News & Events

5 June, 2017

As the Management and Directors of APS looked closely at their options, they decided that SAP Business One, from SAP partner FUEL was the best Management Software Solution for them.

Aluminium and Plastics Systems (APS) is a privately owned company, and has grown from 14 staff in 2001, to 37 employees today. The five directors who originally set-up the company have a wealth of experience in the Aluminium, and PVC Industries.

APS is one of the fastest growing “architectural systems” companies in the country, distributing throughout the UK and Ireland. To reinforce this, the company has released its impressive growth figures of 20% increase in business in the last 2 years in the Republic of Ireland, and a massive 300% increase in Scotland. Although the Scottish business has developed from a lower starting point, it’s still a very substantial level of success.

The Company’s main growth has been in its architectural projects success. This is a direct result of in-house expert knowledge and an impressive track record. Recent successful projects include the new state of the art, GAA National Games Development Centre in West Dublin, The Titanic Apartments in Belfast, and all new Applegreen Garages throughout the island of Ireland.

The board of APS have seen the company storage facility grow, from a small corner of an empty warehouse, to their own purpose 60,000 Sq foot automated distribution centre.
This young and dynamic company have no intension of resting on their past, and have embarked on some very ambitious expansion plans for the future, both here and further afield.

To manage and control this expected growth they needed to upgrade their Financial and Sales Management platform. Their old and now dated Pegasus Opera II Software, with a costly supported bolt-on, needed to be replaced with a more modern solution that would provide their required functionality, and much more as standard.

As the Management and Directors of APS looked closely at their options, they decided that “SAP Business One”, from Craigavon based SAP partner FUEL, was the best Management Software Solution for them. SAP Business One will provide them with the functionality they require without the need for any additional bespoke programming, and additional costly support. SAP Business One will provided much more functionality as standard, and is totally up-scalable – a very important aspect for APS considering the growth targets the company is actively pursuing.

The nature of APS’s business requires them to purchase raw material from Asia. This is then manufactured into various aluminium extrusions. This requires a considerable amount of government legislative paperwork, and accurate time consuming calculations. With SAP Business One, APS will now accomplish this instantly, saving countless hours per person, every week. Not only seen as a considerable saving in time, replacing the human element of these lengthy calculations will provide a much higher level of accuracy.

APS will also benefit from an integrated CRM solution from SAP partner Boyum that will utilise more of the built-in functionality of Microsoft Office. This will provide the everyday familiarity of the Microsoft software, and yet be fully integrated with the SAP Business One back office financial software. This will negate the need for a full standalone Sales and Marketing solution that would require additional licencing investment.

Ryan Smyth, SAP Business One Consultant at FUEL, says, – “Some months ago we won the contract to refresh APS’s hardware infrastructure. That provided us with the opportunity to confirm our level of professionalism, and our technical ability. We’re delighted that APS have built upon that trusted relationship and have decided to award us with a contract to deliver their new SAP Business One financial management solution”.

“When I first looked at SAP Business One, my initial concern was with my perception of the required investment in a system that had functionality on an enterprise scale. I am not exaggerating when I say, I was pleasantly shocked at the price of SAP Business One compared with the other more common, and better known accounting solutions. We are delighted with our investment, and its potential to grow with company. Having engaged FUEL to refresh our hardware some months ago, we are looking forward to working with them again in the future”, remarks Gary McNeil, MD of Aluminium & Plastics Supplies.