the project team focused on agreed new ways of working / business processes.
