17/03/2006 – A E Atherton & Sons, a family business based in Thornbury, have purchased Infor VISUAL Enterprise through LSA Australia.

Athertons has been in business since 1889 and over this time has changed and adapted their product line where they are now the premier supplier of infection control and health care equipment to hospitals throughout Australia as well as being a large manufacturer of stainless steel commercial kitchen/food service equipment.

With a client list reading like a Who’s Who of Business, Athertons recognised that they needed to update their very outdated legacy system if they were to continue to provide quality products and superior after sales service. After a review of a number of systems, Athertons identified VISUAL Enterprise as an appropriate fit for a number of reasons – its concurrent scheduling ability would help to manage the critical resources across their multi divisions, the totally integrated quality module would assist in the maintenance of their ISO-9001 quality accreditation, the Project Management Module would help to control the many complex fit outs that the company was involved in, and the VISUAL DesignLink module gave a seamless integration with their CAD drawing package .

With a commitment to providing high quality after sales service the software also needed to be able to provide a method for this service to be delivered as efficiently as possible by their field service technicians whilst giving them access to the necessary information to allow the job to be carried out. Working in conjunction with another VISUAL customer, Sigtec, a GPS mobile system interface was developed to communicate with the VISUAL Service module allowing the technicians to communicate with the VISUAL database whilst on site. The Service Module will allow them to download operational repair manuals, issue stock components from their service vehicle, have the work signed off electronically when completed and then to issue an electronic invoice.