Windows Server 2003
Customer Solution Case Study
Integrated System Speeds Manufacturer’s
Data Access and Scales with Growth
Overview
Country or Region: France
Industry: Automotive
Customer Profile
GYS, headquartered in Laval, France, is a
leading supplier of arc-welding machines,
car body shop equipment, and battery
chargers. In 2006, the company sold
U.S.$33 million in equipment.
Business Situation
Disparate computing applications
prevented data sharing and required
duplicate data entry. Manual system
workarounds were prevalent. Limited
search and reporting tools also restricted
data access.
Solution
GYS engaged the Cegid Group to deploy an
integrated enterprise resource planning
solution and Web portal built on Windows®
Server 2003, Microsoft® SQL Server™
2005, and Cegid production management
tools.
Benefits
 Increased system flexibility
 Boosted productivity
 Automated workflow processes
 Enabled configurable reporting
 Accelerated data access
“Our employees can manage every process from one
system. . . .This makes everyone’s lives easier. As a
result, we are able to save a tremendous amount of
time, and data accuracy has increased.”
Benoit Bordey, Information System Manager, GYS
GYS, a France–based manufacturer, builds arc-welding machines,
automobile body shop equipment, and battery chargers. In 2006,
the company sold more than 150,000 machines to some of the
biggest automotive companies in the world. A 33-percent increase
in sales since 2004 triggered computing challenges that degraded
productivity and data accuracy. Departments used numerous
stand-alone databases that could not share data or be customized.
Employees entered the same information in multiple systems and
often resorted to handwritten notes to supplement the inefficient
workflow processes. In 2006, GYS engaged the Cegid Group to
deploy an enterprise resource planning system built on Windows®
Server 2003 and SQL Server™ 2005. Not only did GYS increase
productivity, the company also built a system that can flex with
change, automate workflow, create configurable reports, and
accelerate data access.
Situation
Based in Laval, France, GYS designs and
manufactures arc-welding machines,
automobile body shop equipment, and
battery chargers. The company employs 250
people, distributed among several locations
including Germany and China. In 2006, GYS
sold more than 150,000 machines totaling
U.S.$33 million to companies such as
Mercedes Benz, Fiat, and Renault.
Despite growing pressures from international
competitors, GYS has enjoyed a 33-percent
increase in sales since 2004. The rapid
growth rate, while welcome, created
numerous challenges for employees. The
company’s computing infrastructure was too
rigid to accommodate the changing business
requirements. Developed to manage an older
product line and smaller sales volume, the
system included a collection of disparate
financial, production, and sales software
applications residing on six separate server
computers.
For example, the finance department used
three applications including Sage Software
for payroll, ETAFI by the Cegid Group for
taxes, and a third application to manage
accounting. Employees used a custom-made
application, known as Advanced, to manage
production and sales. Engineers used
SolidWorks, a 3-D design application. Five
stand-alone databases running Microsoft®
Office Access™ 2003 database software
housed data from the various applications
and company locations.
About 150 employees accessed the system
using workstations running the Microsoft
Windows® XP Professional operating system.
Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
provided critical productivity tools including
Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet software,
Microsoft Publisher, and Microsoft Outlook®
2003 messaging and collaboration client.
The lack of integration between the
production and accounting systems created
several issues. Because information could
not easily be exported between applications,
employees often had to manually enter the
same information into two or more
applications. In addition, the production
application allowed for only two categories of
parts to be associated with each product—
mechanical parts and electronic boards.
However, a third category of parts—electronic
components—had been created since the
production system was originally deployed.
“No one person or workshop works on the
entire product at any one time,” explains
Benoit Bordey, Information System Manager
at GYS. “Consequently, it is important for us
to be able to track the production of each
product’s parts in relation to the others. Our
old system was unable to do this. Employees
had set up Excel spreadsheets and Access
databases to track production of the
electronic components in parallel with the
production application. People relied on
handwritten notes and phone calls to
communicate missing information. Data
accuracy became an issue, because
information was entered numerous times in
different applications. Productivity became
less efficient as our sales volume increased.”
In addition, the applications’ reporting tools
could not search all of the databases, so
employees found it challenging to view
workflow from all angles. The system’s
reporting capabilities were further constricted
by static report templates. Customer service
also suffered from these computing
challenges. When suppliers and customers
contacted GYS by phone or e-mail for
assistance, employees often spent hours
tracking down the information.
