THREE new computer systems costing almost £800,000 have provided a boost for Myson Radiators.

While the Gateshead firm introduced the systems last summer, the first few months of their integration into the running of Myson's three UK plants have typified the phrase "short-term pain for long-term gain", according to the firm.

Although the first few months have seen the ironing out of teething problems, the benefits are now being seen.

The major part of the investment comes in the form of a £700,000 Baan Enterprise Resource Planning tool, which integrates the company's finance, manufacturing and distribution, which were previously operated piecemeal on a number of different types of software.

Linking with Baan to further improve distribution, is the company's new Paragon software, which represents a £30,000 investment in "load planning", routing all daily orders and organising up to 120,000 orders a week, plus the delivery of up to 30 further parcels a day.

The third piece of the puzzle is a £65,000 Business Objects System, which prepares reports on sales, purchases and other data.