CUSTOMERS

SERVIRAIL
ServiRail find solution to growing pains

Company description

Established in 1994, Servirail is a privately owned Company with a turnover of £17M plus and employing over 200 people.   ServiRail is a national railway contractor specialising in railway signaling, telecommunications and civil engineering.  They are also one of the primary suppliers to Network Rail.

ServiRail are currently experiencing significant growth and envisage that their 2004 figures will top the £30M mark.  To mark this they were identified by the Sunday Times last year, as one of the fastest growing companies in the UK today.

Challenge

In this highly competitive market,  ServiRail had outgrown its existing financial accounting solution - Sage Line 50 and were finding that they couldn’t capture project costs efficiently and effectively, particularly with the large amount of projects they undertake at one time.

ServiRail realised that they needed a modern, scalable, financial accounting solution that also had the capability to manage project costs effectively.   The current system was adequate but the belief in the information provided was beginning to wane. Dean Stoutt – Financial Application Consultant for Servirail stated “Servirail didn’t need just a financial accounting system they needed a real business solution”

Selection process

ServiRail initially scanned the market for all suitable solutions, shortlisting from the initial ten mid range solutions chosen, to the four finalists.  These had all been chosen for the vertical experience and fit they had within this industry.

The eventual winner being Microsoft Business Solutions – Navision.  This solution was chosen on several key counts:-

• Partner experience and commitment to the market

• Partner personnel ability and knowledge

• Product fit for this industry sector

• Fixed price contract so ServiRail could manage their costs throughout the project and in future

• Microsoft and Metaphorix commitment to ongoing Research & Development

Solution summary

The solution at ServiRail is based upon Microsoft Business Solutions Navision including MetaBuild, the Metaphorix solution developed specifically for the Building and Construction industry.

Benefits:

• Flexible integrated system,  reduces management overhead compared to previous standalone systems

• Up to the minute real-time data allows ServiRail to accurately report on the status of any project

• Ability to tailor the solution to the specific requirements of ServiRail

• Ability to integrate with other applications, particularly Excel for management reporting

• The need for journals, project costs and independent aggregation of costs

• Multi dimensional analysis of data from different departments

Day to day

Now three months after go live, Servirail have identified several key areas that it is helping them improve their business management and reporting. 

The core financial accounting solution is very strong and the ability to ‘slice and dice’ data to provide management and project information is invaluable. 

The ability to view project information from different users perspectives is something they now can’t do without, providing differing views of data for the Financial Director, Quantity Surveyors and Project Director.

Also the ability to drill down and look at information in detail is proving very useful for ServiRail.

The ability for the Quantity Surveyors to manage and authorise their purchase orders remotely, saves a great deal of time and duplication of effort.

The system is highly flexible and Stoutt likes the way that views can be customised by the user to their own specification.  He also likes the fact that more detailed changes can be made by Metaphorix and released via email so they can be integrated seamlessly.

ServiRail had already committed a significant amount of investment in their internal Microsoft infrastructure and hence they required a solution that would utilise this to best effect.   With Navision being a Microsoft solution, it sits on top of a Microsoft SQL database and has links to Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office.

Overall this is now providing ServiRail with better visibility across the whole business and allowing them to make more informed decisions in a timely fashion.

Conclusion

Working with Metaphorix, ServiRail has managed to consolidate a lot of its data into a single system, although as David Straw - ServiGroup Finance Director admits, they still have some way to go.  “All the systems currently implemented are new, due to the different timings on these projects; we have completely replaced or upgraded our existing systems.  The nice thing is that Navision has the capability to offer flexibility and scalability, which allows us to choose when to extend Navision functionality to other areas within our business”

Stoutt continued “The support from Metaphorix has been excellent and we are constantly kept abreast of the status of our support calls, this is particularly important when implementing a new system, as you can see trends appearing and areas where further training could be required”

ServiRail envisage significant growth in the future and feel that Navision provides them with the long term platform to build their business around.   “We view this as a true partnership and it is important that we have a partner we feel will able to support us not only today but into the future” 

Ian Cowan – Managing Director of Metaphorix closed by stating “We have built many successful relationships with our customers over the years, these are based on both trust and our ability to deliver true business solutions. We concur whole heartedly with ServiRail, that these business critical systems have to be part of a bigger picture, one where we are both pulling towards a global goal, which is to make sure both companies are successful, profitable, growth businesses that are here for the long term