11 Mar Pienaar Bros

“We have been very happy with Brilliant Link’s service. They have helped every step of the way and implemented everything we needed. With any hiccups or limitations in terms of Sage Evolution functionality, Brilliant Link found ways to work around it. This project has been a complete success.”

James Braun, Group logistics and stock manager at Pienaar Bros

Executive summary

Pienaar Brothers, a supplier of personal protective equipment in South Africa, was using an ERP software solution that was being discontinued, and thus led them to investigate alternative solutions. Pienaar Bros has over 300 employees and 180 users of their ERP system, of which 100 to 120 are on the system concurrently at any point in time. The company has 14  branches throughout Southern Africa and multiple warehouses within each branch.

What needed to be done

Group logistics and stock manager at Pienaar Bros, James Braun, explains that their existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software was being discontinued which led to the company investigating new solutions. Pienaar Brothers also needed an ERP solution which would integrate with their existing stock issue system. The existing software required a manual integration process which not only left room for human error but also required a great deal of micromanagement.

“Sage Evolution made the most sense as an ERP solution. It was competitively priced and it could fill all our needs,” he says. Sage suggested five service providers to Pienaar Brothers who could implement Sage Evolution for them. Each company had to present and provide a quotation that was specific to Pienaar Bros’ needs.

“We were extremely impressed with Brilliant Link as they were professional, highly experienced and their quotation was competitive,” says James. “We narrowed the field down to two companies and in the second on-site meeting, Brilliant Link was far superior in terms of professionalism and experience. After that, there was no question in our minds that they were the best company for the job.”

How did we help?

The entire project ran from late May 2017 and was completed in early December 2017. Sage Evolution was implemented at all 14 branches at the same time. Brilliant Link set up a country-wide training programme for Pienaar Bros staff. A fully integrated Sage Evolution ERP and on-site issue software ensure there is no room for mismanagement of stock or account management.

“The ERP was successfully implemented over a weekend requiring only one business day of downtime. On the first day of ‘Go-Live’ we processed over 300 invoices and more than 200 separate supplier invoices. We are also using Sage Branch Accounting very successfully, allowing for the management of each branch individually as well as providing for superb control of inter-branch transfers,” says James.

The system offers Pienaar Bros significantly more flexibility, particularly with regard to reporting and document templates. Sage Evolution has superb integration with Excel to export reports, manipulate data and drill down into reports.

Result for Pienaar Bros

SInce the implementation of Sage Evolution, Pienaar Brothers has also undergone a change management process. This has brought to light multiple business processes in the company which needed to be addressed. There were areas of no accountability and traceability with the old system and therefore no red flags were raised. Sage Evolution has provided the company with a new level of control.

Brilliant Link has since designed a customised application to deal with Pienaar Brothers’ unique business process which allows them to maintain control while still maintaining efficiency to suit the business’ needs.

James says Brilliant Link’s service has put them in a class of their own. “Brilliant Link has upskilled me significantly throughout the implementation. The intention was never to sustain the requirement for ongoing support but to rather empower us to learn the system from front-end to back-end which has far exceeded our expectations.”