Helios Orange at MATRIX | 05. 01. 2010

The Eastern-Bohemia-based company MATRIX a.s. has been present on the market since 1991. Its activities are miscellaneous – ranging from production of windows and timber through stores selling floor covering, joiner timber and other supplements to dealership and garage of ŠKODA and VW cars and automotive business activities. With such a various array of activities it is natural that the company cannot go without a superior information system.

For several years the company was utilizing a not very user-modifiable company information system (ERP system), with which it was getting more and more obvious that it did not meet the needs of a modern and fast-expanding company in a way to be able to cover all the manufacturing and business activities.

 „Insufficient outputs and cohesion, lack of transparency and required functionalities, these were the main problems making our work difficult,“ says Ing. Jakub Kaloč, MATRIX Financial Analyst. „There were also difficulties concerning filtration and searching, technical problems occured with more users working in a network or in view of the options of own settings and linking to external SW. This is why we decided to exchange the system for a new one, where there would not be such problems,“ he adds.

A tender was organized, in the course of which a principal emphasis was put on a face-to-face negotiations with potential providers of the system including the presentation of their products. Another criterion consisted in examining the strengths and weaknesses of the systems. The final output was created in the form of a matrix showing the evaluation of individual parts and the solution of the selected program, which was in the end the Helios Orange system. To key requirements belonged above all linking to other SW – DMS and Profiplast, comprehensiveness of the system by keeping the individual requirements of the company´s divisions, detailed in-house accounting, high level of the user adaptation of the system according to the users´ requests, support of retail and several other partial fields. „This system suited best our requirements including the proximity of service, quality of brand, linking to external SW and high variability of setup,“ says Mr. Kaloč.

In October 2008 the company signed the Helios Orange system licence and also implementation contract. Afterwards the implementation was started, whose official termination and handover of the system into a routine operation took place on 30 June 2009. However the system had already been working here from 1 January 2009 but without certain specific modifications, managerial reporting etc., which had gradually been handed over in the first half of 2009.

The implementation was carried out in phases, whereas an approved pre-implementation analysis, elaborated from June till September 2008, was respected. The actual implementation was divided into these phases: parameterization, training, post-developments, trial operation, regular operation, routine operation. A key request of the customer consisted in guaranteeing a regular operation from 1 January 2009 particularly in the spheres of economy, warehouses, retail and linking to DMS. By 30 June 2009, on which date the system was handed over to a routine operation, partial agenda or customized post-developments had been completed too, e.g. linking to Profiplast SW etc.

 „From our point of wiew, as provider of the system, we perceived the project as having a high priority because of its scope and nonstandard requirements. Nevertheless thanks to a professional approach of key persons at the client´s, above all the project manager Ing. Kaloč, the project was running in a standard way and a number of critical milestones could be resolved less demandingly than we had originally assumed,“ says Lukáš Ontl, Head of Helios Orange Hradec Králové.

At present the Helios Orange system is already a proven help to both the management and the employees at MATRIX. Mr. Kaloč describes its contribution to the company: „Fast outputs from the system, monitoring of more activities, on-line data for remote workplaces, higher effectiveness of work done by certain positions thanks to linking to external SW, higher control and sophistication for the corporate management and last but not least higher data security – these all are highly important benefits brought about by the utilization of the Helios Orange system.“

This means that the varied activities at MATRIX are now running with the support of a comprehensive ERP system including a number of specific solutions arising from a heterogenous character of the company. The system is utilized by almost 40 users in total in the fields of Economy, Warehouses, Business, Retail, Jobs, CRM, Wages, Managerial Evaluation, Transport and Intrastat including the linking to specialized SW already used at the company, such as DMS by Škoda Auto or Profiplast for the calculation and custom production of windows.

About MATRIX

MATRIX a. s. is a fully-Czech-owned company, having its seat at Třebešov near Rychnov nad Kněžnou. It is composed of four basic divisions: Automotive, Autocentrum, Wood and newly Windows, established in the first half of 2007. The company MATRIX a.s. was established on 12 December 1991 and is engaged in the production of plastic and wooden windows (Windows Division), production of timber and wood processing (Wood Division), sales of ŠKODA passenger cars and VW utility vehicles (Autocentrum Division) and sales of abrasives, protective aids and professional sticking for automotive industry (Automotive Division). Another step in the company´s expansion lies in the development of a hotel multifunction complex at „Letovisko Studánka“ (Summer Resort Studánka), based near Rychnov nad Kněžnou. Here a hotel and restaurant software by Asseco Solutions will also be implemented and linked to the Helios Orange system.

For more information please visit www.matrix-as.cz

Asseco Solutions

Asseco Solutions, a.s., in the same way as its predecessors DATALOCK and LCS, by the merger of which it came into being in 2009, is a producer of ERP systems. During 20 years of their existence both the companies became the leaders among the providers of company applications on the Czech and Slovak markets. In view of this fact Asseco Solutions is one of the strongest subjects in this sphere on the Central-European market. It is engaged not only in the development, but also in the implementation and support of specialized systems for companies of any size in various fields of business activity. Its ERP systems – Datalock and Helios - cover the broadest range of corporate needs. All the systems are supplemented by a wide array of services and partner programmes and besides the basic modules and functionalities provide also specialized solutions for concrete fields of business, the so-called “branch solutions”. The Asseco Solutions predecessors were certified for the quality system ISO 9001:2000, Datalock in 2004 and LCS in 2006.   Both the companies became the members of the multinational ICT entity of ASSECO Group in 2007.

At present the entire Asseco Solutions has a staff of about 450. The 2008 turnover totalled over CZK 630 million.

For more information please visit www.AssecoSolutions.eu.

ASSECO Group

The multinational ASSECO Group is one of the most important software houses in East and Central Europe. It provides comprehensive IT services through its national pillars in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Adria and Germany.

The ASSECO Group is growing by creating new national pillars and it is simultaneously spreading its portfolio of provided services thanks to acquiring successful companies on both the domestic and foreign markets.

The company aims at becoming a stable and competitive software centre, providing ICT services in East and Central Europe.

For more information please visit www.asseco.com