Pemla Ink Technologies

Pemla Ink Technologies is a leading North American manufacturer and developer of ink and ink technology, specializing in water, solvent and UV based flexographic and gravure inks. Pemla has been privately owned and operated since its establishment in 1977.  With head offices and manufacturing facilities in Montreal, Canada, Pemla and its agents provide their products and services worldwide.

Sometimes "rip and replace" is a good thing-especially if your company has an aging ERP system running on an outdated database.  "The old system basically didn't do what we needed it to do," said Paul Tatham, vice president of Operations at Pemla.

Pemla needed a solution that would:

  • Increase visibility of inventory
  • Greater IT support
  • Data ownership: Ability to control their own data and connect to data sources independent of an application
  • Platform independence, increasing overall flexibility
  • Firm commitment to open source philosophy, similar to the Linux community
  • An affordable solution

"xTuple gives us the right balance of functionality and cost," Tatham says. "Other vendors we considered couldn't measure up to what xTuple offered."

Further xTuple benefits include:

  • Affordable ERP solution
  • Multi-currency capabilities, on both Windows and Linux desktops
  • Standard costing system is fully integrated into production, purchasing and other relevant modules
  • System supports actual costing, and rolling up any combination of actuals into standard at the administrator's discretion
  • Much needed visibility into inventory, allow for better control
  • Online upgrade is fast and simply to install
  • Ability to back up entire PostgreSQL database to a portable USB hard disk
  • Access and manage real-time sales data in seconds over the Internet
  • Speedy performance, straightforward user interface and short learning curve

"With xTuple, we're confident that we have accurate information when we look at our financial statements," Tatham says. "Before, we had no faith in the numbers coming out of the old system. Year-end financials used to take months to complete. Today we can look at the numbers anytime and know they're right."