La Petite Bretonne, a food processing giant, was facing challenges with its manual processes for purchasing, production, packaging, distribution, and collection. The company was using a management system with handheld computers for distribution and another software tool, but these systems were not integrated. The company wanted to add value to their data integrity and use it to run analytics and create reports to develop winning strategies. However, the data was accessible to several users and could be modified multiple times a day, increasing the risk of human and data entry errors. The company also needed to optimize their processes for buybacks, purchase orders, and various quality control points.

Mondoux Distributions, a company in the manufacturing, repackaging, and distribution of treats and sweets, has seen significant expansion since the 1980s. Its activities are spreading across Ontario and the eastern provinces. However, Mondoux's old computer system was unable to provide the required information to make optimal decisions during their continuous growth. This system was limiting their activities and presented corrupted data issues. The company needed a solution that could handle their expanding operations and provide accurate, real-time data for decision-making.

Coractive, a designer and manufacturer of innovative optical fibers and fiber lasers, was experiencing rapid international growth. However, the company found it difficult to make fast decisions based on reliable information. The company's data was managed through Microsoft’s Excel and Access software as well as Sage for basic accounting. However, these documents did not communicate with each other, resulting in data silos and time-consuming report assembly for business analytics. Furthermore, in their key Asian markets, the intensifying competition had led to dropping prices. To remain competitive, Coractive needed more precise control of its costs and profit margins. The company needed a solution that could offer system flexibility to accommodate growth, be simple to use, deliver a rich set of functions, process the scientific data required for the manufacture of fiber optic products, integrate seamlessly with existing systems and applications, and be cost-effective.

La Petite Bretonne, a famous pastry and bakery brand in Québec, was looking for an ERP system that could meet its needs and goals. The company wanted a system that could handle changes in business realities and support them for many years. They were looking for a developer, not just an integrator, who could adapt the ERP system to their requirements. The company also wanted to spend less time on data entry and more time on data analysis and strategy implementation. The invoice buy-back process was a crucial point for La Petite Bretonne, and they needed a system that could handle this process efficiently.

Jacmar Automation, a component parts distributor and systems integrator, was using a DOS system that was no longer able to meet their expectations. They needed a system that would improve the tracking of project costs, ensure a more rigorous inventory management and allow them to complete transactions online. In short, they needed a more efficient system that would save time and provide more control. The company had been wanting to make this change for 20 years.

Gusta Foods, a fast-growing vegan food products company, faced several challenges as it aimed to transform digitally and avoid the pitfalls that many start-ups encounter. The company's strategic plan outlined a vision for a paperless, employee-friendly, Industry 4.0-ready, and agile business. However, realizing this vision required overcoming several constraints, including ensuring clean data entry, implementing an ERP system while moving to a new plant, and complying with industry food safety standards. The company needed an ERP system that could support its growth and help it achieve its strategic goals.

Baron Tools, a fast-growing distribution company in Greater Montreal, was facing major challenges due to its rapid movement of inventory. The company was managing product flow with paper documents and accounting software stretched beyond its capacity. As a result, Baron did not have an accurate ongoing view of its stock position or profitability until the end of an accounting period. The lack of visibility into company processes greatly impacted productivity and profitability. The company was using outdated tools and dealing with a lot of paper. The software and systems simply couldn’t keep up with the aggressive sales goals of the company.

St-Donat Bakery, a family business with nearly 100 years of experience in Quebec and Ontario, was facing operational issues due to its expansion and ongoing growth. The bakery used many different tools that did not communicate with each other, leading to difficulty in finding reliable information and lack of agility. The billing and ordering process was complex and prone to errors as St-Donat manually encoded its invoices from a large number of distributors. The bakery did not have a centralized system to track inventory for its 6 external warehouses from which distributors get supplies at varying frequencies. As production and shipping data was manually entered on a daily basis with no possible control, it could lead to situations where the bakery produced 1,000 pies from one batch per day and shipped 1,500 without tracking the discrepancy. As part of its LFSC22000 certification for food safety, not all products could be traced during the annual recall exercises performed by St-Donat.

Big Heart Pet Brands, the largest standalone producer, distributor, and marketer of premium-quality, branded pet food and snacks in the United States, was finding it challenging to run its increasingly complex operations on the company’s existing ERP systems, which were both cumbersome and costly to upgrade. The company needed a more agile, state-of-the-art system that could not only help them cost-effectively simplify their current systems’ complexity, but could also automate manual processes and better accommodate corporate plans for growth. They were looking for a flexible system that easily adapts to business changes, such as new acquisitions, while also offering enterprise-class capabilities.

Merrow Sewing Machine Company, a small family-owned business, has been a pioneer in the textile industry since 1838. The company invented the overlock stitch, which is still used in most garments today. However, the company faced challenges due to the high levels of complexity and costs of customization. They were continually building custom sewing machines for a variety of customers and applications, which was becoming economically challenging. Additionally, their recent innovation, ActiveSeam, a new stitch and business model, required seamless order tracking, robust reporting, and tight inventory control. Their prior on-premise ERP systems were limiting and unwieldy, unable to support their growth and innovation.

