Case Study: Baricon Systems Ltd

Aberdeen based Baricon Systems Ltd. is a designer and manufacturer of Cable & Pipe Handling equipment, Automatic Test Equipment and Electronic Control Systems primarily for the construction and oil industries. In addition, services provided by the Company include Rental of Cable Tensioners and Supervision of sub-sea Cable Laying operations.

The company employs a core engineering and support staff and contract personnel are deployed on a project-by-project basis as required. Whilst machining and fabrication work is subcontracted out to a number of qualified companies in the UK, product assembly and test is maintained in-house. Most of Baricon's work is "one-off special purpose" that is designed and tailored to customer requirements and a considerable amount is exported to countries such as Brazil and Norway.

The business was formed in 1988 and the Baricon staff have been using job-costing software for some considerable time. However, in 2002, during a review of all its process systems, the company decided to look for new costing software that would be a better match for the operational requirements - Exordia Job Costing was selected.

Sage accounting software was already in use and an initial attraction was the linkage between Exordia Job Costing and Sage Line 50. "But we were mainly impressed with the considerable additional functionality within the program" says Bill Morrison (Managing Director) "the ability to create estimates then match the full cycle of our processes within the software is a great benefit."

Mostly, material required for a job is purchased specially for the job, so, typical costs logged by the system are material purchases, labour, contract resources and expenses. Bill explained "The ability to easily review these costs on screen in a job-by-job basis is a great help and, coupled with a few reports that we use, the management information now available on any job is exceptional."

Aberdeen based dealer Acumen supplied the Exordia software and, together with this local resource, Baricon also has ongoing telephone support direct from Exordia. "We have built up a sound relationship with the folks at Exordia and they have provided good assistance in helping us get the most out of the software" said Bill. The reverse has also been beneficial and Baricon has made some suggestions for enhancements that are now in consideration for inclusion in the software.

Baricon Systems Ltd moved into a new purpose built factory in 1995 and the company continues to go from strength to strength.