LIGEST ERP at a multi-site organisation: processes, contracts and services integrated

The project began in 2008 with the aim of creating a new company information system: not a single module, but a platform able to support the organisation’s main processes in a coordinated way.

From the outset the system covered eight major areas: administration, finance and control; medical activities and health and safety management; purchasing; warehouse; sale of services; staff management; contract management; management control. The goal was a shared system in which administrative, operational and financial processes would use the same data and logic.

1. 01

   Integrating different processes

   Sales and purchasing cycles, warehouse, administration, staff and management control had to be parts of the same system, not independent applications.

2. 02

   Activities and profitability by contract

   For a service provider the contract is central: orders, costs, revenues, activities and hours worked must all refer to the same management element.

3. 03

   Operations linked to financial control

   Activity data had to feed administration, cost accounting, budgets and management control.

4. 04

   Complex purchasing and procurement

   From internal requests to orders, warehouse and supplier management, information needed to remain continuous and traceable.

5. 05

   A platform able to evolve

   Over time new digital processes, web applications, document management, e-invoicing and external services would be needed, without replacing the core system.

Labinf Sistemi implemented LIGEST ERP as the new company information system. The initial plan allowed for 180 working days, organised into three sub-projects: sales, purchasing and warehouse cycles; administration and management control; staff management.

The project went through every implementation phase: requirements definition, functional and technical analysis, development, testing, validation, installation and acceptance.

Areas managed

• General and cost accounting
• Budgets and management control
• Fixed assets, cash flow, bank reconciliation
• Financial statement reclassification and consolidation
• Payments, bank transfers and Intrastat
• Quotes, sales and pro forma invoices
• Service reports and expense refunds
• Purchase requests and requests for quotation
• Purchasing, supplier reminders and order book
• Requirements, stock and picking lists
• Contracts, sub-contracts and budgets
• Attendance, business trips and Timesheet
• Electronic signatures

Sub-contracts, cost items, quantities, financial values and cost and revenue budgets are linked to each contract. Dedicated functions automate the transfer of contracts between different organisational environments, keeping items, cost centres and cost items aligned and feeding the related budgets.

The ecosystem also includes attendance and absences, access control, business trips, an employee portal, electronic timecards, contractor management and a Timesheet for recording labour, which links declared hours to contracts.

Over the years new components have been added to the ERP core. The SIM module manages machinery and plant, scheduled maintenance, jobs, materials, working hours and reporting. IMAGE PRO is natively integrated and uses ERP data as keys to file and retrieve documents relating to customers, suppliers, orders, delivery notes and invoices.

LIGEST is connected to the organisation’s e-commerce site, from which it automatically acquires new customers, orders, invoices and payments through scheduled procedures, aligning master data and determining the contract to associate with each order. E-invoicing has also been introduced, generating XML documents including those for the Public Administration, along with a Web Supplier Register where suppliers register, update data and upload documents, with a back office for accreditation and automatic alignment of master data in LIGEST-LICOGE.

• Maintenance with the SIM module
• IMAGE PRO document management
• E-commerce integration
• Electronic invoicing
• Web Supplier Register

• One system for administrative and operational processes
• Integrated sales, purchasing and warehouse cycles
• Contracts linked to costs, revenues and activities
• Staff hours linked to contracts via Timesheet
• Automatic data exchange with external applications
• Online sales integrated with administration and accounting
• Documents filed using ERP data
• Digitalised supplier qualification
• A system that can adapt to new regulatory requirements

The organisation still uses a wide ecosystem of LIGEST, LICOGE and LIGEPE modules today, including workflow, Business Intelligence, IMAGE, e-invoicing and the Web Supplier Register.