ABOUT SEFTON

Sefton Education Business Partnership has been established since 1998 and is a ‘not for profit’ company, limited by guarantee.  As part of an established national network of over 100 Education Business Partnerships we exist to create opportunities for businesses and young people to work together.

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

Over the past 15 years, I have used your Encore financial package on a daily basis and find the programme very useful. Sefton Education Business Partnership is only a small company but Encore deal with all our financial needs more than adequately.  We send out our monthly profit and loss reports to our Directors as they are very clear and easy to read and we also find being able to print out departments separately extremely useful, for balancing month end and budgeting for the future.  Your telephone and on line support is a great help when dealing with irregular occurrences and I have always found the staff very knowledgeable of the system, friendly and will take me through the process step by step.  The updates are very easy to install and often the changes made make the programme much clearer to read and understand.  I have found even though I have little accounting knowledge, this programme is easy to understand for staff of all levels.

ABOUT AIRTOOL

Airtool Sales and Service is a comprehensive supplier of assembly and machining solutions to industry. We have tailored our customer services to exceed our customer's demands.  Centrally based in Birmingham distributing tooling from a wide range of manufacturers including:

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

As a customer of Anagram for the last 16 years we feel that the services and support we have received have been excellent. As we are a small company that doesn't have much computer knowledge we have found their system easy and there telephone support invaluable. Whenever we have a problem, Anagram always sorts these problems within a few hours.  We are a distributor of Air Tools, and sell both to re-sellers and end users so the discount set up on the system is ideal. We have also found the aged debtors and creditors very easy to manage. We are also able to offer a quick response to all our customers enquiries for price and delivery of our products.  We are forever having other computer companies offering their computer packages; but why change when we are happy and always have help at the end of the phone if needed. Thank you to all the staff at Anagram and keep up the good work.

ABOUT BEAVERSWOOD

Since 1984 Beaverswood has been involved in the design, manufacture and development of alpha-numeric labelling systems for the quick and easy identification of products and areas. After many years of experience BEAVERSWOOD can now offer a complete range of products and services that cover all aspects of Labelling and identification such as adhesive letters, label holders, asile markers and more.

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

We were introduced to Anagram Systems back in 1989 when we went live with our first software single user system. As our company has grown your software has expanded to meet our needs, with us now using ENCORE Premier Plus.  This package covers all aspects of our business, from accountancy, with the multi-currency options, sales and marketing, to stock control with stock movement and assembly analysis. There is so much within the package that we are still finding new areas to explore.  When we have questions, your staff are always on hand and talk in a language that we can understand. From some of the horror stories I hear about other solutions, we are pleased that we picked Anagram.

ABOUT AMENITY LAND SERVICES

ALS was formed in January 1988 by its current owners who had many years' previous experience in amenity and agricultural agronomy. Our objective was to create a specialist amenity horticulture supply company with high levels of professionalism and service for the sports turf and amenity planting & landscaping industries.  From the beginning 'supply and apply' contract services formed about one third of our business, with the other two thirds being supply of products and advice.  At ALS we currently employ around thirty staff, twelve of whom are professionally qualified amenity agronomists with BASIS and NPTC qualifications and many years' diverse experience to offer. All such advice is supplied free with our goods and services.

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

It is some years since we took the step to drop our Tetra software in favour of Anagram's Encore, which we did in anticipation of the Year 2000 changeover. Tetra wanted a fortune to upgrade.  I was persuaded to try Encore by a contact with another accountant I knew at a supplier with whom we had close working relations. The Anagram package was so much less expensive than Tetra that quite honestly, I would have been put off it had I not been given a good insight into its capabilities by my colleague. I was concerned that it might not be well developed or supported for the money!  I need not have worried. The package has performed brilliantly over the years and the support is always friendly, prompt and efficient. We have never yet had to 'restore' data due to this support and 'fixes' supplied always seem to sort out problems. One thing I particularly liked was that you were always able to customise some small part to suit our needs and carry those modifications forward to new releases without problems, which is not the norm in your business! Even after all these years I keep on finding new and fascinating details that impress.  Two long-term features that I have always liked is the power to 'drill down' from summarised data right through to transaction levels, quickly and effortlessly. Another feature I find particularly useful is that we now have many years worth of data at our fingertips. This and the database reporting or search facilities enables me to look back into any past time frame to look at product trends, find out who bought particular products at certain times of year, prices paid, etc, etc. This is a great tool for the sales team to secure past business and generate new leads.  I have demonstrated the package to a number of prospective users over the years and have never yet had anyone who was not thoroughly impressed. On one occasion I showed it to an accountant who was a trainer/installer for Sage and told me that Encore 'knocked Sage into a cocked hat!' He was well impressed!  I've always felt that Encore should be a market leader in its field, but maybe you are happy to keep the whole thing as it is and just provide a good service from a smaller team who really understand it in depth.  Whatever the reason, you are certainly to be congratulated on a thoroughly excellent product.

ABOUT LONDON STATIONERS

London Stationers, formed over 25 years ago, specialises in the field of stationery supplies. We supply brand leaders and quality own brand alternatives for the office as well as computer equipment. If you are setting up a new office or simply refurbishing and existing one, London Stationers offer a comprehensive selection of office furniture.

