The £90m-turnover family-owned group eschewed specialist print MIS in favour of Epicor's enterprise resource planning (ERP) and scheduling software almost a decade ago.

Benson Group credits Epicor as being "instrumental" in allowing the business to grow rapidly, while making the most efficient use of its manufacturing facilities.

"For the size of company we were at the time, around £10m turnover, it was a considerable investment, but our chairman Andrew Benson could see it was going to be good for us," explained IT manager Phil Towersey.

"As the business has grown and new processes have come on board, Epicor has grown with us, but without the need for additional admin headcount," he added.

"Our accounts team is the same size as it was in 2001, and we have four IT staff for a £90m business with four sites."
He also praised Epicor's ability to manage Benson's stock and consignment warehousing.

"If you lose a pallet of finished printed items it's very expensive to replace them. We don't get situations where we're losing pallets," he said.

Epicor works on a licence model, with "seats" costing around £1,200. Benson has 255 licences.