When business suddenly picks up sharply: are you ready? Vesta Chemicals achieved 66% growth in the past year. The implementation of SAP Business One in 2019 came just at the right time. 'Without SAP, it would have become much more difficult to meet the sharply increased demand...'

Harry Kleinsmit is Financial Manager and co-owner of Vesta Chemicals. The company supplies so-called "specialty chemicals" to the chemical industry, especially catalysts that make chemical reactions go faster.

For example, Vesta's customers make resins for powder coatings and various plastics. The chemicals purchased by Vesta come from China, Korea, India and Latvia, among others, while the sales market covers more than 40 countries on several continents.

Harry: "I sometimes call us a mini-multinational. With a relatively small team, we run into the same challenges as the well-known multinationals.

Convincing

Until 2019, Vesta was working with an ERP package that was not actually set up for chemical companies. Customization had to be built in for many of Vesta's requirements, which were time-consuming and also expensive processes.

Partly due to the growth in recent years, that situation had become untenable in the long run. That's why Vesta started looking for an ERP package with more flexibility. They found it in SAP Business One.

Vesta was looking for an ERP package with more flexibility. They found it in SAP Business One.

Harry: "Actually, we had kind of written off SAP Business One at an earlier stage because a competitor of Logres had given a poor presentation of the package to us. So we thought SAP Business One would not be able to meet our needs.

However, when we got in touch with Logres, we received a clear explanation of the possibilities, which showed that Logres knows our industry well and could assess well what we needed as a company. That was very convincing.

Flexible

The implementation of SAP Business One took about a year. That may sound long, but Harry says the previous process took over 2.5 years.

'It's not that everything we want is already present in SAP Business One by default, but there are very many add-ons on the market that offer additional functionalities. So it was possible to add extra functionalities in a short time that offered a solution for all kinds of specific wishes and requirements we have for an ERP package.'

So the additional possibilities for SAP Business One are unlimited, but Harry cautions that this can also be a risk. 'You can make it very complicated if you want to and thereby slow down the implementation process enormously. So good consultancy is invaluable: you need someone to guide you through it.'

Good consulting is invaluable: you need someone to guide you through it.

Insight is everything

Among other things, a module was realized for Vesta with which the purchased U.S. Dollars are linked to orders and customer orders so that no exchange rate differences arise.In addition, a module was created with which Vesta can easily maintain the REACH administration around the import of chemicals.

For Vesta, batch traceability in SAP Business One is also significantly better than in the old package. This makes it quick and easy to identify which customers have received goods from a particular batch.

Harry: "It is precisely small steps that can be most profitable. During the implementation we created a lot of small overviews that are terribly useful for us. I always say: apart from being a wholesaler, we are also primarily a data company. Insight is everything. That is perhaps the biggest gain that SAP Business One has brought us: insight!

Just small steps can be the most profitable. During implementation, we created a lot of small overviews that are terribly useful to us.

Collaboration

Harry: "What I appreciate about Logres is the cooperation. There were times when I spoke to the Logres consultant more often than to my own colleagues... It's nice to be able to talk to friendly people who are willing to think along with you and keep searching until they can answer your question.

Robert Hoogesteger was someone I could read and write with, but I also experience a lot of positivity and a no-nonsense mentality among the other employees at Logres. The support desk, for example, is always easily accessible and helpful. That makes dealing with Logres always a pleasant experience.

Next Step

As an entrepreneur and co-owner, Harry is constantly working on the next step for the company. 'I always see new possibilities. The nice thing about SAP Business One, in combination with the consultancy from Logres is that we can also put many of those ideas into practice in a short time. You can write queries that unlock data without having to write code. Everything you put in can be taken out, I always say.

The nice thing about SAP Business One, combined with Logres' consultancy is that we can put many new ideas into practice in a short time.

Recently, I desperately needed improved insight into our cash flow. I called Robert and within a day we had created an overview that answered my questions. Isn't that wonderful?