Efficiency and Accuracy for Northern Diver with Eureka Solutions and Sage 200 Professional

Northern Diver International Ltd specialises in the manufacturing, retail and distribution of all things scuba diving across the recreational, commercial, rescue and military sectors, as well as equipment for other water sports such as surfing and open water swimming.

For over 45 years, Northern Diver’s reputation as one of the world’s leading drysuit and scuba diving manufacturers has gone from strength to strength. Headquartered in Wigan, Northern Diver place customer service at the heart of everything it does, and services those customers via their ecommerce website and other ecommerce platforms such as eBay and Amazon, as well as having a fantastic retail space at the site in Wigan, close to the M6.

SEEKING BUSINESS CONTINUITY 

The finance team at Northern Diver had already been using Sage 200 as their core financial software for a number of years prior to approaching Eureka Solutions for assistance. Eureka Solutions’ experienced Sage 200 team has a well-deserved reputation for ensuring business are getting the most out of their business management software, and Northern Diver were keen to start working with them. 

“As Sage 200 is critical to our business performance, it was important that there was a smooth transition to help to mitigate business disruptions.”

Marcin Czerniawski, Financial Controller, Northern Diver International Ltd

As the first step, Eureka Solutions consultants undertook an in-depth audit of Northern Diver’s existing system and gained a thorough understanding of the business. The primary recommendation was to upgrade Northern Diver’s Sage 200 solution to the latest version of Sage 200 Professional, and in doing so benefit from improved functionality that would address many of Northern Diver’s frustrations with their existing set up. The recommendations also included some custom development and the introduction of the Eureka Addon Data Exchange to connect Sage 200 to other key systems used by Northern Diver and to further automate manual processes.

Upgrading Functionality for Tangible Efficiency Wins

Since the audit and subsequent smooth implementation of the upgrade to Sage 200 Professional, Marcin and his team have enjoyed the many benefits that come with the more recent versions of the solution. As Marcin explains,

“Upgrading to Sage 200 Professional has made a massive difference to our day-to-day operations as a finance team, and across the wider business. The new screens, the cross-selling functionality, improved bank reconciliation and purchase order authorisation functionality are among the many features that benefit the type of business that we run. The new version of the software enhances the efficiency of our work and helps with decision making.”

Sage 200’s role-based access is also of great benefit to Northern Diver. Of the 55 employees, 33 have access to Sage. Marcin and his team have access to the entire functionality of the system, while their colleagues – for example, salespeople, warehouse staff and the customer service team – enjoy access to the different areas of the system that they need to do their particular tasks.

Sage 200 is ideal for a light manufacturing and distribution business such as Northern Diver. As well as the core Financial Module capabilities, Northern Diver’s set up includes the Commercials Module with its advanced stock management functionality, the Bill of Materials Module with its combined stock assembly and process costing functionality and Sage CRM, used by the marketing team.

DATA EXCHANGE FROM EUREKA ADDONS 

In addition, the Eureka Addon Data Exchange has transformed the efficiency of the operation by automating the transfer of data to and from Sage 200 and other key systems that the business uses – the ecommerce website and other ecommerce platforms, the warehouse management system and the customer repair management system – cutting down on errors and manual processes, saving significant amounts of time and resource.

“There’s so much information being processed by Data Exchange every day. Without this software we would need to utilise additional resources either from within or outside the business, and it would be very difficult to manage this accurately. Data Exchange is very important to our business. It helps with handling our ‘Big Data’.”

Marcin Czerniawski, Financial Controller, Northern Diver International Ltd

WORKING WITH EUREKA SOLUTIONS

The Northern Diver team are always on the lookout for ways to improve their efficiencies and increase their understanding of Sage 200. They are in frequent contact with the Eureka Solutions Support Team and their designated Account Manager. As Marcin explains,

“We really like working with Eureka Solutions, we are confident that they are the leading partner in the Sage landscape and their knowledge about the software is second to none. Whenever we need them to, they promptly connect remotely and see what needs doing. The communication and level of support we get from Eureka Solutions is excellent.”

FUTURE PLANS

Northern Diver also uses Sage CRM, however, currently this is used primarily by their marketing department. Future plans include working with Eureka Solutions to scope the additional value the CRM functionality could bring to the business with the automation of further processes via seamless integration with Sage 200, and in support of Northern Diver’s aim to move to full digitisation of company records in the near future.