Pioneer Motor Bearing, a family-owned company that has been repairing, manufacturing, and designing fluid-film bearings for the power generation and industrial markets for 100 years, was struggling with an on-premise ERP solution. The system was unable to provide a 360-degree view of a customer, which was crucial for improving customer relationships and providing quick access to relevant information. The company was looking for a streamlined order processing system that could seamlessly transition from RFQ to quote to sales order. However, their on-premise ERP system required them to re-enter all of the same product information. Estimating, a critical process in Pioneer's job-shop environment, still required lots of manual processes and didn't capture historical customer information in one place. Reporting was another issue. The company realized that it would take major implementation work and disruption to their business just to keep their on-premise ERP system active.

Aphria Inc., one of the largest and fastest-growing cannabis companies in the world, was facing growing pains due to its rapid expansion. The company had to increase production capacity and manage it optimally to support strong growth and supply emerging cannabis markets. This was complicated by their worldwide footprint, with offices spread across the globe from the Caribbean to Australia, Africa to South America, encompassing more than 22 locations. The company was also faced with a daunting need for efficiency, productivity, and control due to the highly regulated nature of the cannabis industry. Their situation was exacerbated by their lack of modern, enterprise-ready technology. They needed more control, but also technology that could support their compliance demands.

Narron Construction, a road construction company based in North Carolina, was facing challenges in tracking job cost data for better analysis of time and material charges per project. The company had been using Sage 50—U.S. Edition as its accounting package during its startup years. However, with growth came the need for more complex cost-assessment capabilities. The company needed a solution that could automate the tracking of job cost data, streamline data entry tasks, and ensure greater accuracy throughout the company.

M6 Concrete Accessories, a company comprising three separate departments - concrete and masonry distribution, steel fabrication, and equipment rentals and sales, was struggling with its legacy system. Each department was on a different business system, leading to data duplication and difficulty in obtaining consolidated reports. Some reports, like detailed margin reports, could not be created at all. The company was in need of a unified system that could manage all its operations seamlessly.

Premier Marketing, a car audio system distributor, was facing challenges with its existing accounting system. The company had initially selected a DOS version of Sage 50—U.S. Edition as their accounting system, along with a parallel bookkeeping system. However, as the company grew and added a distribution services division, it needed a more robust software to manage the distribution side of the business and handle increased transaction volume. The company migrated to Sage BusinessWorks Accounting, but by 2001, the remote operations had become more sophisticated, and dial-up communications were no longer acceptable. The company needed a solution that could manage distribution, handle huge increases in transaction volume, and permit greater remote access.

Alloy Polymers, a market leader in the thermoplastics industry, required a process manufacturing solution that could accommodate its unique compounding operation. The company's production model differs from many process manufacturers as it does not manage the formulas or supply the raw ingredients; instead, its customers do. Many ERP applications do not offer the flexibility needed to manage this production model effectively and efficiently. The company also wanted a manufacturing and financial application that was customizable, quick to implement, scalable, and cost-effective to implement and maintain.

Satellite Industries, a global supplier of portable sanitation equipment, was struggling with financial reporting across its multiple locations, divisions, departments, and currencies. The process was time-consuming and laborious, often taking more than 15 days for month-end closing. Additionally, the company was seeking to reduce the days sales outstanding of its receivables. The large chart of accounts and the need for real-time, actionable data for decision-making added to the complexity of the situation.

Hoya Vision Care of the Americas was constrained by an aging legacy application that was no longer capable of supporting the company’s fast-growing transaction volumes. The system limited the team to creating only 100 invoices per day, and Hoya required a new system that could handle an unlimited number of transactions, customers, and pricing options. They wanted a more user-friendly system that could automate processes that were controlled by Excel® spreadsheets. Additionally, they were seeking a warehousing application that would enable them to increase their capacity and speed, provide better physical procedure control, and be tweaked to fit their specific business needs.

Sonnax Industries, a Vermont-based company that designs, produces, and supplies components to the automatic transmission aftermarket, was facing challenges with its nearly decade-old enterprise software. The software was struggling to keep up with the company's steady growth and meet the requirements for fast turnaround of more than 40,000 shipments a year. Sonnax knew that the system would not be able to handle the increased demand for aftermarket parts that it saw coming in the next decade or process orders quickly enough to keep its customers satisfied. Updating the system to the current version would require a major investment in hardware, software, and integration. Therefore, Sonnax decided to look for alternatives and replace the system with new technology.

Bonnell Industries, a leading truck equipment distributor and manufacturer of snowplows and spreaders, was struggling with an avalanche of paperwork. The company had been using DOS-based software designed for the truck equipment industry but was still on manual systems for its manufacturing business. This made obtaining reliable financial data a nightmare. The company also faced challenges with inventory management, as it was difficult to stock the correct amount of inventory due to the long intervals between usage of certain items. Additionally, the company needed to ensure that they did not receive a truck body before the chassis or truck itself.

