Sector
Manufacturing
Users
500+
Solutions
Sage200 Cloud, Professional Services
Samba Sports is a family-owned manufacturer and supplier of steel, aluminium and uPVC goals and associated equipment to football clubs and rugby clubs. As well as supplying grassroots clubs throughout their 25-year history, their goals are also used in numerous Premier League academies including Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton.
Following years of sustained growth, Samba Sports had reached the capability limits of their in-house Sage 50 accounting system.
The sheer number of customers on the system meant that Sage 50 frequently ran slow, occasionally froze and sometimes crashed, resulting in delays to processing of orders and invoices.
Following evaluation of the options, the decision was made to proceed with an implementation of Sage 200cloud from Chess.
The new Sage 200cloud system means that Samba Sports can handle their thousands of customer accounts more efficiently, as well as benefiting from a smoother stock management system.
The Challenge
Samba Sports was painfully aware of the limitations of Sage 50. As the company had grown, they needed a way to manage stock more effectively, which Sage 50 wasn’t able to offer.
Samba Sport decided to request competitive quotes for a new accounting system to replace Sage 50 and to arrange presentations on the possible ways forward.
Three things were clear:
- The new system would need to be able to handle all of Samba Sports’ customers and accommodate future growth in the business
- Samba Sports would need assistance in migrating thousands of customer and supplier records to the new accounting system
- They would require full training and support through the process
- For best practice, Samba Sports decided to obtain several competitive proposals in addition to a proposal from Chess, who, as well as being a Sage Business Partner, were already a long-time supplier of IT support and software systems to Samba Sports.
The Solution
Following evaluation of the options, the decision was made to proceed with an implementation of Sage 200cloud from Chess.
Chess were selected for their track record of service and support, their competitively priced proposal and their consultative approach as a Sage Business Partner.
Chess’s proposal was to migrate Samba Sports away from their legacy Sage 50 system to Sage 200cloud.
Before kicking off the implementation and migration however, Chess conducted a half-day assessment in order to:
- Understand Samba Sports’ accounting and business processes as far as possible
- Identify any issues that the new accounting system would need to address
- Review the current set up and map these against future needs.
Migration and training
A great deal of work was required to migrate thousands of Samba Sport customer and supplier records to the new Sage 200cloud system.
Due to unfamiliarity with the Sage 200cloud system, Samba Sports needed a comprehensive knowledge course on the new software. According to Samba Sports, Chess stepped in to save the day. The Head of Finance and IT at Samba Sports says:
“I was really impressed, because for them it meant a whole load of extra work which they just took in their stride.”
The Result
The new Sage 200cloud system means that Samba Sports can handle their thousands of customer accounts more efficiently, as well as benefiting from a smoother stock management system. In addition, the Sage 200cloud system brings:
- Time-saving productivity benefits for the team
- Ability to send and retrieve documents within the system instead of having to switch out to other applications
- Accurate financial insights and reporting capabilities
- In-built stock management tools.
“Our project wasn’t the easiest… but Chess helped us every step of the way, and I would thoroughly recommend them for their Sage knowledge, technical skills and customer support."
- Head of Finance and IT, Samba Sports