RAF INDUSTRIES

A quarter century ago, Robert Alan Fox, a successful entrepreneur in the home building business, expanded his business vision and began aquiring, holding, and selling other similar companies. By focusing on heavily leveraged companies with innovative products and great profit potential, RAF Industries Inc. has realized enormous success. Today, it owns more than 15 separate companies.  

While the company has grown and changed over the years, their accounting and business management solution has remained the same for more than 20 years. RAF Industries continues to rely on Sage Accpac ERP and the talented business consulting team at ADSS Global. 

A PROVEN WINNER 

Mike Daley, vice president and controller at RAF Industries, has been a part of the company’s growth and success for most of its history and is a big fan of Sage Accpac ERP. “Sage Accpac ERP is a great product for our corporate offices,” he says. “It’s stable, reliable, and continues to keep up with technological advances.” RAF Industries wisely provides centralized freight and insurance services for its subsidiaries, using its considerable buying power to obtain the best pricing for these and other services. “We have set up our subsidiaries as customers in Sage Accpac ERP and then we invoice them for their share of these common services,” Daley explains. 

In fact, several of the RAF Industries subsidiary companies also use Sage Accpac ERP for their accounting, manufacturing, job costing, and operations software. 

NAIL JOB COSTS 

Two subsidiary companies, Weldship Corporation and Texas Trailer Corporation, build, sell, lease, and service tube trailers. Tube trailers are large specialty trailers that carry industrial gases for use in the construction, industrial, and medical industries. Both companies were using Sage Accpac ERP when they were acquired by RAF Industries, but had never implemented the Project and Job Cost module. ADSS Global implemented the Sage Accpac ERP Project and Job Cost module for both companies, providing each with the ability to estimate and track project costs, including labor, material, and overhead. “Weldship Corporation and Texas Trailer Corporations service what they sell, and they also use the Project and Job Cost module to track its service and repair jobs,” explains Daley. “They are able to measure each job independently and see how much each job is costing, and how much each job is making.” 

↳ CHALLENGE 

RAF Industries buys, sells, and holds companies and requires an accounting and financial ERP solution capable of handling its diverse operations. 

↳ SOLUTION 

Sage Accpac ERP has proven to be a versatile and powerful tool for the RAF Industries corporate offices and also for many of its subsidiaries. ADSS Global is the support and implementation team of choice. 

↳ RESULTS 

The broad Sage Accpac ERP product line delivers efficient and effective solutions for accounting, financial reporting, inventory control, manufacturing, and job costing. 

MAKE-TO-ORDER MANUFACTURING 

Another subsidiary, Marble Crafters USA, specializes in the design, fabrication and installation of marble, granite, onyx, limestone, slate and other specialty stones. This company also utilizes Sage Accpac ERP and an add-on solution for Sage Accpac ERP called COSS Manufacturing. COSS Manufacturing is designed for make-to-order, engineer-to-order, mixed mode, and discrete manufacturers. The solution helps Marble Crafters USA optimize its business processes such as estimating, quoting, work order generation, job tracking, scheduling and costing, inventory control, and time and attendance. 

“The fact that Sage Accpac ERP works for us as a holding company, and our subsidiaries which are in very different industries, is a testament to the product’s breadth and flexibility,” says Daley. 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES 

ADSS Global is the first line of support for RAF Industries and its subsidiaries. “They help us with everything — setting up new users, product upgrades, tweaking forms, and employee training,” Daley says. “I appreciate the caliber of the staff at ADSS Global — I always get to speak with someone I know, someone qualified, and most important, someone familiar with this business so we’re able to get right to the point without a lot of background explanations.” 

LONG-TERM SOLUTION 

By combining stability, flexibility, scalability, and a broad suite of modules, Sage Accpac ERP has proven itself a long-term solution for RAF Industries. Sage Accpac ERP is able to grow with RAF Industries, meeting its needs and the needs of its subsidiary companies. Similarly, ADSS Global has proven to be  a valuable business partner. “We have a very good relationship with ADSS Global,” says Daley. “They are dependable and work within our deadlines or the timelines they establish for a project.” Daley concludes, “When RAF Industries acquires a new company, we frequently bring ADSS Global in to assess the situation. We value their opinions. They have a great deal of business knowledge and are accounting and business management software specialists.”