Anson Family Farms, a large farming operation spread across 20,000 acres in 8 counties in Indiana and Illinois, was facing challenges in managing and utilizing the vast amount of data collected by their John Deere equipment. The data, which included information on planting, spraying, harvesting, etc., was primarily used for crop insurance reporting. However, the farm was unable to use this data to optimize operations due to technological limitations. The data was initially stored on a desktop machine, then moved to a server, but both methods were slow and cumbersome. The farm also struggled with real-time data access, which made it difficult to identify and correct errors in a timely manner.

EuroMaint, a leading maintenance solution provider for vehicles in the Swedish rail industry, was facing challenges in reviewing its workflow and synchronizing resources across 20 different applications for equipment support delivery. The company was heavily dependent on IT specialists for custom report development, which was not only costly but also resulted in long turnaround times. They needed an easy-to-use and intuitive analysis solution that could provide an integrated view into operations, bringing together financial, staffing, and operational data.

BBS Food B.V., a producer of frozen and chilled convenience chicken and pork meat products, was facing challenges in tracking and tracing its entire business process. The market demanded transparent information on their entire production process, from purchasing to marinating and from cooking to packaging. Customers required insights into the origin of the raw materials used, the core temperature to which each piece of meat has been cooked, and the amount of time the production process has taken. This information was crucial for food safety and was also used for labelling products. BBS was legally required to provide information on the origin, acceptance tests, and shelf life at any given moment. The company was using Microsoft Excel and Word for data collection and reporting, which was a time-consuming and inefficient process.

Danone-Unimilk, a division of Danone Worldwide, was facing challenges in preparing reports on production efficiency. The company had developed an internal corporate standard of reports for controlling equipment use efficiency. However, the process of data input in MS Excel was time-consuming and the timeframe of reports preparation for production lines efficiency analysis was not satisfactory. The company needed a tool for preparing internal standard reports to the parent enterprise and for analyzing the information to uncover the efficiency of the measures for equipment performance improvement. The new system had to meet several requirements including compliance with the corporate standard of reports, no data contamination, possibility of data analysis with hourly refinement of production lines use efficiency, support of associative data model, automatic data updating on schedule, support of web-access and mobile devices, and 24/7 system availability.

Good Health, a manufacturer and distributor of natural health products, was facing several challenges. The company was receiving multiple report requests from internal employees and external partner companies. There was a high volume of ad hoc communications among company employees, and there was no efficient way to track the manufacturing and distribution of products. Furthermore, the company had little insight into which product lines weren’t selling. The company's ERP system, while housing the necessary data for business operations, was increasingly difficult and time-consuming for reporting. The rise in requests for different reports from staff members was becoming burdensome as each report had to be manually prepared.

In 2008, Haws Corporation was facing significant business concerns that led to the need for a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The company moved to a Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system in 2009, but found that the system did not deliver the Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities it needed. With data visibility challenges into sales orders, profit margins and inventory costs, and backlogs not being measured efficiently, Haws needed a better BI solution. Further, sales and finance departments solely depended on individuals like Jim Martin, Database Administrator, to build the reports they needed within their departments. As a result, Martin spent the majority of his time creating reports, which required significant time and resource investment. To keep up with competitors and the commoditization of the drinking fountain industry, Haws needed to continue its overall company growth by maintaining a high quality water product and simultaneously meeting the market demand for pricing. In order to achieve this goal, Haws recognized that it was critical for the company to analyze and interact with its data more efficiently and comprehensively.

Heembouw, a one-stop provider of building services, was facing challenges in enhancing visual management in support of the Lean management philosophy. The company was struggling with minimizing error margins during the data entry process for management dashboards and automating the input process for existing dashboards. The publication of the dashboards was too time-consuming for the employees as they had to retrieve data from source systems and enter them manually into Excel sheets. With 30 to 40 project dashboards a month, automating this process seemed a viable option. Moreover, visual management was starting to play an increasingly important role in the organization, so many dashboards had already been developed in Excel.

Larson Manufacturing, the largest supplier of storm doors and windows in the US, was facing several challenges. The company was struggling to obtain timely access to accurate information. The limited time for analyzing and correlating data was another significant challenge. Furthermore, there was a lack of executive visibility into the company's operations and performance. These challenges were hindering the company's ability to make informed decisions and optimize its operations.

The global medical devices, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods manufacturing company was previously collecting data off-hours and storing it in highly structured data warehouses. The reporting was generally at aggregate levels and done in silos. The structured reports were designed to show what happened by plant, by product, over time. This approach was not efficient and did not provide real-time insights into the manufacturing process.

Aimtec, a global manufacturer of power supply products, was facing challenges with its existing financial system as the company grew. They were using SAGE Peachtree for accounting purposes and had developed their own software for warehouse management and supply chain management. However, these systems were not scalable and could not handle the company's growth. Additionally, they needed to consolidate their financial statements between Canada and Asia, and they had an issue with their accounting software being based on a single currency. The company also wanted to improve the connections for their employees located outside of the office, so they decided to look at using the cloud.

