ChevronTexaco Lubricants Keeps Its World Moving With Sage PFW
Who trusts the ChevronTexaco star?
People do—in more than 180 countries.
ChevronTexaco is the world’s fourth largest
publicly traded integrated energy company,
with a worldwide network of 23 wholly
owned and joint-venture refineries in the
United States, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the
United Kingdom.
ChevronTexaco Global Lubricants (CTGL)
Canada, a subsidiary of the global giant,
distributes brands like Havoline, Delo,
Revtex, Xpress Lube, and Ursa. Its 1,000
active customers, located throughout
Canada, include oil change businesses,
auto parts stores, and major retailers like
Canadian Tire and WalMart.
Sage PFW “Grew With Us”
As early as 1990, CTGL Canada made a
very wise investment—Platinum for DOS
as its accounting package. No one could
have predicted at the time that CTGL
would grow six-fold in the next 13 years, or
that transactions would increase to 3,000
a month, each with an average of five
different line items. By upgrading to Sage
PFW ERP, CTGL found that the application
more than met their needs.
The various entities had previously used accounting packages that were inadequate for handling the new holding company’s reporting needs. By early 1999, CGF decided on Sage PFW ERP, the award-winning financial application package for PC-based networks. Running on an application server rather than client workstations, Sage PFW increases productivity and improves performance by providing robust functionality in a familiar Microsoft Windows graphical environment.
Unique Capabilities of Sage PFW
“One of the strengths of Sage PFW is the
ability to track actual costs during the
distribution process,” Macdonald explains.
“This lets us calculate costs on a per-line item
basis. Many packages that are much
pricier than Sage PFW don’t offer this
capability.”
Macdonald also appreciates the system’s
adaptability. “We must associate a liter
quantity with every line item, something
that no other application permitted,”
he says. “It was relatively easy for us to
make these and other tweaks within Sage
PFW. In all, we have about 50 custom
applications and reports running, most of
which we were able to develop internally.
Our accounting group swears by the FRx
reporting functions.”
“Sage PFW
absorbed the additional transaction volume
without a hiccup. I marvel when I consider
how smoothly Sage PFW grew along
with us.”
The Multi-Currency Manager module
converts funds from Canadian to U.S.
dollars, for streamlined reporting to
headquarters across the border. “It would
be a severe pain if we didn’t have that
module in place,” Macdonald states.
Being a Sage product has
increased the value of Sage PFW in
Macdonald’s eyes. “I’m very impressed with
Sage Software,” he notes. “They’re a rock solid
company, with excellent customer
support. When I call, they don’t make me
prove that I’m a customer, but instead
actually know who I am. They also take
pride in new product development, which
gives me great confidence in the quality of
upgrades and additional modules.”
CTGL Canada has had Sage PFW for such
a long time that it is difficult to quantify
system benefits. Nevertheless, Macdonald
believes that the application is responsible
for ongoing efficiencies. “Sage PFW lets
us keep infrastructure to a minimum,
realize significant savings in IT, and avoid
hiring at least two full-time employees
in procurement and fulfillment,” he says.
“Because of the product’s modularity,
flexibility, and superb engineering, it
should be able to accommodate us for
years to come.”
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