Solution
In the summer of 2005, GYS began searching
for an enterprise resource planning (ERP)
“We are no longer
forced to come up with
workarounds to
accommodate our
system’s limitations.
Instead, we can
configure it to meet our
needs.”
solution that could scale to support changing
business requirements and help boost
communication. In November 2005, after
evaluating numerous providers, including
Adonix, Silog, and the Cegid Group, GYS
selected Cegid, a Microsoft Gold Certified
Partner. In addition to offering integration and
application design expertise, Cegid built its
products on Microsoft technologies such as
the Windows Server® operating system and
Microsoft SQL Server™ database software.
Benoit
Mr.
Benoit
Bordey,
Bordey
Information System Manager,
GYS
“The Cegid product line allows for online
analytical processing (OLAP) through SQL
Server, and offers a unique range of
functions,” says Mr. Bordey. “For example,
Cegid provides links to SolidWorks and
Microsoft tools such as Word and Excel,
which is very important to us. Cegid also has
the expertise to build a solution that can
adapt to existing processes at GYS. This
means we do not have to adapt our
processes to meet the needs of the software.
SQL Server is also a more powerful database
solution, and we need it to keep pace with
our growth.”
In December 2006, Cegid engineers installed
one Hewlett Packard (HP) ProLiant ML370
server computer, with two central processing
units (CPUs). The server runs Windows Server
2003 Standard Edition, Cegid Business
Produflex, and Cegid Business Isoflex.
Produflex provides a comprehensive ERP
solution, including tools for managing
workflow, accounting, inventory, purchasing,
sales, and product quality. Isoflex delivers a
fully integrated document management
system that makes it easy to create
standardized, configurable documents.
Cegid engineers consolidated five Access
databases containing 2.5GB of data onto one
existing HP server computer running SQL
Server 2005 Standard Edition. The new SQL
Server database supports the entire
company, storing data from Produflex, Isoflex,
as well as the ETAFI tax and Sage payroll
applications. “ETAFI is a CEGID product, so it
was easy to link it with the rest of the
system,” Mr. Bordey adds. “We integrated
Sage into our solution because it is only two
years old.”
Three HP ProLiant DL360 server computers,
each with one CPU, were deployed to support
a new portal. This portal, built using Windows
Server and Cegid PGI S5, provides Webbased system access to employees,
suppliers, and customers. PGI enables
authorized system users to securely manage
production and account information. While
employees use the portal to perform day-today tasks, suppliers and customers can use it
to check account balances, post payments, or
obtain product information.
In January and February of 2006, a Cegid
product manager instructed IT staff at GYS
how to use Cegid Business Studio to
customize the system. GYS spent the
following nine months setting up the portal
and customizing screens to support workflow
processes. The team focused on improving
communication between all departments and
workshops including electronics, mechanical,
wiring, painting and cutting. For example, IT
personnel designed a supplementary
document that must be completed with a
production order. The document explains why
the order was created and which workshops
will be involved in production. “This was
information that employees used to
handwrite on every work order,” notes Mr.
Bordey.
One customized screen illustrates the
workshops currently building a product’s
parts. “We also added document links to the
product screen,” Mr. Bordey says. “Whenever
someone needs more information, all he or
she has to do is click on the product’s button
to display every related document, including
work orders, schedules, and invoices.”
“SQL Server uses OLAP
technology, so we now
have the flexibility to
search the database to
find the type of
information we are
looking for.”
Benoit Bordey, Information System Manager,
GYS
Benefits
GYS officially launched its new system at its
corporate headquarters in France on
November 21, 2006. Since then, the
company has increased system flexibility,
boosted productivity, automated workflow
processes, enabled configurable reporting,
and accelerated data access.
Increased System Flexibility
One of the biggest benefits of the new system
is that it can grow with the business—rather
than restrict it. “Our old production and
accounting system was not open at all,”
explains Mr. Bordey. Employees were unable
to update the user interface, create
customized reports, or develop new
automated processes. In addition, the
company was unable to create tables or
fields in the production database to store
new types of information.
“Our new system can accommodate our
changing requirements, processes, and
products,” notes Mr. Bordey. “Cegid Business
Studio gives us the ability to add fields or
tables to the database, or create new
workflow processes, functions, and document
templates. We are no longer forced to come
up with workarounds to accommodate our
system’s limitations. Instead, we can
configure it to meet our needs.”