Demtech Services, a manufacturer of specialized plastic welding machines, was facing challenges due to the limitations of its accounting software, QuickBooks. As the company grew, it found that QuickBooks was unable to meet its needs, particularly in terms of financial controls and accountability. The software allowed changes to be made arbitrarily, without any financial controls or accountability, which was not suitable for a growing company. Additionally, as Demtech expanded its offices and added staff in the field, it found that QuickBooks was unable to meet its needs in terms of managing multiple warehouses.

IMG Enterprises, Inc. is a diversified organization with nearly 400 full-time employees and annual revenues surpassing $60 million. The company's operations include citrus farming, ornamental tree farming, and landscape construction. However, the complexity of IMG Enterprises’ operations led to a complicated IT situation. The company started using Solomon in the 1990’s and re-implemented Dynamics SL again in 2004. They also used 14 different programs in conjunction with SL, paying for maintenance on all of them. They wanted to bring in a manufacturing component, including work orders and material resource planning. However, they didn't feel there were many good manufacturing programs that worked with SL and could fulfill their needs.

AME Corporation is a mid-sized company that specializes in custom rubber and plastic components and sealing solutions. The company has operations in New Jersey, US, and Shanghai, China. Like many companies with a global presence, it wanted to move all its business processes to the cloud, so that any of its 20 staff from around the world could easily access information and collaborate. AME had already implemented Acumatica’s Distribution and Financial Management suites on version 2.2 in 2011. However, the company stored a large amount of its business documents on Box, an online content sharing platform. AME staff had to access Box and Acumatica separately, which was not efficient.

Dakota Red Corporation, a holding company for King’s Material, Midland Concrete Products, Hawkeye Ready Mix, and Stone Concepts, was facing challenges with its outdated business processes and technology. The company had been using the same computer and software system since 1988, supplemented by spreadsheets, Microsoft Access, and later Sage 100. As the company grew, it added more databases and spreadsheets to keep track of various business entities. The impending retirement of the company's CFO, who had installed the first computer and software system, prompted a review of the company's business processes and technology. The company realized that an ERP system integrated with financial software could greatly improve operations.

FSC Lighting Inc. was operating with Sage DacEasy, an older system that didn't incorporate MRP and warehouse management and the rest of the manufacturing process. There were no inventory locations, and there wasn’t any accountability. The warehouse manager would bring a list of things he thought they might be low on, maybe, to order. The company had purchased a Sage replacement for DacEasy but had not implemented it yet. The version wasn’t robust enough for their business. It was only a replacement for DacEasy. The company wanted to find something they could do in the cloud, add an ERP and barcode scanning, and then add on from there.

Soundcast, LLC, a company that develops portable wireless audio devices, was spun off from its parent company in 2015. After the split, Soundcast could no longer use its parent company’s ERP software, NetSuite, and needed to find a new system that fit its budget. The company considered continuing with NetSuite, but found it to be too expensive. Soundcast's IT partner, Collins Computing, introduced them to Acumatica, which they found promising from the demonstrations they received. The company needed a system that was similar to the way they used to work with NetSuite, but also fit into their budget.

Opflex Technologies, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, manufactures specialized foam products that are used in a variety of applications, including water purification and sporting goods. However, the company's previous systems were manual and disjointed, effectively utilizing a cash basis of accounting. This resulted in lower margin transactions and hindered the company's ability to service higher margin products. The company needed a solution that would allow them to make strategic decisions on the customer base to service, determine product costs by SKU, and prioritize the customer base.

Hartzell Construction, a South Florida-based construction firm, was facing challenges with its legacy software, ProContractor. The software was difficult to use and failed to provide the insights, data, and back-office foundation the company needed. The company had to create manual workarounds for vendor and subcontractor approval processes, which were lengthy and prone to errors. The paper trail per project was often hard to reconstruct and reconcile, and as the company grew, so did the paper - mountainous piles and files eventually filled an entire room. The company was also frustrated with ProContractor's per-seat licenses, which were expensive and limited the number of users who could access the system at the same time.

Hammond Group, a global chemical company with plants in the US and abroad, was facing a challenge. The company wanted to grow and maintain its reputation for customer care. However, it needed to cut costs from its operations while still focusing on its customers. The company was in need of systems that would help them achieve these goals.

Hammond Group, a global specialty chemical company, had been using Ross ERP since 2006. Over time, they had extensively modified the system to accommodate their unique business needs. However, maintaining these customizations became a difficult and expensive task, preventing them from taking advantage of key Ross updates and new features like data collection, quality control, TraceExpress, or Enterprise Viewer. When Hammond learned that Ross had developed a simplified installation process, they decided it was the ideal time to move to the latest version of Ross ERP and eliminate a good deal of their custom programming.

