Family Owned Food Manufacturer Implements Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Logan Consulting Implements Multiple Software Elements for a Family Owned Food Manufacturer

The Client

Our client is a family owned and operated food manufacturer whose business is focused on baked goods such as croissants, rolls, and donuts/pastries. They have a customer base throughout the United States and sells both directly to end customers as well as utilizes an extensive distributor network to sell their offerings. The company has experienced substantial growth in the past few years and sought replacement of their existing enterprise applications to coincide with their capital investment in increased production capabilities.

The Opportunity

Our client had been operating using a host of legacy applications including an industry-specific ERP application known as Z-Bake. Unfortunately, this application did not communicate with their separate sales reporting tool, causing excessive repetitive key strokes and redundant data entry. The company sought a more modern application which would: better track raw materials costs, improve customer and vendor interaction, and enhance financial reporting. A solution was also sought which would work with other company-wide applications such as Microsoft Office to make day to day use simple and yet powerful. With ever-increasing sales and an expanding network of business partners, it became necessary to have a front-end sales force tool in place. This would allow for improved visibility of deals as well as streamline and standardize sales processes. Improved communication throughout all facets of the business as well as serving the unique needs of each customer were high priorities in selecting a CRM solution.

The Solution

The solution chosen contained the following software elements:

  • Dynamics Great Plains
  • Dynamics CRM
  • Scribe Integration Tool with GP & CRM Connectors
  • Microsoft Office 2007
  • SQL Reporting Server & Services 2005
  • FRX reporting Tools
  • Ethotek Commission Plan

It was decided that the implementation would take part in two phases. Phase One, which recently went live including the following:

  • Retirement of legacy ERP application
  • Retirement of legacy reporting tool
  • Deploy Great Plains including the following functionalities:
  • General Ledger
  • Customer Master
  • Sales Order Mgt.
  • Invoicing
  • Vendor master
  • Purchase Order Mgt.
  • Check Management
  • Item Master
  • Deploy Dynamics CRM for both Sales & Support
  • Integrate GP and CRM using Scribe integration toolset
  • Replace of all legacy reports with new ones derived from these different applications

The entire Phase I solution went live after training of the various staff members and conversion of legacy data into these new applications.

Phase II of the implementation, set to kick off in the very near future, will include the following functionality:

  • Manufacturing & Distribution modules of Great Plains
  • HR module of Great Plains
  • Integration of E-Commerce solutions including:
  • SAP-EDI
  • Amphire
  • I-Trade

The Results

  • Phase I of the implementation took approximately two weeks to configure and test. The old ERP application was retired as well as the legacy reporting tool, since all sales information is generated in GP and sales reporting spawns from there.
  • Relevant sales-related data, such as Customers, Items, Price Lists, Order, and Invoices flow seamlessly into CRM using Scribe software.
  • Updated item master with dynamic price lists to meet the unique pricing needs for each customer relationship.
  • CRM custom objects retired inefficient word documents while unifying all information into a single, reportable database built on SQL 2005 technology
  • Revised & improved business processes streamlined through the use of CRM workflow engine which operates automatically without human intervention based upon defined business rules
  • Cost savings were realized by transporting GP-related data into CRM, thus avoiding the cost of buying GP licenses for sales team members and forgoing selling time in order to train them on running reports within GP. All of the necessary data they need is automatically fed from GP when records are created or updated.
  • The entire GP & CRM user community is capitalizing on the fact that both Dynamics Great Plains and Dynamics CRM are fully integration with a host of other Microsoft applications. Data moves seamlessly between such mission critical applications as Outlook, Excel, and Word from the ERP and CRM solutions deployed.