One stop IT and Sage 200 support for Ireland's leading cutting tool specialist Flatley OSG

To sustain this level of growth and ensure its IT systems and processes work for both the business and its customers, Flatley knew it had to upgrade its IT approach. The company already had Sage 200 and the manufacturing add-on in place; with separate providers employed locally to support Flatley’s Sage software and IT support requirements.

However, as the company has invested and scaled quickly, its needs became more complex as Assistant General Manager Jason Beirne explains: “We’ve used Sage software as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for about 16 years. It has been used to support the manufacturing, distribution and finance areas of our business as well as for reporting purposes although never to its full potential.

“Historically, our two providers helped us to create workarounds to meet our needs but having been taken over by a blue-chip company and growing quickly, business continuity fast became the priority with more complex back-up and disaster recovery requirements. And whilst we also had Colin, our very skilled onsite programmer, his time was being taken up unnecessarily with trivial IT fixes – things had to change. A more cohesive approach to IT was required, hence going out to market to source a new provider.”

The challenge was to find ‘one’ proven, professional provider for both Sage 200 support and IT services; one that is local to Flatley in the sense of being UK-based and, a company that delivers value for money.

“Pinnacle has ticked all of these boxes so far,” says Jason. He goes on to reveal the thorough review process they went through, recounting: “Initially, we looked at about nine companies, refining to four and then narrowing down to two. Pinnacle shone above everybody. The main reason for selecting Pinnacle was that they could offer both Sage 200 support and IT services meaning one point of contact and accountability.

“ethos, it was also important for us to be working with a ‘local’ partner. We didn’t just want a faceless supplier that liaises via email and presents time-difference challenges for our team. Pinnacle is the complete opposite!”

Following a period of consultancy, which involved reviewing Flatley’s whole IT structure including hardware, software and security as well as understanding its business requirements and future ambitions, Pinnacle delivered a financially viable hybrid solution that has given Flatley a robust and reliable IT infrastructure.

The solution comprised a blend of cloud-hosted services and an upgrade of an onsite server with a view to moving to a complete cloud scheme in the future. Implemented and configured to meet Flatley’s needs with an anti-virus software upgrade included, the migration was fully project managed by Pinnacle from start to finish with actions and deadlines for both parties communicated clearly by Amanda Sanderson, IT Services Business Development Consultant.

Pinnacle also supported during Covid. With Flatley being critical to the medical device supply chain, the company remained open for business throughout however, departments such as accounts and customer service started remote working.

Commenting on this, Jason said: “We did have Microsoft 365 but pre Covid only two people would have used Teams. The remote working process has pushed everyone into using it and working in a different way, which is a great benefit.”

Pinnacle ensured employee PCs were set up efficiently so they could access central systems. Jason adds: “As we’d never worked like this before there was a lot of setting up to do. Inevitably there were connectivity challenges but it allowed the team to get used to logging issues and solving them independently with Pinnacle’s support at every step. The team at Pinnacle are all very personable - you are not made to feel like another number.”

Once the IT infrastructure upgrade was complete, Siobhan Marley, Pinnacle Business Development Director, arranged for the company’s Sage 200 software to be upgraded to the latest version and is now working with the team at Flatley proactively to identify efficiency opportunities.

Explaining how the partnership works, Jason said: “We have a quarterly meeting with Siobhan to discuss any business and financial developments and also to share thoughts on, what we call, our ‘work in progress’ projects. Right now, we’re concentrating our efforts on making the software work harder from a chartered accounts perspective.

“We’re also reviewing the manufacturing side in terms of capacity planning, traceability and budgeting costs against actuals. Siobhan’s knowledge base is very apparent – not just in terms of software but also the manufacturing and accounting side of business.

“We’re always reaching for the stars here but Siobhan takes a realistic approach. Absorbing our manufacturing and operational processes, dissecting and spotting opportunity for potential efficiencies she handholds at every stage. She pushes us too so we’re able to make informed business decisions; presenting varying price point options and arranging demos to a digestible timescale.” Providing added reassurance, Pinnacle also monitors the client’s systems in the background taking a proactive approach to pre-empt any potential service disruption with the hardware.

Jason concludes: “The relationship with Pinnacle is truly a proactive partnership, we were looking for a company that provided good disaster recovery support and IT housekeeping in terms of end of life – we don’t want to be told we need to change 25 laptops all at once for example. What the team likes about Pinnacle is that they look at the whole picture. Now, our IT infrastructure is capable of expanding with us so we can move forward strategically, streamline our systems, track data and maximise growth – we’re looking forward to these next steps, with Pinnacle by our side.”