Illes Seasonings and Flavors is a third-generation family-owned company that focuses on developing and producing seasonings and flavors. To position itself for growth as a low-cost provider, the company needed a technology partner that knew Its business and wouldn't break the bank. The company was in need of a solution that could manage finances and develop KPIs so that managers could see data in real time, and make decisions based on knowing the details instead of general observations and historical data.

Elliott Tool Technologies, a company providing innovative tools for tubing installation, cleaning, plugging, testing, repair and removal, was struggling with an antiquated ERP system that did not support their business needs. They had no plant scheduling and an average on-time delivery record. Competitive pressures demanded more responsiveness and tighter controls. They had a lot of data but lacked business intelligence capabilities due to a proprietary database and programming language. The company knew things were out of control, but their systems were so bad that they couldn’t even measure how far off they were. They didn’t trust their KPIs and had lots of data but no information.

In the 1990s, Thompson Dayton Steel Service was relying on an antiquated and highly customized general-purpose ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, which included a large amount of custom-written programs that were necessary for adapting the system to their specific needs. They had to do something to avoid the looming Y2K disaster, and determined that fixing the existing programs was not practical. Thompson decided they would be much better off with a replacement system, ideally one that was geared specifically toward their industry, out-of-the-box.

Smeal Fire Apparatus Co., a Nebraska-based company that produces a wide range of firefighting apparatus, was poised to move from a regional to a national player. However, the company's existing record-keeping and data collection processes were inadequate to support the projected growth. The company lacked the efficiency and inventory tracking needed for growth. The processes were largely manual and prone to human error. A physical inventory count could take over a month to complete, and with up to 12,000 WIP items and 12,000 stock items in over 16,000 locations, a reliable tracking system was a must. Smeal also needed a better timekeeping system and a way to fully integrate all of its manual and inadequate paperwork systems.

Dow-Key Microwave Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of electromechanical switches for radio frequency (RF) and microwave applications, was struggling with its existing ERP system. The company had implemented Made2Manage ERP in 1996 but failed to take advantage of the full functionality within the system, leading to a lack of confidence in the system and a proliferation of spreadsheets, databases, and sticky notes. Employees would come to meetings, each with his own spreadsheet, and spend the meeting time trying to decide whose information was correct. Reporting requirements and audits by government customers and the imperatives of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance placed additional burdens on a company awash in often conflicting data but starved for real, reliable information.

Michael Angelo’s Gourmet Foods, a leading manufacturer of premium frozen foods and refrigerated products, operates on a just-in-time production methodology, ensuring that fresh ingredients are received and products are cooked, packaged and shipped to customers within 24 hours. However, the company faced challenges in maintaining this process due to its rapid growth through sales and acquisitions, and the need to compete effectively in meeting the consumer-driven demand for low-carbohydrate prepared foods. The company needed to improve its inventory management, visibility into production data, and more effectively manage all aspects of its growing business, including the acquisition of a new facility.

Hammond Group, a global specialty chemical company, was facing challenges with its existing ERP and CRM systems. The company was dealing with lengthy implementation times, growing overhead costs, and continuous battles with vendors. The company had initially turned to tier one suppliers of Ross ERP to handle their financial operations and a large CRM vendor to handle customer care. However, the long implementation time, growing overhead costs, and continuous battles with vendors led them to look for alternatives. They had two unsuccessful CRM system migrations and even had to sue for damages in one case.

Tek Pak, a manufacturer of packaging for the electronics industry, was struggling with its bar code data collection system for shop floor reporting and inventory. The system was not interactive and provided no feedback, leading to errors, missing and incomplete transactions, and a general disinterest among the workforce. The reporting was not reliable, and the data was often a day behind, making it of no real value. Material usage was logged only once per week by supervisors based on hand-written notes from operators, so material issues went generally unnoticed until it was too late. Inventory accuracy and visibility were lacking.

Boston Centerless, an industry leader in supplying precision ground bar materials and grinding services, was using an outdated custom application based on the Pick database and operating system. The software lacked the analytical features needed in today's manufacturing environment and support for the software was very limited. The company also faced challenges with the manual preparation of complex specification documents and needed to reduce the lead time for processing orders.

Before choosing JustFood, Madrona was using separate accounting and manufacturing systems to run its business. These tools operated independently of each other and meant that the systems had to push and pull data to meet regulatory requirements. Some of the crucial food manufacturing functionality that Madrona required, like lot coding, had to be traced and reviewed from outside the software, resulting in a lack of end-to-end visibility. Another issue Madrona was experiencing was the lack of food-specific functionality in its existing systems. Processes like lot coding, expiration date management, and quality control were extremely manual or required pulling multiple reports from different systems. Realizing it could not maintain its growth on its current platforms, Madrona began searching for a single solution that included the food-specific functionality it required to manage its operations.