CRP Industries, an importer and high-volume distributor of automotive and industrial products, was facing challenges with its legacy software system. The system was not allowing the company to keep inventory and service rates in balance, particularly as part numbers and sales volumes increased over the years. The company decided to replace it with a packaged solution. The business drivers for change centered on the company’s desire to improve inventory fill rates while reducing inventory levels, ship orders faster and with greater accuracy, and reduce costs and streamline operations by automating more processes, particularly in the finished goods warehouses.

Consolidated Transmission Parts (CTP) experienced significant growth, expanding from 25 customers to over 1,500 in just nine years. This rapid expansion led to the company outgrowing its Sage 50—U.S. Edition accounting software. The company needed a more robust and scalable solution that could handle its increased customer base and provide more sophisticated business insights. The challenge was to find a replacement software that could ensure a smooth transition from the old system, maintain the integrity of the data, and provide the necessary business perspective that the company needed to manage its growth.The company also needed a system that could provide up-to-the-minute information on inventory to allow for a more strategic approach to management. The ability to know exactly how long a part has been in the warehouse and when to reorder was crucial. Additionally, the company needed a system that was easy to use and could be quickly learned by new salespeople.

A change of management at Craftique in 1997 prompted a thorough operational audit. The existing business software was clearly inadequate, especially with major growth on the horizon. The firm’s CPAs recommended Sage 100 ERP, offered through an expert reseller. The reseller showed Craftique how it could start with basic accounting functions and then add on other financial and business modules as warranted in the future. It was a good thing that Craftique brought in Sage 100 ERP when it did. The company’s sales more than doubled in just three years, and having powerful business systems in place was crucial to success.

Hayden Concrete, a manufacturer of precast concrete products, was facing challenges with its existing accounting system, Sage BusinessWorks Accounting. The company had grown significantly over the years, and the original software could no longer support the company’s growth. For instance, the company had a huge line of manufactured parts that required manual inventory counts, taking over 30 man-days. The company was also spending a significant amount of time on payroll processing. The company needed a more robust and efficient system to handle its growing needs.

Kodiak Northwest, a leading snow removal equipment firm, experienced rapid growth, expanding eight-fold in just five years. This growth led to increased volumes and more complex business processes. The company had been relying on Sage DacEasy, an accounting package designed for small businesses. However, as the company grew, so did its accounting needs. Kodiak Northwest realized that it had outgrown its Sage DacEasy package and needed to upgrade to a more robust system, Sage 100 ERP. The company was concerned about the integrity of data during the transition from the flat Sage DacEasy database to the modular Sage 100 ERP version.

As a new company, iS5 Communications had complex needs and sought a powerful ERP solution that offered all the required functionality in an integrated, scalable offering. The company designs, manufactures, installs, and services network routing equipment for use in harsh environments, such as those encountered in the utility, transportation, industrial, military, and surveillance industries. The management team, although experienced, was looking for a solution that could take the company from start-up to success. They wanted to avoid integration challenges when selecting ERP software for their enterprise.

Savoury Systems International, Inc., a rapidly growing food manufacturer, was facing challenges with inventory management and forecasting. The company was often overstocking to protect against stock outs, which proved to be costly and wasteful. As the company grew, the spreadsheets they were using to manage forecasting and replenishment tasks became more unwieldy and ineffective. The company was in need of a comprehensive solution that could handle their quote-to-cash integrated fulfillment system.

When Dan Calandro joined Smokey Mountain Chew as CFO in January 1999, he discovered that a great product doesn’t automatically provide great margins. After conducting a thorough financial and operational review, he found that Smokey Mountain’s quality and profitability fell way short of its tremendous potential. Its inadequate off-the-shelf accounting package was part of the problem. It had to be replaced with a system that could handle Smokey Mountain’s complex manufacturing and distribution operations. Quality assurance was Calandro’s initial concern. Product taste and texture were inconsistent from batch to batch. This called for tighter manufacturing controls, closer production monitoring, and batch analysis.

Leahy IFP, a company that manufactures shelf-stable beverages, was in need of a robust ERP solution to replace its legacy system. The company required a system that could manage all aspects of its operation, from back-office accounting to sales forecasting and shop floor production. The company also needed a system that could accommodate nearly any conceivable business process, including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), a requirement for doing business with many of Leahy IFP’s customers. The company also sought a system that could provide more accurate, detailed, and current cost data.

Tampico Spice, a multimillion-dollar company that imports a full line of seasonings from 22 countries around the world, had outgrown its DOS-based accounting package. The company was in search of a stable, end-to-end business solution that could strategically manage its manufacturing and distribution operation for maximum quality and profitability. The company needed a system that could track everything from anise seeds to turmeric, manage receivables, generate labels for promotional mailings, and verify fixed asset calculations prepared by the CPA for monthly journal entries showing the current valuation of machinery, office equipment, cars, and trucks.