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

We have been using Anagram Encore for some time now and are very happy with it. We upgraded to it from the Integrated Accounting System which was 'DOS' based. The current Encore is a windows based system, which is much simpler and more versatile.

There are several advantages to using the Encore System just to mention a few it has an Integrated Bank Reconciliation program, Unlimited entries on individual Sales and Purchase Ledger Accounts. The most useful is the ability to have individual Special Price Lists for each customer.

We would not hesitate to recommend Encore to any business. A very helpful support team from Anagram Systems provides telephone support.

ABOUT SABRE

SABRE Vision is a specialist supplier of display solutions and components to a very wide range of markets. We are a small company that believes in finding the right solution for customers' applications.

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

Going back to the start, we selected a multi-currency Unix based accounting, sales and purchase processing and manufacturing control system from 1988. I actually looked at the original Anagram system in 1987, so had heard of the company from the beginning of our computer accounting experience. By 1997, it became clear that our Unix based system had a Y2K problem and the incumbent supplier proposed an extremely expensive upgrade (he thought we had no choice). As a result, we decided to investigate other systems in 1998. We looked at Sage and Pegasus Opera as well as Encore and several other packages.  Every package has its strengths (Sage seems very popular with accountants for example), but we knew that, as everybody uses the system to some degree, the overall usability across all functions is more important. The Encore system seemed easier to use and covered almost everything we needed as a specialist electronics equipment manufacturer and distributor. Our auditor was also asked and raised no concerns, so we selected Encore in late 1998. We were operational with Encore in the early months of 1999 (after extracting data from Unix via a package called Monarch for import into Encore).  Since that time, we have been very happy with Encore. It has been as easy to use as expected and integrates much better with other Windows Applications. More importantly, interactions with Encore are easy and quick. In our Unix system, if you wanted to edit an order (Sales, Purchase or Works Order), you had to step through each line to the one you wanted to edit. This was too time consuming and people used to "cut corners" to avoid doing it, with the result that the computer did not have an accurate stock figure. The ease of use of Encore improved accuracy massively (if it is easy, they will do it rigorously). This leads to more confidence with monthly accounts.  Since 1999, Encore has been extended considerably and is even more useful today than it was then. We also find all your staff friendly and helpful with good responsive support when problems arise as they inevitably do, on occasion. However, during 15 years of operation there have been very few hours that the system was not available to us. We would happily recommend Encore to other companies.  Finally, you might like to know that during our ISO 9001 assessment, which looks at all processes involved with delivering goods and services, our Assessor commented favourably about the system. Assessors must see a wide selection of systems, so this reinforces our opinion that we made the right choice.

ABOUT MATLOCK GARDEN CENTRE

Matlock Garden Centre is less than 15 minutes from the M1 and sits in the beautiful countryside of the Peak District.  This area is a world-class destination, with a fascinating historical and cultural heritage. The Centre is a welcoming stop-off point between enjoying the area’s stunning scenery market towns and picturesque villages.  With a superb and unique offering of the very best inspirational lifestyle products and practical gardening essentials, anyone from the novice gardener to the outright expert can expect to find a wealth of ideas and inspiration. The Vines restaurant offers delicious hot and cold food throughout the day and is an ideal place to relax.

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

I thought I would drop you a short note just to say how impressed we are with Encore, the quality of information we get from the system is so much better than we enjoyed before. It is a very flexible and user-friendly package, backed up by excellent service from your staff. Well done!

ABOUT MIDENT

Mident have been manufacturing and supplying dental consumables since 1982. Mident provides high quality dental products at competative prices, backed by friendly service. We both manufacture and wholesale a range of products, if you cant see what you need, please call and one of our trained staff will be happy to help you.  The majority of Midents customers have been with the company for many years, something which the team are very proud of. We know Dental Surguries can a difficult place to work, so we work harder to make your life easier. Order over the Web, via fax or on the phone, whichever way, we are sure you will be delighted by our products and service.

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

We have been Anagram customers for 20 odd years, having used the basic IASV2 software. We were somewhat reluctant to change, as IASV2 worked brilliantly, it became 'second nature' to us all, and, most importantly, we have the philosophy of "if it ain't broke - don't fix it!"  However, IASV2 could not cope with the added complications caused by the Euro, and we changed over to Encore. The difference is like a bicycle and a 4 wheel drive Ferrari. It took us some time to learn to 'drive the Ferrari', but now enjoy the benefits of this superb software.  As we have had no experience with any other accounting software apart from Anagram products, we cannot really compare. But what we can say is that Encore works - and works brilliantly!  The other feature that is fabulous is Anagram's 'after sales service' and maintenance. Whenever we have encountered a problem or query, it is sorted out quickly and efficiently.

WHY WE CHOSE ENCORE

I have been using this programme since July 1999 and have found it meets all our needs, handling our seven separate branch accounts.  I have found it very easy to teach new staff who have not handled accounts before, particularly as it deals with the double entry automatically for you.  The screens are easy to follow and understand, making it a very user friendly program for people who have not been trained as an accountant, but still provides you with all the required reports and information needed to run a business.