How Construction Company Tubular Holdings Grew To A Leading Industry Player Tubular Holdings' CEO Tony Trindade shares insights on why streamlining operations drives growth.

Vital Stats

• Player: Tony Trindade, CEO
• Company: Tubular Holdings
• What they do: Suppliers of structural steelwork, mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, platework and piping services (SMEIPP) to mining, manufacturing and related sectors.
• Visit: www.tubular.co.za

Since its founding in 1979, Tubular Holdings has grown to become one of South Africa's leading construction players. But, after nearly four decades of turning over millions of rands, the company had outgrown its own capabilities.

It runs specialist equipment that was in need of maintenance without causing downtime; managing members of its highly-specialised workforce was becoming challenging; and administrating accounts payable and receivable had become cumbersome. Some operational changes were urgently needed.

Do away with disparity

Tubular Holdings is a massive operation. Its assets alone include over 100 mobile cranes, a fleet of specialist trucks and trailers, high-tech hydraulic platforms, "real-time' site offices and equipment stores, generators and delivery vehicles.

"If you consider our plant equipment operations, our specialist staff management needs and our material and commodity sourcing requirements against the backdrop of operating under stringent health, safety and quality controls, you can see why we needed to do away with some of our disparate systems and processes," Tony explains.

Twelve months ago, Tubular Holdings was running three separate business systems that covered its electronic resource planning and accounting and management needs. "The systems were not talking to each other, which made reporting very difficult to manage and we decided that we needed more clarity and visibility if we were going to grow the business further and extend our reach locally and across the continent."

The right tools for the job

"We're extremely specialist. We provide high-quality steelwork fabrication services, cladding, mechanical equipment erection, complete electrical instrumentation for furnaces and related areas of a site and the dismantling and erecting of silos, ducting and piping," Tony says.

He adds that the company decided first and foremost to find an electronic resource planning package (ERP) that would do away with the three disparate systems they had been using for years.

"Once we decided after many meetings with all our stakeholders that we were going to use Sage X3, we knew we needed to find a partner that was going to help us implement the systems we needed. We did not want to be in a position where we implemented an ERP system that offered no support or did not meet our needs."

Meeting needs

Tony says that any business that's looking to grow must regularly assess its ERP systems and how it influences operations.

"Throughout the various project phases and interactions with the Parity team, the choice we made in choosing Sage X3 as our ERP Platform for the future was reaffirmed. The software and expert implementation partner we have in Parity ensures that our business vision and the commitment to quality of workmanship that we are known for can be executed well into the future," Tony says.

Tubular Holdings went from using three separate business systems for ordering, invoicing, managing staff and assets, payments, collections and administration to one solution with Sage X3. Tony says the streamlining of systems and processes is key to the company's future success because by nature Tubular Holdings is a collaborative and inclusive company, and now they have the ERP system to allow them to operate as a truly collaborative class-leader.

Why choose Sage X3 Powered by Parity?

Thanks to Sage X3 and Parity, Tubular Holdings now enjoys greater visibility and insight into its business operations:

• Assets such as plant equipment can be easily monitored, while costs associated with maintaining any equipment is easier to track and trace via the system.
• When it comes to accounting, Tubular uses the Sage X3 system to handle its administrative needs; making it easier to stay on top of accounts payable and receivable to maintain sound cashflow.
• Overall, clearer communication and collaboration between employees has been achieved, helping Tubular to grow its operations with confidence.