Cromwell Group, Europe’s leading independent Industrial Product supplier, chooses Merlin Business Software

After becoming Merlin’s largest customer, the project that will see Merlin Business Software implemented in Cromwell’s sixty-six branches worldwide has now passed the half-way point and is set for completion in the final quarter of 2014.

Benchmarked against numerous software solutions, Cromwell’s decision to implement Merlin Business Software as their new company-wide, ERP system is testament to Merlin’s industry specific features, flexibility and its ability to be scaled to any sized business. Michael Kerins, Managing Director of Cromwell Group said. “I would suggest that for any business the decision to change their business software, something that touches and impacts every aspect of the company, isn’t one that should be taken lightly. Indeed we were certainly extremely diligent in our approach, reviewing many solutions before creating a shortlist and finally deciding that Merlin was the best fit for our business.”

On completion of the project, Cromwell will become Merlin’s largest customer by some margin with over 1,000 users operational in 14 countries. Clive Mallender, Managing Director of Merlin Business Software said. “Merlin is delighted to announce the roll-out of what is the business’s largest project to date and welcome Cromwell to our customer base.” Clive went on to say. “Cromwell’s adoption of Merlin Business Software has confirmed something we have known for some time now, that Merlin, although capable of punching above its weight, is very much a mature ERP system’..”

Mike Findlay-Wilson, IT & Business Systems Director of Cromwell Group explained. “Having run the business on our legacy system for some time now, we realised the need to move to a more modern, windows based system. The new system is designed to enhance our business processes through ease-of-use ie. search, ability to have multiple views open and allowing for unlimited users as we grow as a business. Already it appears to be a significant advance on the current system and one which will stand us in good stead for the continued expansion of our business in the future.”

Cromwell’s Warrington and Lincoln branches were the first to go-live on Merlin Business Software back in September 2013. Robin Davison, Branch Manager and Merlin user at Warrington, said. “Although the last few months were initially quite challenging, which is to be expected when changing any process, the Warrington team are now enjoying the added functionality and ease of use that Merlin provides. Importantly, from day one of the transition our customers have been unaffected with no detrimental impact; the implementation was seamless and exceeded my expectation. We are sure that it will evolve to be the perfect tool to support and assist us in driving the company forward now and for many years to come.”

When asked about the impact that this project will potentially have on Merlin as a business Clive Mallender explained. “The beauty about this project is that Cromwell have trained their own first and second line support teams to deal with Merlin issues internally, so there will be little impact on Merlin and its departments; it’s very much business as usual as far as our other customers are concerned.” Clive also commented. “This contract not only benefits the business, but our customers too; meeting Cromwell’s own requirements meant the development of additional Merlin functionality, developments all our customers can look forward to receiving in future releases of the software.”