C&O Nursery, a family-run business in its fourth generation, had been using Microsoft Dynamics GP for accounting and payroll since 2008, along with a customized independent inventory system based on Microsoft Access 97. However, the outdated inventory system had issues and was not supported. The company wanted to integrate its accounting and inventory systems, but found that Microsoft Dynamics GP was inflexible and not suitable for the customizations required by their business. They needed a solution that could handle the specific needs of their agriculture business and provide better integration of their systems.

Nebraska Vet Services (NVS) was founded in 1985 with one veterinarian, John Boucher, and his wife who worked as a receptionist in the office. NVS now has 8 veterinarians, 4 offices, and 20 employees. NVS provides small animal and large animal care and treatment, animal health product sales, and is involved in many veterinary and veterinary technician student externships. NVS also has a sister company, NVC Vet Supply, with sites in South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. With multiple offices, an ever expanding product line and growing inventory, and a varied client base with patients, product resellers and other veterinary clinics, NVS needed a better way to manage it all. Tana Jacobson, Office Manager at NVS recalls, “Our system simply wasn’t working for us anymore. We had outgrown it and we needed something that would work to help us manage the different branches and multi-location inventory issues.” NVS had been using veterinary-specific software for accounts receivable and inventory, and QuickBooks for the accounts payable and accounting side of the business. They needed a higher level of efficiency and accuracy from a single, integrated solution. It would need to manage the warehouse and inventory, provide inventory valuation accuracy, ease inventory tracking, and be robust enough to handle a large amount of data with room for expansion.

PostcardMania, a direct mail company, was facing challenges with their existing system of QuickBooks and custom software to manage their financial and customer information. The growing complexity of their operations led to the realization that they needed an ERP system. The existing system was not holistic and lacked accounting features. The company also realized they needed to increase their efficiency, but they only had so many expenses they could cut before they wouldn’t be able to do their jobs. They were very data-oriented, in terms of how they track progress in every division of their organization. It took a lot of money and effort to get that data. So for them, upgrading to an ERP was a matter of becoming more efficient, growing the EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) and profitability.

Seaport Capital, a private investment firm, was using an outdated accounting system that was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The hurricane caused flooding in the basement of Seaport Capital’s lower Manhattan building, shutting off electricity to the 29-story building and the company’s on-premises servers. This resulted in the loss of access to their data for a week and had to operate by cell phone for two weeks. The aftermath of the storm revealed that much of the data in their main company was either corrupted, lost, or inaccessible, as was some of the data for some of their funds. The company was doing a substantial amount of their accounting in Excel and manually managing and allocating money among as many as 40 entities.

Target Enterprises had been using Microsoft Dynamics SL for all of its accounting since 1995. Over the years, the vendor identification system in Microsoft Dynamics SL became disorganized and hard to use. The original set-up became cluttered as more elements were added, making it difficult to find the vendor number needed to write a check. The system was not interconnected, making the process of finding AP info for a specific company time-consuming and cumbersome. The company needed a more streamlined and interconnected financial data management system.

xByte Technologies, a company that sells new and refurbished Dell servers and network switches, was facing potential disaster with their old ERP, Everest Software, running on end of life with Windows Server. The company's success is predicated on having highly-available, always-on technology infrastructure that enables them to deliver superior service. However, when company executives started noticing their ERP slowed down every afternoon, they knew they had to take action. They needed to move to a platform that was more futureproofed, and to an ERP that could automate many of their operations.

Exera, a security services company in Myanmar, experienced rapid growth from 150 employees to over 1,000 in just five years. This expansion necessitated a new way to manage its human resources and finances. The company had been relying on manually created spreadsheets, which were no longer sufficient for the scale of their operations. They needed a system that could automate business processes, integrate local tax and labor guidelines, and be flexible enough to add more functionalities as the company grew.

Bell and Company, an industrial and marine parts distributor, was using QuickBooks' Enterprise Edition to automate its financial processes. However, the president of the company, Dan Wilkins, realized that he needed more than a simple accounting package to run his small business and deliver superior customer service. The financial software lacked sophisticated reporting, dashboards, and didn't integrate with third parties, such as a CRM. The company was looking for an affordable Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for small businesses that could provide automated communication with customers, sophisticated reporting, and integration with third-party systems.

Ray Allen Manufacturing, a leading manufacturer of canine equipment for military and police departments, was facing challenges with its legacy AS400 system. The system was not integrating well with its eCommerce software and was creating a new customer account every time there was an online order. This required manual consolidation of accounts, a time-consuming task. The system also lacked a manufacturing module, which meant the company had limited insight into production effectiveness, inventory levels, and manufacturing schedules. The company's strategy included future acquisitions and rapid growth, and they realized that new additions would be difficult to integrate with their legacy system.

