On Schedule and on the Mark, Aquilon
Software Delivers Results for Nautilus

Nautilus has been designing and manufacturing systems for underground mining vehicles since 1978. Specific areas of expertise include proximity detection, radio and teleremote control, and automatedguidance. Their systems are sold through distributors worldwide, including Australia, Africa, Europe and North America.

Significantly, Nautilus is bucking a worldwide trend. While the mining industry is experiencing a downturn due to slower growth in China, the company itself is doing really well. Great products and customer service combined with operational excellence continue to foster growth.

The issue

As general manager, Alex has responsibility for efficient and effective operations. When he started in his position three years ago, he was faced with an aging batch accounting system that was very time-consuming for staff. “It was difficult to input information,” says Alex, “and retrieving it was even more difficult.” Coupled with the excessive time spent in producing financial statements, doing manual inter-company transfers, and adjusting pricing to reflect labour costs in manufacturing, the time was ripe for a new computer system.

The Solution

It was during a conversation with a quality certification auditor that Aquilon Software was recommended as a possible solution. Alex decided to look at Aquilon, along with five or six competitive options. In the end, he chose Aquilon due to its close fit with their needs, the ability to handle inter-company transfers easily, the attention to Nautilus’ detailed requirements by the Aquilon team, and their straight-forward answers to questions. “I was told straight up that conversion and implementation would take a month,” says Alex, “giving me a realistic sense of what to expect.” The competitive vendors weren’t as forthcoming, nor were they as price-competitive.

Implementation

Having heard software implementation horror stories from colleagues, Alex felt quite stressed prior to implementation. Initially the plan was to keep both the old and new systems running for a month to catch any discrepancies. But things went so smoothly that Nautilus was able to reduce the period of overlap to a few weeks. Aquilon’s Support Manager led the implementation on-site, installing the software, converting necessary data, training staff, even making cheat sheets for them, and discussing implementation options with Alex as they arose. “In the end everything was on schedule” says Alex, “I was really impressed.” Today the new system is used across Sales, Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and Accounting. The inter-company transfers that were so burdensome in the old system are now a breeze with Aquilon, as are ad hoc information retrieval and financial reporting. With Aquilon, the system forces certain transactions such as inter-company transfers to be completed at month-end, before any transactions can be entered for the next month. “Not only are things more efficient,” concludes Alex, “but the system has imposed a discipline that gives us confidence in the accuracy of our financial reporting.”

At a glance

Challenges:

• An aging batch accounting system which was difficult to operate
• Time spent to produce financial statements
• Manual inter-company transfers
• Manual pricing adjustments

Outcome:

• Quick implementation and transition
• More efficient business operations as a result of Aquilon ERP
  • Simple inter-company transfers
  • Used across Sales, Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and Accounting.
  • Effective information retrieval
  • Trusted and accurate financial statements

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