Background
Weir Minerals Africa is a member of the Weir Group and is one of South Africa’s leading pump manufacturers. It employs over 350 people at its plant and head office near Johannesburg, and has a network of branches, agents and distributors throughout Southern Africa.The company supplies a comprehensive range of pumps to the mining, industrial and agricultural sectors, as well as to facilities such as power stations, water supply and treatment works. It also manufactures a variety of valves, cyclones, rubber mill linings and special coatings.

Challenge
Weir-Envirotech (Pty) Ltd trading as Weir Minerals Africa had to review the tools available in the marketplace to replace its outdated manual faxed ordering system in order to retain business and better serve the needs of its clients. Customers within the Anglo American Group, which had dropped antiquated processes in favour of doing business on-line, were a crucial driving force behind this move.

Solution
One of the major issues in adopting an on-line system was that of rand or dollarbased cost. Being able to pay for the benefits of doing business electronically in the local currency was a major plus factor in the company’s decision to partner with Quadrem.

Since becoming a member of the e-marketplace in 2004, Weir Minerals Africa has enjoyed the extensive and ongoing benefits of SupplyCentre, Quadrem’s single, integrated application that streamlines order and invoice management processes. The Internet-based electronic ordering system is managed and checked for correctness, and the company can respond to a “procure-to-pay” set of documents from buyers.

Before joining Quadrem, the business received orders by means of telephone, fax and e-mail, as well as via tender and ordering software. However, it found that the software that it had previously used did not close off all the loopholes in the same manner as Quadrem does. The company believes that SupplyCentre deals with all aspects of the ordering process from start to finish.

Results
Since joining Quadrem, the company has enjoyed a host of benefits. These include:

• Reduced telephone costs on both sides, as there is no longer a need to confirm and expedite the quotation and ordering process
• An increase in employee productivity as SupplyCentre ensures little or no delays. Corrections are made on-line, and orders are not misplaced or simply notreceived
• Fewer client queries
• Reduced order-invoice reconciliation, an improvement on receivable-payable accounts and reduced debtors’ and creditors’ days thanks to the goods received voucher system that the company is linked to Improved transactional accuracy
• Swifter fulfilment of orders and more punctual payment
• Improvement on additional orders and contract compliance
• Direct customer-buyer interaction and ‘huge customer satisfaction’