With manufacturing facilities in Asia and customers across North America, Globe relies heavily on its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to track a range of business-critical activities such as inventory, customer shipments, purchasing and invoicing. In order to satisfy customers and remain competitive, this data must be made available to key executives as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The company’s aging, Unix-based Progress ERP software system, however, was unable to keep pace with the company’s increasingly demanding business goals.

Globe required an agile, scalable and easy-to-use ERP solution that could integrate with its desktop and server-based applications. The solution also needed to be available over the Internet, and be able to generate critical business data in real time in a format that could be easily read by anyone in the company ensuring the company could respond more effectively to market challenges.

Results

Prior to the Microsoft Dynamics GP implementation, it would take Globe weeks to create reports that could be easily read by company executives, tying up valuable IT department resources and delaying the delivery of business-critical data. By taking advantage of the Crystal Reports Professional feature of Microsoft Dynamics GP, Globe was able to build a customized demand forecasting reporting tool, enabling executives to quickly view crucial transactional data – something they can now do in a matter of hours, not days.

Ropack wanted its clients to be able to access the information they need more easily via a Web portal. While this could have been done with Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0, Ropack came to the conclusion that migrating to the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics GP would make it easier to implement the Business Portal running Windows SharePoint Services. It was therefore more logical to do things in this order and not the other way around.

Results

Ropack achieved its goal. Thanks to the self-service Web portal, Ropack’s clients can access information such as their invoices, account statements and delivery dates, at any time. To clients, it is as if Ropack became an extension of their organization. It is also much more efficient, since clients no longer need to wait for customer service representatives to send them the information they need by email. As a result, customer service representatives have also been able to focus on business areas that have more impact on Ropack’s overall success. What’s more, the new Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 user interface offers new customization tools and a more intuitive navigation, which help users work more efficiently. For example, it is now possible to keep several windows opened on the same screen, making it easier to switch from one to the other.