Darchem Engineering takes the heat out of fixed asset accounting with Real Asset Management's solution

Darchem Engineering, a world leader in the design and manufacture of heat management solutions to the aerospace, automotive and power production industry, selects RAM's Asset4000 (Fixed asset management accounting software solution) solution to manage assets across its two UK sites.

The company continues to work alongside RAM by choosing to upgrade to the Windows based Asset4000 solution from its former DOS version of the software.

Darchem Engineering, established in 1955 has a turnover of £35 million and manages over 500 staff and approximately 1500 assets. Following a comparative review of Real Asset Management's Asset4000 solution against the fixed asset management capabilities of its DOS version the company immediately saw the benefits to be gained from moving over to a Windows platform.

“It was a natural choice for us to stay with this specialist supplier,” stated Sandra Morris, financial accountant at Darchem Engineering. “It was vital that we had complete confidence in the migration process, ensuring that the system would run efficiently and effectively from day one. Peace of mind was reinforced through RAM's excellent technical support service, as we knew that any queries we may have had during the change over would be dealt with quickly and to everyone's satisfaction.

“Since installation, Asset4000 has proven to be a comprehensive and user friendly system. Previously it would take us 5 or 6 hours to run updates and enter new assets onto the software, now it can be done almost instantly, enabling us to carry out regular monthly updates which help to maintain the integrity of our asset information. Reports can also be downloaded into other packages such as Excel, which adds to the convenience of the system.

“The time saving benefits really are incomparable, especially in terms of the man hours put in by senior finance staff. Year-end depreciation forecasts used to take 2 working days to complete, Now we can calculate this and extract relevant, useful information presented in concise reports in less than 2 hours. These reports can then be sent via email to all the relevant parties, rather than hardcopies that have to be printed out and physically distributed to each of our business units. It is so simple to draw useful information out of the system and disperse it efficiently.”

Having recently been acquired by the American aerospace and defence technologies company Esterline, Darchem Engineering plan to utilise the full functionality and scalability of RAM's Series4000 software in the future. “An internal audit carried out by Esterline highlighted a shortfall in our asset register. RAM's Track4000 (Fixed asset tracking software with barcoding) module offers an ideal solution for this, as it would allow us to verify the existence and location of individual assets and inventory items through the use of bar codes and the leading technology in portable scanners. It is definitely something we are considering for the future.“

Sandra Morris concludes, “as our company expands and develops it is reassuring to know that Real Asset Management specialist supplier of fixed asset management software has the ability to grow with us, providing practical solutions that continue to meet our requirements.”