A single source of truth transforms business operations

An Australian owned company operating in global markets since 2004, Makinex is an expert in the design, development and distribution of innovative construction, landscaping and infrastructure products for the global construction, landscaping and equipment hire industries. The company strives for continuous improvement and offers unique, innovative and practical product solutions that provide contractors and tradespeople with more efficient ways to do their jobs while saving time, physical effort and money. With plans to expand the existing designed product range, and a commitment to ongoing research and development, Makinex seeks to make an impactful difference on the global construction industry through the provision of truly unique and innovative Australian designed quality products.

Challenge

Makinex had experienced tremendous recent growth in local and global markets, particularly with its own line of designed and manufactured products. During this rapid growth period, technology and systems had not developed to meet the increasing information demands from management, staff and customers.

With the company operating a variety of systems and spreadsheets across multiple platforms, a lack of real-time data and blind spots for reporting constrained performance. Staff couldn’t access the correct end user tools to undertake their roles, and visibility into performance of the growing business was difficult to acquire due to time-consuming manual processes. A lack of integration between operations and other departments, and fractured customer/supplier processes, meant employee productivity and customer satisfaction levels were reduced.

Makinex recognised that their basic accounting system was no longer suitable for their growing business. The company required a comprehensive solution to integrate their data and share information across their global operations.

Solution

To meet Makinex’s growing needs, DXC Oxygen recommended the implementation of SAP Business by Design, an integrated, cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, designed to provide business processes across application areas from financials to human resources, with embedded business analytics, mobility and e-learning.

Implemented across their global sites, this cloud-based ERP solution would offer the organisation:

• Instant access to consistent real-time data and reports;

• Streamlined reporting for the accounting team; and

• Improved communication with staff and customers.

In partnership with DXC Oxygen, Makinex rolled out SAP Business ByDesign as a single, integrated ERP cloud solution covering all functions of the business in Australia, the USA and UK.

Results

The real-time analytics dashboard provides Makinex with significantly improved management oversight and full visibility across global operations. It also allows detailed transactional analysis and ensures the company can deliver on customer goals while maintaining more consistency in their deliverables.

Management can delegate day-to-day tasks to key users and focus more on strategy. The solution has enhanced business processing across the board, with clear accountability between departments. It has also provided users with access to one system interface, enabling them to better support customers.

Cash flow has improved due to timely and accurate system processes from customer orders through to payment. The business has better insight into stock availability and manufacturing cost control with the ability to create more accurate forecasts across all geographies.

It provides insights to support better decision making, and delivers the relevant contextual information at the point where the job gets done. This includes access to more accurate and timely monthly reporting for the accounting team due to streamlined workflows.

Makinex can now fully leverage its business data to better understand business trends, success drivers, and critical situations, and overall, both customer and staff satisfaction levels have improved.

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