DMC is one of the UK's leading Sage business partners.
Specialising in CRM and Accountancy Software
including ACT!, Sage 200 and SalesLogix
A friendly CRM solution for a company that operates in hostile environments
Monitor Coatings Ltd is a privately owned company with over thirty years' experience of providing a quality coatings service to industry. Essentially these coatings are about protection; using coating systems such as carbides, oxides, cermets, pure metals, alloys and abradables to extend the life of components operating in hostile environments. This can be under the sea or, in particular, up in the air.
Dr Bryan Allcock is one of the directors and owners of Monitor Coatings. Bryan presides over thirty-seven employees at the North Shields facility and the company currently enjoys a three million pound turnover. Although business is good, Bryan doesn't rest on his laurels - he employs ACT! Professional to ensure the company stays ahead.
"We'd been using ACT! Version 6 for about six months prior to upgrading to ACT! Professional," Bryan explains. "We had just the one copy and I suppose that in a way we were simply playing about with it, getting used to it."He laughs: "That may not sound very professional, but believe me before that we were just using memos and notes. We had no structure at all!"
As Bryan points out: "None of the people here are particularly computer literate... not to today's standards anyway. It's not what we do best."
Approved for use
"One of the reasons we embraced ACT! more completely by taking up ACT! Professional is the way the aerospace industry works," he explains. "Their approval process requires that suppliers have good working practice in regard to customer satisfaction and internal communication. Using ACT! Professional demonstrates our commitment to meeting their high standards."
Of course Monitor Coatings use ACT! Professional for far more than simply demonstrating their commitment. It's become an indispensable sales tool as well.
"It is our CRM bedrock," Bryan emphasises. "A colleague and I use it out on the road, and its simplicity and ease of use means it was easy to integrate and use throughout the factory. No one had the time to get to grips with anything complicated!"
A supplier who understood
"We reviewed half a dozen packages," Bryan was also keen to stress. "Just because we had ACT! didn't mean we were going to automatically move onto ACT! Pro. But after attending seminars and doing our homework, we decided that ACT! Professional provided the perfect solution."
"DMC have been great," he confirms. "They sent a chap over to install the software and it all went very well. We had a couple of teething problems to do with our networking, and not ACT! Professional, and then it was all up and running."
Bryan added: "We've had a few support queries since then, but DMC have dealt with them all via the 'phone. I have to say that Vikki Taylor, our port of call at DMC, has been just great!"
"We anticipate adding more users. The ability to do so is one of the things that attracted us to ACT! Professional. We'll add more user licences as we go. But at the moment, we're taking it slowly, perhaps more slowly than necessary, but that's just us! We like to take our time and get things right. ACT! Professional can do so much, we just want to make sure we know what we want to do with it!!"
More ACT! Case Studies
Download full Sage ACT! case study in PDF