Komfort Partitioning
Komfort Partitioning Ltd design and manufacture internal glazed and solid partition systems with integrated doorsets.
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Company
Komfort Partitioning
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Industry
Manufacturing
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Locations
Birmingham, Leeds and Crawley
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Client Relationship
Since 2012
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Application Replaced
EFACS E/8 version 8.2
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Exel Solution
EFACS E/8 version 8.6.3
Business Imperative
The company’s experience with Exel Computer Systems’ EFACS E/8 ERP system dates back to 2012, when the business first implemented EFACS E/8. A reimplementation in April 2017—prompted by a corporate restructuring that saw Komfort move forward as a standalone business, rather than part of a larger group— allowed them to take advantage of extensive process-mapping, with the resulting EFACS E/8 system embracing Komfort’s company headquarters , manufacturing site, two combined sales offices and warehouses in Leeds and Crawley, Sussex.
But, by late 2020 the 2012 instance of the system—by then eight years old—had become somewhat dated, and business systems team leader Laura Anderson proposed to Komfort’s board that the company move to a newer iteration EFACS E/8 version 8.6.3. This was agreed in outline terms in February 2021, and work began to prepare the ground for the new system.
Challenge
There were several considerations involved. Komfort’s manufacturing and design database, for instance, was exceptionally large. How would it perform under the newer system? Newer versions of Microsoft Server and SQL Server also needed thinking about—as well as the new and potentially-useful functionality that they offered.
And of course, the EFACS E/8 system itself had evolved considerably since 2012. Again, there was the potential offered by new functionality to explore.
The biggest issue, though, was the question of hosting. Right from the start, Komfort’s EFACS E/8 system had been hosted. Komfort had become dissatisfied with the hosting provider.
“They weren’t especially good at communicating,” says Anderson. “They also weren’t as responsive to our requirements as we’d like.”
It wasn’t just EFACS E/8 that the company in question hosted, the same provider hosted all of Komfort’s hosted systems.
“The provider’s performance was no longer satisfactory,” she sums up. “We took the decision to move everything away from them—and identified a hosting provider that we preferred.”
But what to do about EFACS E/8, though? Exel Computer Systems offered its own hosting service, delivered through an experienced and trusted provider. And who better to host EFACS E/8, in short, than Exel Computer Systems’ own experts?
Accordingly, the decision was taken – everything would move away from the existing hosting provider and the hosting of EFACS E/8 would move to Exel Computer Systems’ own provider, Iomart.
And so, in August 2021, Komfort arranged for a test EFACS E/8 environment, in order to begin evaluating the operation of EFACS E/8 8.6.3.
Business Benefits
Calculating an ROI is problematic, notes Anderson.
“We needed to move to EFACS E/8 version 8.6.3, and a change of hosting providers—in and of itself—doesn’t yield an ROI. But we’re making use of new functionality, we’ve eliminated all the communication and responsiveness issues and we’re more resilient—so it’s definitely been a very positive move.”
And quite conceivably, she adds, Komfort may even make more use of EFACS E/8 functionality, in due course.
“Right from the start, we’ve been satisfied EFACS E/8 customers,” she sums up. “But that doesn’t mean that we’re not open to becoming even more satisfied EFACS E/8 customers.”
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Implementation
The evaluation process proved uneventful. There were no issues with the size of the database, nor with the latest versions of Microsoft Server and SQL Server, explains Anderson.
Furthermore, in terms of EFACS E/8 functionality, it became clear that—with a little customisation—Komfort could now make use of the capacity planning functionality contained in EFACS E/8, as opposed to using a solution that had been developed in-house some years before.
Moreover, explains Anderson, the only customisation required to achieve this was to transform some of the EFACS E/8 capacity planning reports into document formats that more closely resembled the internally-developed documents with which Komfort’s production staff were already familiar. Exel Computer Systems’ advanced customisation toolkit, she adds, rendered this customisation very straightforward.
Similarly, she explains, Komfort’s existing shop floor data collection (SFDC) systems had also been developed in-house. And again, it appeared likely that Komfort might be able to make use of the EFACS E8’s capability, and take advantage of its in-built SFDC functionality. Testing would be required in order to prove this, but the prognosis appeared favourable.
There was no need to delay further: in May 2022, Komfort placed the order to upgrade their EFACS E/8 test environment to a full production environment.
And in November 2022, the company went live with EFACS E/8 version 8.6.3, hosted by Exel’s own hosting partner.
Why Exel?
“It just felt right,” sums up Anderson, simply. “By this point, EFACS E/8 had become ‘business critical’, it was how we operated, linking all the parts of the business together.”
“And given the opportunity to have Exel Computer Systems’ own experts look after and support our EFACS E/8 instance, why wouldn’t you do that?”
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