About our Director

Vallestra is an interesting name: where does it come from?

TM: Yes the name is unusual! When starting the business I wanted a name that would stand out and be different. However, I soon found that coming up with a unique company name was harder than it sounds. In the end, I took inspiration from my Father-in-law who has his own manufacturing business. He came up with his company name by taking letters from the names of members of his family and making a word from them. I did the same and that’s where the name comes from.

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How can Vallestra assist companies?

TM: Here at Vallestra we are passionate about Sage X3. Our objective is to ensure our customers gain maximum return on investment from Sage X3. We form strong partnerships with the companies we engage with, who benefit from our decades of experience working with Sage X3 gained as a result of numerous implementations the Vallestra team have successfully completed.

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Vallestra consultants help our customer base drive efficiency by streamlining business processes and refining the user experience. We relish the opportunity to help our customers get the most from their Sage X3 implementation and take great satisfaction in helping them achieve their goals.

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The team at Vallestra have the advantage of a fully adaptive and flexible skill set to best suit customer requirements: ranging from new project implementation with any associated activities resulting from the project (GMP validation/Training documentation etc.) to a fully immersed in-house consultant gaining comprehensive knowledge of specific customers already using Sage X3. This, in order to provide a fully tailored approach to either refine existing processes or embark on new areas to take Sage X3 to the next level, maximising the return on investment for the Customer.

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We engage with customers either:

• Looking to implement a new best of breed ERP system.

• Currently implementing Sage X3

• Upgrading to a newer version of Sage X3

• Customers already using Sage X3

 

We offer a wide range of services including, but not limited to:

• Sage X3 software and full implementation.

• System configuration and solution based design for new processes and practices

• System audits

• Project Management

• Data migration

• Crystal Report writing

 

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Yourself, and your team, have a lot of experience with Sage X3. How did you personally start your journey with the ERP system?

TM: I personally started working with Sage X3 back in 2004. This is prior to Sage acquiring X3’s original author Adonix. Back then I worked for the one and only X3 reseller in the UK. I worked in the support department and learnt a lot about the software. The company went through a number of acquisitions and mergers and after a few years it was no longer actively pursuing new business sales of X3. At this point Sage bought X3 and some new UK partners were onboarded by Sage. Eventually all of the Sage X3 consultants moved to other partners and I ended up working as the only consultant as well as continuing support. It was a steep learning curve but an enjoyable one! I have been working as a Sage X3 Consultant ever since and all these years later, I’m still very passionate about the product.

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Do you have any tips for a Company looking to implement Sage X3 in their business?

TM: Ensure that a clear scope for the project is set and that a project mission statement is established and well communicated throughout the business. The mission statement should represent what the ultimate aim of the project is and represent the reasons why the business is implementing Sage X3.

The scope changing as the project progresses will inevitably cause delays. Sometimes this can’t be avoided as businesses don’t stand still and new requirements will come up. Any change of scope should always be measured against the project mission statement: will this change impact what we are ultimately trying to achieve?

Where possible my advice would be to add any changes of scope to a project “Phase 2”, project momentum is key and if a project continues to get delayed, buy-in from the business and stake holders will wane and the more difficult it will become for the project to be successful.

 

Does Vallestra offer any services to Companies not using Sage X3?

TM: Although our expertise is anchored to Sage X3, we have fully qualified PRINCE2 Practitioners and consultants holding BCS International Diplomas in Business Analysis (ISEB) able to transfer expertise to other projects.

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Lastly, tell us one interesting fact about the Company?

TM: We have a trilingual consultant working for the Company… And it so happens that one of the languages is French, very fitting to the origins of the software.

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And one about yourself?

TM: I once jumped out of an airplane at 14,000 feet!

 

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Well, on that note, we know you are busy, so thanks for your time Tom. We’ll let you get back to it.