Kiowa
Customer Profile
Kiowa is one of the leading suppliers of components to OEM and Maintenance operations, servicing the Manufacturing, Food, Agricultural and Engineering industries throughout the UK. It is an independent, family-owned company, founded in 1991.
In addition to its core activity of assembling in-bought components, Kiowa also manufactures its own parts. Kiowa has an in-house plastic machining and fabrication department. It also has an extensive stock library and manufacturer database.
Key Achievements
Successfully
implemented the system in extremely tight timescale.
Have
enabled Kiowa's team to spend more time with customers, as a result
of S5's powerful features and processes.
The
benefits of the system are apparent to Kiowa's customers, not just
to themselves.
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Case Studies
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Key Features
Powerful Sales Order Processing
Warehouse Management
Flexible Price and Discount Options
Flexible Landed and Delivered Cost Handling
EDI Integration
More
Than The Sum Of The Parts 
Kiowa had experienced considerable growth in the first 7 years of its existence. At this point they hit a bottleneck with their existing IT and accounting systems at its centre. Business had more than doubled, but their IT business systems were not coping with increased volumes. Moreover, these systems were inflexible and time consuming to use.
To find out how de Facto S5 can benefit your business, Contact Us now on 01473 417 200 or Email Us.
Needed
- A System and Supplier Who Are Dynamic And Dependable!
Kiowa had developed a huge new catalogue of parts and products. With a failed investment in a new IT system, they needed to implement a new solution fast. Martin Needham, Managing Director of Kiowa said:
We
needed someone who we could trust, and someone who'd show extraordinary
commitment to us as a customer. It was obvious that De Facto Software
was that company, and that initial trust has been maintained ever
since. 
Quickly sizing up the requirements, the whole planning, implementation and training cycle was condensed into a mere 8 weeks, with De Facto specialists on hand whenever necessary.
No
Longer Limited by their Systems
Kiowa's old systems enforced ways of working which were rigid and limiting. With de Facto S5 the roles were reversed, their staff were in control of the system rather than being at the mercy of it. Martin elaborated:
With
de Facto S5 the system works for us, it's so much more customer orientated
than our previous one. When they approached us, De Facto said 'what
can we do to make your life easier?' We do a lot of assembly work,
it often took longer to bill the products than it did to assemble
them! Now the fly kitting facilities of S5 enable us to automatically
create works orders, deduct stock, pull through the customer discounts,
and it's costed at the same time. As a result, our people's jobs
have changed drastically. S5 has freed them up with its powerful
processes so that they can be more focussed on attending to our customers.
Again, setting up S5 so that it stops us going into negative stock
has enforced awareness of stock levels, and has focussed our teams'
minds on stock control. This is an area where previously we had a
lot of problems.
Power,
Flexibility, and Ease Of Use
Kiowa use practically the whole range of S5's modules and features, and have found many benefits since its introduction. Talking of S5's power, Martin says:
S5's
'base-on' facility is exceptional. It saves us so much time. Also
S5 Vistas, and Excel via ODBC are real winners for reports. Our customers
can have exactly what they want, in an easy to read format on paper,
or fully interactive in a spreadsheet.
S5 has proved that its flexibility is an asset too:
Its
flexibility suits our business, where we do both 'fly' and permanent
kitting, and use the system to handle all our production planning
too.
Their operation has really benefitted from S5's ease of use:
S5
is extremely user-friendly. It has logical screens, so things are
in the same position in similar screens. However something is done,
it will be done in a consistent manner elsewhere, saving time on
both learning and using the system.
Our
Customers Benefit from S5
Regarding S5's sales order entry system, Martin explained that his customers always remark to him:
'You
have an incredible system!' They are constantly asking us to retrieve
information, often from more than a year ago, and S5 enables us to
find it in an instant. And what's good for our customers is ultimately
good for us!
Support
You Can Trust
We
know that with De Facto, if we have an issue, then it will be dealt
with, and not left. Unlike many companies, De Facto sells and supports
their own product, and you can always talk to someone who knows -
it's that sort of organisation! We are really confident that if something
is needed from De Facto, then it will be done.
The
Ideal ERP and Accounting Software for Distribution Businesses
de Facto S5 has all the key features you need to handle Distributor activities, including powerful Landed Costs, Sales Order Processing, EDI Integration, Price and Discount Options, integrated Warehouse Management facilities, and more. S5 is the ideal ERP solution for any business that Distributes products.
To find out how de Facto S5 can benefit your business, Contact Us now on 01473 417 200 or Email Us.