Boosted Productivity
“By consolidating on one database, we have
significantly improved communication inside
and outside our company,” says Mr. Bordey.
“The combination of Cegid products and
openness of the SQL Server database have
enabled new levels of data sharing, as well as
other capabilities. For example, Produflex
automatically performs currency conversion
so employees no longer have to manually
convert transactions into Euros, and record
transactions twice.”
In addition, productivity has increased
because administrators only have to manage
one database rather than five. And because
all employees use the same database
regardless of location, they all work from the
same set of data. This further boosts
productivity as well as data accuracy.
Automated Workflow
The new system has given employees a
flexible electronic support system to facilitate
workflow processes. “Our employees can
manage every process from one system,
including accounting, product management,
document management, reporting, and
customer service,” Mr. Bordey explains. “This
makes everyone’s lives easier. As a result, we
are able to save a tremendous amount of
time.”
For example, employees used to enter a work
order into the production system and then
print a copy. After writing notes on the paper
copy, an employee brought the work order
downstairs to the employees who would
begin production. As the product’s parts were
built by the various workshops, employees
recorded information in the production
system, Excel spreadsheets, and on
handwritten notes.
Today, when an order is received, an
employee completes a work order in
Produflex. The order is then automatically
sent to the appropriate workshops using
Outlook 2003. As the product is created and
passes through the various workshops, each
step is recorded in the system. People can log
into Produflex to find out where all of a
product’s parts are in the production process
at any time. When the order is complete, the
system automatically sends an invoice to the
customer using Outlook.
Enabled Configurable Reporting
GYS has also gained the ability to create
customized reports in addition to other
documents. Rather than having to manually
enter information from separate systems into
a document or spreadsheet, employees can
automatically populate document templates
in Isoflex using information from the SQL
Server database. The information is accurate,
and employees do not have to search
multiple systems or follow up with other
employees to get the information they need.
In addition, employees can link documents to
specific products, parts, or suppliers,
facilitating knowledge and communication
between employees, suppliers, and
customers.
“We manage about 120 new orders per day,”
says Mr. Bordey. “Every order has about ten
reports associated with it, such as a purchase
report, an accounting report, a delivery
report, and an invoice report. When an
employee creates a work order, these other
reports are automatically generated and sent
in an e-mail message to the appropriate
departments.”
Accelerated Data Access
Rather than having data spread across
disparate systems, employees can locate the
information they need in one fully integrated
system. Access speeds have also sped up as
a result of SQL Server and the Cegid
applications. “SQL Server uses OLAP
technology, so we now have the flexibility to
search the database to find the type of
information we are looking for,” explains Mr.
Bordey. “For example, we can create a report
that lists of all of our customers in Belgium,
or our customers who made more than €1
million last year. We are already realizing time
savings in how quickly people access
information, and we expect this to only
increase as employees become more
accustomed to using the new system.”
For example, employees in sales and
purchasing used to have to look at every
invoice to see whether it was paid or not.
Now, employees can search for outstanding
invoices and quickly see which customers
have overdue accounts. “Just being able to
display this type of invoice information will
significantly improve the productivity of our
Sales and Purchasing departments,”
concludes Mr. Bordey. “Rather than wasting
time searching through files, they can focus
their efforts on marketing or improving
service levels. By the end of the year, we will
all be able to use our time more wisely as a
result of the new system.”
For More Information
Windows Server 2003
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
The Windows Server 2003 family helps
organizations do more with less. Now you can
run your IT infrastructure more efficiently,
build better applications faster, and deliver
the best infrastructure for enhancing user
productivity. And you can do all this faster,
more securely, and at lower cost.
For more information about Windows Server
2003, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003
For more information about The Cegid
Group products and services, call (212)
757-9038 or visit the Web site at:
www.cegid.fr
For more information about GYS products
and services, call +33-02-43-01-23-60 or
visit the Web site at:
www.gys.fr
Software and Services
 Cegid Business Produflex
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
 Cegid Business Isoflex
− Windows Server 2003 Standard
Edition
Hardware
− Microsoft SQL Server 2005
 HP ProLiant ML370 server computer
 Microsoft Office
 HP ProLiant DL360 server computer
− Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
− Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Partners
 The Cegid Group

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published March 2007