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.

Babson Executive Education, a division of Babson College, faced challenges with data fragmentation and redundancy. The organization had multiple databases for customer information, which were manually updated, leading to time delays, errors, and inconsistencies. The registration system was separate from the database used by sales and marketing staff for opportunity management, leading to data gaps. Reporting was also arduous due to the disparity between the systems. Babson Executive Education realized it needed a central system and database that could provide one unified view of customers and prospects to serve those clients more effectively and reduce redundancies.

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.

Ricardo Molina, a leading chemical distribution company, was facing challenges with its outdated and obsolete CRM system. The company had recently brought on a new commercial management and marketing team and needed a system that could support their technicians both online and offline. The company was also looking to optimize processes and reduce costs. The management team realized that they did not have a 360-degree view of their customers, products, business opportunities, visit reports, updated contacts, and financial data. They also lacked a tool for supplier management and for a more global view and tracking of their business. These shortcomings were critical in the company's decision to seek a software solution that could automate these actions and optimize costs and processes.

DB Schenker Logistics was looking to expand its third-party logistics (3PL) business and increase its ability to implement client requirements. The company wanted to build a robust model for on-boarding clients and develop a warehouse management system that would enable the transformation of the clients’ supply chain operations into increased performance. DB Schenker Logistics also wanted to improve synergies across clients and facilities by investing in new facilities that could be used for serving multiple clients with shared resources and systems. This posed a challenge in terms of integrating the clients’ ERP systems to secure data quality and avoid duplication of order entry and master data management work.

Prior to choosing Aptean Respond, MyJar used several Excel spreadsheets to track and manage complaints. This process, although arduous, was bearable. Fast-forward to the present day and MyJar, having experienced rapid growth, have made the customer focused decision to enact a purpose built solution that supports their flourishing business. Storing data in numerous locations proved to be an inefficient logging system. Case handlers lost time searching for critical pieces of information and managers struggled to pull MI. There was no easy way of overseeing the team’s performance; recording information on many different platforms meant that human error and inconsistency were difficult to identify. MyJar needed a system that would match the quality of service they provided and began to look for solutions that would not only increase their efficiency, but also target training and prevent the reoccurrence of mistakes.

In 2009, three separate Janome subsidiaries — Janome America, Jamac and Elna — consolidated under the Janome America banner. This consolidation presented a challenge in terms of managing the operations of the three entities efficiently and cost-effectively. The company needed a solution that would streamline processes, minimize hardware needs and associated consolidation costs, and manage the new entity without increasing IT staff. Additionally, many of Janome America's trading partners required electronic data interchange (EDI) compliance as part of their customer contract, making it a crucial component of their business agreement.

PEZ Candy Inc., an international manufacturer of brick candies, was facing challenges with their outdated technology which was impacting productivity. They were unable to work on multiple tasks at once within their distribution center. The company was in need of an upgrade to their mobile devices whose operating system was no longer supported by the provider. The purchase of mobile computers was a substantial investment, so the company felt they needed to provide a solution that looked beyond new devices and offered operational improvements that would boost productivity as well.

PEZ Candy Inc., an international manufacturer of brick candies, was facing challenges with their outdated technology which was impacting productivity. They were unable to work on multiple tasks at once within their distribution center. The company was in need of an upgrade to their mobile devices whose operating system was no longer supported by the provider. The purchase of mobile computers was a substantial investment, so the company felt they needed to provide a solution that looked beyond new devices and offered operational improvements that would boost productivity as well.

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.

Gehl’s Guernsey Farms, a leader in specialized aseptic food products, faced challenges in communication and integration between different departments within its 230-person headquarters. The company's growth led to stretched resources and the need for additional support to keep up with customer needs. Information within one department was often not visible to the rest of the organization, leading to inefficiencies. The inventory tracking system experienced frequent shutdowns, requiring significant time from the IT manager to keep it running. Gehl’s lacked an enterprise system with sophisticated reporting technology to support its growing business lines and overall expansion. The company also needed a system to comply with emerging technology standards. Without a company-wide inventory management solution, Gehl’s was forced to conduct manual physical inventory, which became increasingly time-consuming as the company added new product lines.

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.

The Phoenix Group, a conglomerate of three businesses servicing manufacturing and retail companies worldwide, was struggling with an outdated, manual system for managing orders. Orders were taken on paper forms and entered into spreadsheets, leading to multiple data entries, errors, and significant delays. The company needed an integrated system to deliver up-to-date information to improve the decision-making process. The Phoenix Group also needed a system that could manage its diverse products and services across 15 remote facilities and provide a web solution for remote users and customers.

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.

Essex County Council (Essex CC) had been using the Respond system from Aptean since 2008 to manage inbound enquiries and complaints. However, as technology and the council's own processes evolved, the older version of Respond was struggling to meet the council's needs. The council needed greater clarity in reporting on the data within Respond, which the earlier version was struggling to support. A lack of Business Intelligence (BI) made it difficult for Essex CC to find root causes of issues and to take preventive action on them across the council. The council also had a requirement to publicly report on statutory complaints data, which was difficult to extract using the earlier version of Respond. The reporting process overall was a very manual one, including running different reports and then merging them outside of the system. The council also identified inefficiencies in the Quality Assurance (QA) process, which was manual and time-consuming, and left ample room for error. The council needed a simple interface which would display a user’s progress, as well as allow them to choose from a longer list of enquiry or complaint types that could be updated when needed.

Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, an acute Paediatric Hospital, was facing challenges in managing risk and promoting quality and safety within the hospital environment. The hospital's Risk Management Department had a broad remit dealing with issues ranging from standard patient queries, complaints and compliments to clinical and non-clinical indemnity liability cases. The hospital aimed to empower all staff to assume responsibility for contributing to effective risk management by reporting adverse incidents and complaints in order to improve the quality of patient care. However, the manual processes associated with incident reporting and logging complaints or requests for information were inefficient and time-consuming.

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.