Savignac (Pty) Ltd was established in 1969 and has a long history of supplying the wholesale and retail markets in South Africa and neighboring African territories. The company currently operates in the aluminium window and door hardware space with branches in Pretoria and Cape Town, servicing South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, and Botswana.
As the nature of the business became more complex and grew in scale, Savignac made the decision in 2020 to mature from various Accounting based products to a mid-tier ERP solution to ensure integrity of information across the business, support sound business processes, and improve data visibility and analytical capability around stock and sales in particular. A fairly extensive ERP review was conducted, with Umbrella Enterprise ERP Software being shortlisted together with a handful of other both domestic and international solutions.
While not significantly different from an overall functionality perspective, the Umbrella solution did provide a meaningful advantage in terms of overall cost of ownership and implementation time, both important considerations at the time. Importantly, there was an excellent mindset match between the respective Umbrella and Savignac teams – hands on and business minded – something that has proven to be a key ongoing ingredient in the business relationship between the parties.
Savignac was clear from the outset regarding the functionality that would be required from the ERP. Umbrella were able to decode this into a clear project plan including the relevant resource required and access to information required from Savignac. As a key component of what was a highly successful implementation, Savignac dedicated the requisite time and senior resource that had been agreed in the mutually crafted project plan – this being a critical success factor of an implementation that took place on time and within budget.
The detailed User Guides and step by step process guidance from the Umbrella consultant allowed the company to switch to the new ERP system without any significant disruption to the daily operations. The post implementation review and assistance allowed the company to focus on its core business activities without the worry of how to navigate a new ERP system.
The Umbrella team remain an active, highly supportive, and accessible part of Savignac’s ERP journey, resulting in the solution not only providing a suitable base solution, but also continuing to add incremental value over time. It is objectively fair to say that the Umbrella solution represents a highly important component of Savignac’s sound business trajectory over the last 2 years and the Savignac and Umbrella teams are proud to be associated with each other.
Savignac would recommend Umbrella Enterprise ERP Software to any company looking to make a tangible difference to the way they see and manage their business in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Sheldon Klingbiel
Financial Director – Savignac (Pty) Ltd
