Meet the Atturra Manufacturing Team: Terry Bloom

We sat down with Terry Bloom, a stalwart of the Manufacturing ERP industry in Australia, and a Senior Account Manager for the Manufacturing team to find out what makes him tick.

Have a read to find out how Terry’s love for his job flows into his life outside of work, and the value he brings to Atturra’s clients.

Tell us about your journey so far

I’ve worked with manufacturing ERP for three decades, working with QAD for most of that time. I have been at Atturra for three years.

I learned to code when I was still in primary school, and the experience of typing in thousands of lines of code from a magazine, then tailoring and debugging that code was a skill that stayed with me.

I started out as a programmer for an ERP company and have enjoyed a long and fruitful career in IT ranging from team leadership, consulting, pre-sales, and sales and account management. My current focus at Atturra is business development within the manufacturing area.

How would your team members describe you?

Vocal, fun, knowledgeable and helpful.

Can you tell us about your role at Atturra Manufacturing?

I’m focused on helping manufacturers improve their performance and succeed. That can be through implementing or optimising ERP, but it can also be through working with our clients, their customers and suppliers to do the same. For instance, a supplier or customer that provides an inadequate or incorrect forecast, can impact a client’s performance significantly. If we can work directly with them on behalf of our client, everybody wins.

The key to an effective supply chain is communication, so making every link in the chain have the right flow of information makes a huge difference. We were recently awarded the Growth Award from QAD, which was a proud moment for the whole manufacturing team and validated the work we do for our clients.

What common problems do you help clients with?

Manufacturers face unique challenges compared to other industries. These include rapid growth, quality and recall management, supply chain visibility and inventory flow management. They operate in an environment of constant change, driven by factors they have no control over, and they have to make decisions fast. After 30 years in the industry, I know the positive impact an industry-specific solution such as QAD has, especially when it’s delivered by industry experts like the Atturra team has, not just software experts.

How do you help clients achieve success?

Because we work exclusively in manufacturing, our team understands our clients’ businesses and the systems and processes they need. This means they don’t have to spend time and resources educating us, which is a big issue when implementing other agnostic solutions.

We work with more than 70 manufacturers across Australia and New Zealand in food and beverage, automotive, industrial, packaging, and life sciences. We help them run their operations more smoothly, gain efficiencies and achieve their strategic objectives through ERP implementation, consulting, managed services, integration, and change management.

What’s one thing clients are happiest about when implementing an ERP with Atturra?

The most consistent feedback we get from new clients is how the manufacturing expertise of Atturra makes the process much faster and easier than they were expecting. The collective knowledge from hundreds of implementations means we can provide solid guidance and, where appropriate, show them a better way of doing things,—uplifting their business in the process.

What’s an unusual perk of your role?

The variety makes my role interesting. I might visit a distillery one day, a chocolate factory the next, and then a manufacturer making widgets. I also enjoy walking down the supermarket aisles and spotting all the products made by our clients. It’s nice to know we contributed to them getting that item on the shelf. I must admit, I usually buy them too!

What do you like to do when you’re not at work?

I usually spend it with my teenage daughter. Plus, a big part of my role is networking, so I am often part-socialising and part-working, which I love. Attending industry events and being on committees are great ways to understand industry trends as well as my clients’ businesses and what’s important to them.