Answering some of the most common questions

“Some customers feel more secure knowing that they have a brand name system, which is sold to the mass market place. However, it does have its limitations in terms of the fit to the business processes and the way support is offered to clients.

We differ right from the start in the way that we manage our sales process. We don’t have a traditional sales team driven by bonuses and targets. We believe that this often results in a separation between one team trying to win the deal and then another trying to implement their solution, often with little synergy between them.

We ensure continuity from the outset, as the cornerstone of our sales process is to gain as much understanding of the business as possible. This often means spending a day or two with the prospective client to fully understand their business processes and system requirements.

This consultancy approach enables us to pinpoint the client’s needs and to offer our expertise on how any business processes, which may not have been considered, can be incorporated into QX, thus offering a far greater return on investment.

For us sales are not just about numbers. For us they are about creating a new long-term partner who we want to work with, as much as they want to work with us. Throughout the sales process our delivery team are fully involved so that they understand a client’s business requirements right from the start of the sales process through to Go Live.”

“Our target markets are wholesale distribution and manufacturing. We are fortunate to work across a diverse range of industries including Healthcare, Food and Beverages, Apparel and Plumbing to name just a few.

Our clients are all companies who all understand that systems can help them to achieve their goals. They understand that they are not just something they think they should have, in addition to looking for a scalable system, which will grow with them.

Our smallest customer has only 5 users and another customer has over 160 users. QX is a great fit for so many businesses due to its scalability, meaning that you don’t need to invest in a new system as your business grows.”

“Progress is an enterprise-focused database, which means that it is a stable, reliable and commercially supported platform, which is also scalable. In fact, many fortune 500 companies use Progress, which is testament to its suitability for our QX solution.”

“There are two traditional problems with tailoring a software product. Firstly, when it is done by a reseller they are effectively ‘bolting’ stuff around someone else’s system. So, if and when, there are upgrades made to the master system then these ‘bolt-ons’ have to work also!

Secondly, what also happens with many vendor products is that as soon as you start tailoring the system then you are unable to upgrade the client to the latest version, resulting in something that is specific only to you. You then create a support legacy issue as you are left with a system that doesn’t move forward, thus increasing the cost of support for that customer in the future.

The way that Openda does it however is that any bespoke elements are rolled into the core QX system. These tailored elements can then be turned on and off depending on whether the customer wants to use it. Therefore they are not stand-alone enhancements in QX ensuring that the customer still gets the benefits of our upgrades without creating the support legacy issue and associated additional costs.”

“Bespoke tailoring costs naturally vary depending on what the customisation requirement is. I like to compare tailoring similar to a solution of buying a suit. You can get a tailored suit made from scratch that fits you exactly but is costly or you can take one off the peg, which will fit in some places but not in others.

We take each new customer as if it is an off the peg type and we then make some changes to ensure if fits their specific requirements, our approach is to ensure QX fits each and every individual business rather than a business having to fit around its software.

A company can do process work-arounds, but Openda takes the view that it is better to try and streamline processes from the start. Whilst there will be a cost element to this, it is always offset by a reduction in the cost of manual workarounds (manpower, manual documents, spreadsheets etc).

Openda is always upfront and we will advise our customers if we think that there is a better way to do something. For example if a customer has a long way of doing something, Openda will always suggest how QX can be used to replace this process in a more streamlined manner. It is then up to the customer to decide whether to take this enhancement or not.

An ERP system is a core part of a business; therefore tailoring a solution also helps to give that all-important competitive edge. It really is in the interest of the business to implement the best fitting solution that they can afford, as the long-term gain will far outweigh the costs involved.

Tailoring is always going to be a lot less painful in the long-term than the time, cost and effort to source a new system that may meet your requirements 5 years down the line, when the business is likely to have changed and grown to meet market requirements.

Kukri Sports, part of the JD Sports Group, specifically selected Openda due to our ability to offer bespoke elements to QX, which enabled the system to handle their niche business requirements.”

“One of the key benefits of dealing with a small company like Openda is the high level of understanding that we have of each and every one of our QX customers.

Our support is answered and dealt with by people who can provide answers rather than by 1st, 2nd and 3rd line support where the customer gets passed down a chain with the actual issue often getting miscommunicated. All of our customers deal directly with our development team who have designed and tested the solution. Therefore our level of personal support surpasses anything that a large organisation can offer.”

“Openda has been in existence for 18 years. We have never been an aggressively sales-focused company because from the outset we have been fortunate to work predominately on recommendations.

We are not “box-shifters”, if we see that we are a good fit for a customer and can bring value to their business that’s who we focus on trying to work with. It is very much a partnership approach, not just another sales number.

We aim for steady growth so that we can still support all of customers. It is of fundamental importance to us that all of our customers still feel as important as the day we started working with them.

Our view to tailoring QX to be a best-fit solution, as mentioned above, means that we aim for customers for life, as the QX solution is fully capable of growing and changing with their business. A great example of this is our oldest customer Rayfast who has been with us for 18 years and was the reason QX was developed. Rayfast has grown from a 30-user, 10 million turnover company to a 160-user, 70 million turnover group with operations in Germany and the USA. Openda and our QX solution have been with them every step of the way and we still fully meet their business requirements.”

“There is still a perception that small companies could be unstable and therefore a risk, however at Openda we take our commitment seriously to both our customers and our employees. We have no loans or financing and run with cash reserves to ensure we could weather any financial issues in the future, if necessary.

We offer escrow agreements to our customers to give them piece of mind and 100% protection should they wish to have one.”