"We've certainly seen some savings in the amount of time it takes to get information out," Ribbons says. "There are definitely time savings in being able to produce timely monthly board reports, and I think we'll start to experience more as users get more comfortable with the product."

Beyond a doubt

One area where there has been some user resistance is procurement, which has been converted from a ponderous, "nightmare" manual ordering system into a fully electronic procurement system. Linked in with the rest of the information in Vantage, the system has been able to automate processes such as purchase order generation based on current manufacturing consumption, and forecasting based on current outputs.

Ribbons concedes that getting all the company's users to embrace the new system has been "a challenge", but believes most have moved past their initial hesitance to move into an all-online workflow. More than 10,000 online Vantage help pages, bolstered with extensive, Bedford-created business documentation, provide an invaluable resource to help employees work through unexpected problems.

By guiding users through the new system and the company's new processes, the implementation team was able to direct the project with a gentle but firm hand. This philosophy has included efforts to stop users blaming the system when something goes wrong; with a complete audit trail now available for each transaction recorded in the Vantage system, investigations into data discrepancies usually point the finger elsewhere.