Contract Pricing Currency Conversion

British Lead produce quality Rolled Lead Sheet -all manufactured to BS EN12588, which ensures thickness consistency. The BLM manufacturing site at WelwynGarden City started production in 1932 and is home to both the oldest working Lead rolling mill in the UK and the most advanced. BLM believe in continued investment in the latest technology and a depot network and in-house transport that ensures complete UK coverage. British Lead is part of the HJ Enthoven Group of Ecobat Technologies.

For many years, British Lead, part of the HJ EnthovenGroup of Ecobat Technologies had used a bespoke Contract Pricing system to control their business. This system ensured that any contract for Lead that they agree with a customer is linked to a contract with the London Metal Exchange (LME). This monitors prices, despatched quantities and the exchange rate used. All of these are imperative for BLM to remain successful and this system has kept BLM at the front of the industry. As part of a European Group, they wanted to be able to offer contracts in other currencies, something that their current system could not do. As an existing support provider, they approached IMS for a solution. IMS were asked to provide a proposal to enable British Lead to process Sales Orders in currencies other than GBP using the in house developed Contract Pricing System, which currently only facilitates processing in GBP currency.

Initially IMS worked with the BLM Office Manager to develop a clear understanding of the existing Contract Pricing process. This allowed IMS to understand what issues or problems existed with the current functionality and why the non-GBP functionality did not work. From this IMS were able to identify differences in the way GBP and non-GBP orders might be processed and define the new functionality required. Although much of the functionality was robust, user friendly and fit for purpose users had found workarounds for the areas with known problems. The existing Contract Pricing system only allowed Sales Orders to be processed in GBP currency, while it was possible to enter non-GBP orders results were inconsistent with varying errors. This was due to ‘bugs’ in the existing system. IMS identified that they could fix the bugs and make some enhancements to increase visibility of information. Only about 50-60% of the system worked for non-GBP Pricing and IMS identified that this needed either extensive modification or a re-write of the SOP interface. The work was undertaken over a period of months with each stage being tested by BLM. Although issues were identified with the test system, eventually the system was completed to the satisfaction of BLM.

Many of inherent bugs were identified and fixed creating a more stable and reliable system. The changes to the British Lead system protected their investment in the existing system and allows them to process sales orders in other currencies and so move ahead with their plans. British Lead were also able to override the system currency conversion rate giving them greater flexibility when needed. Download Case Study as PDF