In April 2018, Sonya Weiser of Wiser Technology Advice was engaged to provide advice to Micro-X, clarifying their needs for a suitable enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for the business as it expanded and matured.

Sonya was engaged again in May 2019 to provide procurement advice when Micro-X was ready to find a vendor for an ERP system that would meet their needs.

Micro-X Ltd is an award winning ASX listed x-ray technology company, pioneers of a global revolution in medical and security imaging products using cold cathode x-ray sources. This entrepreneurial business is based in the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide, South Australia. The business was founded in December 2011, signed up its first customer in January 2013 and has since grown into a business with a large team of engineers, researchers, production and support staff

The problem facing Micro-X

In 2018 Micro-X had recently sought help from the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Innovation Connections program. Neil Clarke provided this advice and prepared a Facilitation Report for Micro-X, which was delivered in January 2018.

Micro-X was using two different versions of MYOB; one for financial and inventory management and another for payroll. The MYOB solution did not support full manufacturing bill of material (BOM) management. This functionality was critical to be able to support the manufacture of the products as well as building of spare part assemblies. Further complicating the problems were the range of systems working in isolation of each other, numerous Excel spreadsheets and manual processes being used to manage research, engineering and production.

How Wiser Technology Advice helped

April to December 2018

During Sonya’s first engagement to Micro-X she facilitated a number of workshops to map the processes that were being used to manage production and finance operations.

Sonya prepared a business requirements document that set out what must be provided in a new system, features that would be nice to have. This document also analyses the solution architecture options for incorporating a new system into the technology in place for Micro-X.

Once these requirements were approved by the Micro-X team leaders, Sonya prepared a formal Request for Proposal procurement document that Micro-X would be able to use to approach potential vendors.

This initial engagement encouraged collaboration between teams in Micro-X to finalise requirements for a new ERP system which is best suited to the current and future needs of Micro-X.

May to December 2019

Sonya’s services were engaged again in May 2019 to provide procurement advice when Micro-X was ready to find a vendor for an ERP solution that would meet their needs.

Micro-X were guided through a formal procurement process, liaising with Micro-X and potential vendors to ensure the best solution and product was selected for the business.

Once a preferred provider was selected, Sonya provided Micro-X with a draft business case which was completed by the Micro-X financial accountant and presented to the board of directors for approval.

The outcome of this was that Pronto Software was approved as the provider for the new ERP system.

June 2020 to January 2021

The project for Pronto Software to implement the new system started in June 2020 and Micro-X went live with the Pronto ERP system on Monday 18^th January 2021. The project was delivered by on time and budget.

The scope of the ERP system that has been implemented includes modules for financials, sales, purchasing, inventory, manufacturing, payroll, employee portal and business intelligence reporting. MYOB has been fully replaced and put into archive mode. Micro-X are considering future deployment of additional Pronto modules, including service, customer management, plant maintenance and RF code scanning.

Testimonial

We asked Tom Jobling, Financial Accountant at Micro-X, to provide us with feedback.

Here’s how he responded:

“ Sonya was engaged by our business to assist us with the selection and procurement of a new ERP System for a rapidly growing business.

Sonya's knowledge across both software and hardware, attention to detail, and thoughtful nature ensured that no stones were unturned during this process - assisting us to go through an extensive project of process mapping, discussions with senior leadership and document preparation in order to approach vendors with our best foot forward. Sonya also assisted liaising with vendors, and sat in on vendor demonstrations to ensure we were being presented with the best solution and product for our business.

I have enjoyed every minute working with Sonya and always felt that she was another member of our team! Thanks Sonya, we wouldn't have gotten there without you!”

Tom Jobling, Financial Accountant, Micro-X

Download a copy of the case study here: Case Study:Micro-X