ERP System Developer Celebrates 30 Years of Innovation!

UK ownership and technology driven solutions remain central to long-term customer satisfaction

Exel Computer Systems plc, the UK-based author and developer of EFACS E/8 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, today announced a landmark achievement of 30 years’ success in delivering innovative IT solutions for the manufacturing sector.

It was back in 1985 that Dr John Ellis, Exel’s founder and current Chairman, established Exel Computer Systems having recognised a distinct market need for capacity planning systems whilst working on research projects at PERA. This led to the development of the first version of EFACS, a UNIX and Informix based software solution for capacity planning and manufacturing.

Since the company’s inception in Nottingham in 1985, the team at Exel has been continuously developing, improving and expanding on that solution to stay at the leading edge of technological advances, and in many ways they have helped to deliver some of the advancements made within the manufacturing and service industries. Over the last 30 years, EFACS has grown from a capacity planning and production solution into a fully integrated comprehensive business solution, incorporating full ERP, Financials, CRM, Field Service, Document Management, Business Intelligence, Workflow, and Mobile Applications.

Jonathan Orme, Exel’s Sales, Operations and Marketing manager, has been with the company for over 20 years and reflects on this significance of Exel’s longevity, a rare thing in the technology industry.

“To a large degree 1985 was like a different world; televisions only had 4 channels, a family home could be bought for £25,000, and the first.com domain in the world was registered. Now think of how much the IT/Technology market has grown and changed throughout this time, especially in the areas of mobile communications technology. Throughout these years we have remained committed to understanding our customer’s real business needs and continuing to develop powerful yet customisable solutions that meet these needs in the most future-proof way possible. This is why we have such a high proportion of customers still using our solutions 5, 10 and even 20+ years later!”

During the past 30 years Exel has supplied some of the best known manufacturing and service companies worldwide such as Royal Crown Derby, Triton Showers, Naim Audio, TT Group, James Fisher Nuclear, Meyer Group, Safestyle UK and Magellan Aerospace. One such customer is President Engineering Group (PEGL), winners of the Manufacturer of the Year Award 2014. Marie Cooper, Financial Director comments on the significance of EFACS E/8 in helping them achieve this.

“A key factor in PEGL’s ability to increase productivity and efficiencies was the implementation of an upgrade to our ERP system, supplied by Exel, to their 8.5 version of the EFACS solution. We had used EFACS 8.2 for over 15 years but the innovation brought by the new technology has allowed us to be more proficient in processes and has given a flexible and adaptable foundation to add in other functionality such as the QA module and touchscreen technology to the shopfloor.”

Jonathan Orme concludes:

“To date, Exel has sold hundreds of systems, and there are thousands of users of our software in over 20 countries around the world. However, the key to our success remains being a technology led Software Author, which is as true today as it was back in 1985. ”