Sage Upgrade Is Smooth Sailing For Macduff Shellfish

With a business spanning 127 years, fish processor and wholesaler, Macduff Shellfish have successfully been able to adapt to customer and supplier demands over the years. Now, to meet the challenge of an ever-expanding global customer base, they recently upgraded their Sage software system.

Opened in 2001, the company’s production plant in Mintlaw boasts state of the art equipment for processing and freezing shellfish. The entire process has been developed and refined by Macduff Shellfish over many years to provide a high quality product from the sea to the customer in the shortest time possible. The company pride themselves in taking an interest in the entire process: from having personal contact with the fishermen, to the collection, grading, processing, cooking and freezing of the fish, right through to packing and transportation.

Macduff Shellfish had been using Sage Line 100 for many years, and it was a natural progression to upgrade to Sage 200. Obviously deciding to upgrade to Sage 200 wasn’t a decision they made without careful consideration. Operations Director, Paul Beaton says: “I had implemented new accounts’ packages before and I knew that there was a lot of groundwork prior to changeover. However, this time round, thanks to the combined efforts of the staff at Macduff Shellfish and the help of PlusOne, I was pleasantly surprised. Also due to advancements in technology, being able to transfer data was easy. We pulled over information from the Sales Ledger and Purchase Ledger without a hitch.”

The company process and distribute a variety of shellfish including langoustines, crabs, scallops and whelks. These are supplied as whole cooked to shell off meat products. The majority of their business is in the export trade, and a fast turnaround is essential. “We are dealing with perishable products – so speed and efficiency are important,” says Paul. “PlusOne showed both efficiency and speed, and that’s why it is great to work with them.”

Efficient processing of customer orders is crucial to Macduff Shellfish, as they are continually developing products to meet customers’ specifications. To assist with this, PlusOne devised a specialised product maintenance routine making it easy to create and search for products and provide and in-depth sales analysis.

Prior to installing Sage 200 many products, including delivery notes and other delivery documents, were created manually, meaning that the same information was entered a number of times. Introducing Sage 200 Sales Order processing has automated all documents making the process more efficient.

Invoice layouts, which were standard across the Sales Ledger, also had to be more flexible. Sage 200 ensures that a new, more flexible system using different language and layouts can be utilised. Macduff Shellfish exports to Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Croatia, Holland and Belgium. Now, the software can help with improved customer service by storing product categories in a number of languages so that customer documentation includes the appropriate descriptions. And having the facility to implement the Sterling Sales Ledger and Euro Sales Ledger is also a bonus – previously everything had to be on one invoice and it was not currency-specific. With the implementation of Sage 200, the company also took the opportunity to revise the Nominal Ledger Structure and restructure this information in a more intuitive and effective manner.

“I have nothing but praise for PlusOne,” says Paul. “They did a sterling job and any issues were quickly resolved, sometimes even using remote access. The team are very efficient and very proactive; and I would highly recommend them.”

And for the future? With a new coldstore facility nearing completion, the next step for Macduff Shellfish is to develop an integrated warehouse management system with Sage 200 allowing even greater communication and interaction. And with Sage 200, it looks like the next stage will also be plain sailing for Macduff Shellfish.

www.macduffshellfish.co.uk