Sage 200 has been chosen by Serenity Holidays to help run their accounting department. For more than 20 Years Serenity Holidays has been providing specialist holidays and pride themselves on quality of service, expert knowledge and value for money to all their clients, striving for the highest standard in everything they do. In 2007, Serenity Holidays won the Travel Company of the Year Award from the Travel Trade Gazette, an industry magazine.
Prior to upgrading to Sage 200, Serenity holidays were using Sage 50. Sage Line 50 was getting increasingly slow as Serenity topped 110,000 transactions. The bank reconciliations took half an hour to load, and they experienced more and more software crashes.
Having used Sage 50 for more than 10 years, they had reached the limits of its capabilities and were beginning to experience an increasing number of problems with the time it took to do anything within the software. What they required was a solution with the capacity to integrate with their other systems. As a tour operator, their customers are individuals, so it was not feasible for them to keep a separate account for each one. They keep all sales information in their reservations system and only input the value of sales received into the bank account within Sage Line 50. This meant manually inputting 50 or so transactions daily, which was not only a duplication of work but also led to inaccuracies and errors. They had upgraded Sage Line 50 three times, and determined it was time to upgrade but were limited in thoughts about what they needed or wanted from the new system.
The Solution and the Partner
Serenity wanted a new system that would grow with their business. They also wanted something that they could link in with their in-house reservations system that has all the sales information on it, and therefore, required a vendor who could design and build this for them. Sage 200 was the natural progression for Serenity, but they did look at a number of other systems to ensure they got the best product for their needs. As it turned out, Sage 200 was better suited to them in terms of both price and usability. Having grown from being a Tour Operator to only one destination and using a single currency, to now covering seven countries and four currencies, they needed a system that would match all of their current requirements and had the capacity to grow with them in the future. At the time of their search, they received an invitation from Pythagoras to attend a Sage 200 Taster Day event. The invite came at the ideal time as they were looking to invest in a new product. Serenity was so impressed by the demonstration and what Sage 200 offered, that they booked a requirements meeting immediately. Pythagoras helped them define their requirements and designed an interface with a tool system they did not know they needed.
“The project was managed very well by Pythagoras, and a clear timeline was provided and adhered to. We had training on every aspect of the system, which was both comprehensive and tailored to our needs. This was a fundamental part of the process, as there is no way we would have got as much out of the system as we have without it. “Working within the confines of Sage Line 50 for so long meant we needed someone to show us just how limited we were by our own expectations. Our trainer offered suggestions on how best to utilise Sage 200 and helped us to see the bigger picture when it came to our accounting. Their helpdesk continues to support us and offer advice and help with things I cannot do for myself. Their remote access system is also a great help with anything too complicated, as they can see what is on my screen even if I cannot explain it! I now have a ‘never say never’ attitude to the system and have not come across anything as yet which we cannot do,” says Ellen Jeffery, Account Supervisor for Serenity Holidays.
A comparison between Sage 50 and Sage 200 can be found here.
About Pythagoras
Pythagoras is an experienced business solutions provider for Sage 200 and Microsoft CRM with offices in Maidenhead, London and Manchester. More than 300 Sage customers nationwide have discovered how Pythagoras’s approach adds value to their business. These are drawn from a diverse range of sectors and markets and we have specialist teams with specific expertise in each. Pythagoras has an enviable combination of extensive, multi-sector experience and a reputation for cutting edge technical development and innovation.
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