Christian Berner
Christian Berner Upgrades Productivity With Epicor iScala
Christian Berner delivers advanced technical equipment, components, and materials from leading international manufacturers to its customer base of industrial and public sector organizations. It is an increasingly competitive industry, where customer service has become a key differentiator and essential tool for gaining market share.
The company has used the Epicor iScala enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to support its business operations and manage growth for around 20 years. iScala has enabled the business to scale up, as it has grown by more than 60 percent in the last decade. The company now operates from nine sales offices throughout the Nordic region—with five in Sweden, two in Finland, and one each in Norway and Denmark.
- “"iScala 3.1 is already paying for itself-it is so easy and straightforward. The support and continuous development received from Epicor continually reminds us that this is by far the best option for our business."”
Many of Christian Berner's customers are in the construction, infrastructure, paper, and energy industries where customer demand is increasing because of high capacity utilisation, which means greater wear and the need for ongoing maintenance.
To continue to grow at such a rate, Christian Berner recognized it needed to continually innovate and progress the technology it uses to support the business. There is a well-known saying in the business, “If we're not making progress, we're already on a downward slope.”
Not only does iScala underpin Christian Berner by providing the stability it needs to keep the business up and running, it also enables managers to spot patterns and sell more. “The extensive data availability provides critical sales information for our sales teams,” said Weimer Andersson, CIO of Christian Berner. “Staff are able to use iScala as a customer relation management (CRM) tool. They have full visibility of sales history when they are out in the field, which is accessible by all regional branches. It simply enables them to care more about the customer.”
Pain-free upgrade
“We decided to test iScala 3.1 as soon as it became available,” continued Andersson. “Epicor has a well-defined release plan for iScala, which enables us to keep one step ahead and run a structured test system within the business. With our test system, we can simulate a full upgrade to see what happens. iScala is such a good fit for our business, in nine out of ten upgrades, we find that everything runs fine from day one.”
Christian Berner also uses Epicor Service Connect-a central business integration platform for secure workflow orchestrations-to connect with other key business systems. The flexible architecture means it can run the iScala upgrade without risking the smooth operation of all the organizations' connected systems. Weimer commented, “The fact that any alteration we make is added outside of the system's core is absolutely key for us, as we never have to rework extensions. The core always remains intact, so there is no rewriting and no reinvestment. Thus, the need for extensive IT consultant services is kept to a minimum.”
iScala paying for itself
Andersson reported that they have already experienced many benefits from the decision to upgrade. “Our users love the new intuitive user interface. It is easier to keep track of windows and get a complete overview of what functions are activated. The new dashboard-style menu is easily accessible and can be quickly tailored. The quick search function is a hit with me, personally. It saves me so much time when I use it to support users.”
There has also been a substantial gain for the business in how intuitive the new user interface is. “People come and go, so we always have a requirement to educate and train new staff,” Andersson revealed. “We are able to get new users up to speed more quickly, enabling us to have a fully skilled workforce faster and more productive than ever before. This saves both time and money.”
“And-speaking of money-the regional payment capabilities and Single European Payment Area (SEPA) payment support also means that cross-border commerce is uncomplicated-supporting our expansion and business growth.”
“iScala 3.1 is already paying for itself-it is so easy and straightforward. The support and continuous development received from Epicor continually reminds us that this is by far the best option for our business. It's an ideal fit for Christian Berner. Simply put, iScala enables us to focus on growing our business, rather than the technology enabling it,” he concluded.