The New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) assists more than 128,000 individuals, acting as their fiduciary agent, or guardian, in managing their finances. About 2,000 people handle these financial management tasks, in more than a dozen locations around the state. For 30 years the agency relied on a state-created system called “Client Cash,” which required OPWDD staff to spend a large amount of time tracking and coordinating each client’s income and expenses on an outdated stand-alone character based PC. In addition, the OPWDD business office used software that didn’t communicate with the different systems used by the resident care providers or by the state’s facilities. The lack of connection between the offices and facilities was a key problem. The old system had no communication between the sites.

Triode Group Limited, a New Zealand-based company manufacturing parts for the electronics industry, was struggling with managing complex information as its business grew. The firm was using multiple spreadsheets, folders, files and even word-of-mouth to share information. To extract data on one job, they had to open something like five documents. None of the different systems they were using were talking to each other. This led to employees wasting time looking for parts that were not properly tagged, and would mistakenly buy parts the firm already had on its shelves. The problem just got bigger and bigger and it was a real nuisance. They realized they needed a proper system.

Premier 1 Supplies, a retail and e-commerce company specializing in agricultural and farming supplies, was using an aging Sage MAS500 system for its operations. However, when credit card companies notified the company that it had to upgrade its payment software to remain compliant, CEO Ben Rothe began looking for a new B2C ERP system. The company's software was so old that no one knew how to upgrade it, and the cost of keeping Sage alive was estimated to be almost like starting over. Rothe wanted a modern, easy-to-upgrade solution from a provider poised for growth. He researched cloud-based SaaS software firms and considered a custom-made solution. However, he found that many B2C solutions only offered pieces of what Premier 1 needed.

Ahlsell, a leading trading company in plumbing, heating, and electrical supplies, faced several challenges as it sought to expand its business. The company's aggressive growth strategy involved acquiring local businesses in strategic geographies and product segments. Each acquisition brought new business practices and established IT solutions, making it difficult to achieve synergies. Ahlsell also struggled with creating uniform business processes across different countries and customer types. The company lacked integration between sales, order processing, purchasing, logistics, invoicing, and distribution. Additionally, Ahlsell had to manage an extremely broad product assortment, which was becoming increasingly complex as the company expanded. The company needed a solution that could support its growth, streamline its operations, and provide transparency across its sales and supply chain.

Lakeside Foods, a privately held private label food processor, was facing challenges in maintaining its industry-leading status due to escalating raw material costs and increased competitive pressures. The company identified high mechanical downtime levels and manual quality assurance processes as barriers to improved performance. Furthermore, Lakeside lacked actionable intelligence, which prevented plant personnel from identifying line problems in real time and taking appropriate action. This situation was detrimental to the company's efficiency and productivity, and it was clear that a solution was needed to overcome these challenges.

Litehouse Foods, the second largest manufacturer of refrigerated salad dressings, marinades, and dips in North America, was facing a significant challenge. The company was experiencing growth but was struggling to accommodate this expansion without incurring the prohibitive costs of infrastructure investments. They needed a solution that would allow them to scale their operations efficiently and cost-effectively.

Nanso, one of Finland's leading fashion companies, was facing challenges in meeting new delivery requirements from leading fashion retailers. The company was dealing with many manual routines that resulted in low productivity and quality issues. Additionally, Nanso was operating several different ERP systems, which further complicated their operations. The need for a more efficient and streamlined system was evident to improve their supply chain operations.

Haynes Wire Company was struggling with an outdated and inadequate incumbent system that was increasingly unable to manage and provide access to the information needed to effectively operate its growing and expanding business. The company had a lack of information on per-order costs, which was a serious concern in such a competitive field. The order setup was cumbersome and had to be redone for each new order. The legacy system’s minimal reporting and tracking capabilities and lack of routing history left the company with little in the way of information tools to run the business.

Universal Forest Products operates 130 facilities worldwide, with each location acting as an independent operation. Initially only one plant had a CMMS/EAM system, a few locations had paper work order systems, but most had no system in place at all. Maintenance staff at the sites varied as well, ranging from one or two individuals to a team of 15 to 20. The lack of a formalized preventive maintenance system was having an impact on productivity in the plants. Unexpected breakdowns were causing costly repairs and overtime expenses. There was no precise method available to management to identify maintenance expenditures. With more sophisticated equipment being introduced in the plants, it became vital that the equipment be maintained to the manufacturers’ recommendations in order to preserve warranties and realize the expected increases in productivity.