While Dalrod already knew they wanted to switch to Sage 200, finding a Business Partner who really understood their needs as a franchise business was also really important to them.
We applied our knowledge and expertise to the migration, leaving behind the performance issues they were experiencing with Sage 50 and preparing the business for future growth.
Dalrod offer specialist drain cleaning, surveys, and pump maintenance solutions. Though their Head Office is in Peterborough, they have franchises across the UK and operate a 24/7 365 rapid response service for a range of drainage issues.
As a business running on the franchise model, Dalrod had some specific requirements when it came to upgrading Sage, as Tom Scott, the company’s IT manager, explains:
“We don’t just operate Sage 50 for ourselves, we operate the Sage Company for each of the franchise companies within the network.”
With 18 franchises in the network at the time, and more in the pipeline, it was essential that the software could handle its increasing number of invoices – 300% between 2019 and 2022. Sage 200’s tried and tested migration pathway from Sage 50 made it the top candidate, alongside the wider range of features, like increased means for nominal code analysis:
“In many respects, everything you can do in Sage 50 is better and bigger in Sage 200.”
But despite the clear benefits of moving to the new software, there was still the matter of which partner would be the best fit – especially considering 10-12 years of accounting data would need to be moved across. Tom, an ERP specialist himself for 30 years, recognised the importance of getting this right:
“It is absolutely essential that whatever package or platform you’re using, you have a good relationship with the system provider, or the partner.”
After researching several providers, the Project Team decided to go with us for several reasons– with the largest one being our understanding of the unique ways in which businesses like Dalrod worked.
The implementation had success beyond the migration from Sage 50 to Sage 200. When the project got underway, Dalrod found themselves not only switching accounting software, but changing their entire approach to the business:
“As part of our project, we had to undergo a review of a lot of our processes, and we’ve adapted the way that we’ve worked substantially. […] Before, sales were just sales. Now we can break sales down by the type of job, so we’ve built that into the nominal ledger.”
Alongside Sage 200, Dalrod also had Excel Data Bridge (EDB) installed, replacing a previous back office system with native Sage 50 integration. This add-on has been especially game changing for the company:
“EDB is intrinsic to our whole invoicing process. Every sales transaction that we have gets passed through Excel Data Bridge to get into Sage. That has increased the speed of processing and the volume of transactions that we can handle significantly.”
With an ever-growing list of franchises to manage, Dalrod needed to know the solution and the partner were in it for the long haul. Sage 200 and PKF SCS fit this brief completely, setting them up to handle future growth and respond to current challenges.
Because we’re a franchise business, it does put a twist on things – but Craig and Richard understood that. And it’s that level of understanding about our challenges and their ability to take them on that helps the success of the implementation.
Tom Scott
IT Manager at Dalrod
