Columbus ERP Software

Major UK Brewer Says Cheers to Columbus

Columbus has entered an agreement with Daniel Thwaites PLC to support the replacement of Thwaites‘ current systems with a fully integrated ERP system based on Microsoft Dynamics AX2012.

“We operate in a very competitive market, and to remain competitive our business needs access to relevant, accurate and timely information. Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 will enable us to make decisions based on up-to-date analysis, and will help us to streamline our current business processes, and provide the flexibility necessary for our future development. The system will be very user friendly and capable of further development by our own staff, which will provide a very cost effective solution,” says Kevin Wood, Finance Director of Daniel Thwaites PLC.

The implementation of the new ERP system in early 2013 is part of a three year IT strategy set by the management of Daniel Thwaites PLC. The Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 with 160 enterprise users replaces two older ERP systems, a JD Edwards system within the Beer company and Pubs and a Great Plains system running the Hotel and Inns businesses.

“The solution will provide a modern user friendly platform across the whole business which will allow for a deeper integration between trading divisions and allow them to drive scale by optimizing and aligning their processes across the organization,“ says Country Manager, Simon Charlton, Columbus UK.

Columbus is one of the world’s leading suppliers of business solutions to the food and beverage sector and the agreement with Daniel Thwaiters PLC follows a string of sector wins. “We have a clear strategic focus in building targeted solutions to the food and beverage sector, and our ambition is to become the leading solution provider in this area. This agreement is a testament to our focus and commitment on providing world leading solutions to the food and beverage sector”, says CEO Thomas Honoré, Columbus.

Weetabix Win Food Manufacturer of the Year Award

Building on last week’s news of Fairfax Meadow winning IT Manufacturer of the Year, we’re delighted to announce that another customer has brought home the silverware.

Weetabix, a user of Microsoft Dynamics AX from Columbus has scooped the top award at the 2011 Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards.

Chairman of the judges Paul Wilkinson said: “Weetabix is an absolutely fantastic success story: everything from category management, to innovation and productivity.”

The judges described Weetabix as “a beacon for excellence in food manufacture”.

View the interview with Mark Edwards here.

How to Build Microsoft Dynamics AX Reports from Within Office 2010

Let’s face it, when it comes to creating and sharing reports, who wants to learn anything other than those familiar Excel, Word or PowerPoint tools?

And that’s the great thing about Atlas – it’s a sophisticated piece of software that allows Microsoft Dynamics AX to talk with Microsoft Office 2010 in a much deeper way, allowing data to move between both products (in both directions), in real time. In effect, Atlas allows your employees to design, build and share sophisticated reports and to update Dynamics AX all from within Microsoft Office.

Just imagine what information you could be getting back into Microsoft Dynamics AX: journals, timesheets, budgets, forecasts, trade agreements, expense forms, annual leave forms and more.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can be working smarter with your data the Atlas team are running 40-minute introductory webinars this November and December. Topics covered include:

• Reporting from AX
• Uploading data into AX
• AX Security
• How to use Atlas

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Tue, Nov 29, 2011 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM GMT

Thu, Dec 8, 2011 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM GMT

Once registered you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar.

Fairfax Meadow Wins IT Manufacturer of the Year Award

The UK’s largest national catering butcher has won the prestigious 2011 IT Manufacturer of the Year Award at an annual black tie gala dinner and ceremony at Lancashire County Cricket Club in Manchester.

Fairfax Meadow overcame stiff competition and a gruelling judging panel of industry experts to claim the prize in front of over 550 invited guests from all corners of UK manufacturing.

Tony Carlisle, IT Manager for Fairfax Meadow commented, “We’re delighted to win this award. With the work we’ve done with both Columbus and Microsoft to optimise our Microsoft Dynamics AX business system, we felt we had a strong case for doing well in the competition, but it still came as a nice surprise to win. This award is testament to the hard work that’s gone in to making our ERP system a success.”

Each contestant’s application was scrutinised by a panel of senior manufacturing experts, where they had to demonstrate how IT had made a strong and tangible difference to the business and how technology had supported a clear business strategy. You can read their full story about Microsoft Dynamics AX on our website

Technorati Tags: IT manufacturer of the year award microsoft dynamics ax

.

The annual awards ceremony is hosted by national manufacturing publication, The Manufacturer. The Manufacturer of the Year Awards includes a range of award categories across all disciplines of manufacturing, and helps to champion best practice.

Baby Josh Arrives

The latest addition to Mary Hunter’s family, Josh, finally arrived on Friday 14th October.

Mary tells us: “Of course he's not mastered the art of any routine or sleeping at night yet and so he's totally wearing us out, but we are all doing really well and Abby loves having a little brother.”

Pictured is baby Josh in his branded Microsoft Dynamics bib!

Columbus IT Becomes Columbus

Columbus has announced the launch of new corporate and solution brands to support their investment and strategic focus on vertical markets.

“The rebranding and positioning of Columbus reflects our focus on our key industries, including and distribution, food processing and manufacturing. We have spoken to our customers in each of our strategic markets and geographies and they have guided our investments which are reflected in our new branding conventions,” says Thomas Honoré, CEO of Columbus.

Corporate name change

As a fundamental part of rebranding the company has also changed its name from Columbus IT to Columbus. Research with clients indicated that the “IT” in Columbus IT erroneously placed the company in the IT infrastructure category and not in the solution consultancy category in which the company has built its reputation.

Visitors to www.columbusglobal.com will be met by a new company name, design and logo, new vertical brands and tagline: Once you know how…

Columbus Runs for Charity

After forecasts of heavy rain on the day, the Great Yorkshire Run 2011 was breezy with the odd few minutes of drizzle. Not ideal, but could have been much worse.

All six Columbus runners successfully completed the 10k race, with first place going to Paul Eames. Paul set a new personal best of 45:45, knocking over 1½ minutes from his previous best 10k time.

Congratulations also go to Chris Braisby, Julian Smith, Alex Townshend, Shaun Bland and Peter Quigley.