LaVanture Products Company
U.S. Distributor Upgrades Business Management Solution to Help Achieve Business Goals
LaVanture Products Company warehouses and distributes a variety of products to manufacturers. It has 32 employees and is based in Indiana in the United States. Having successfully implemented Microsoft® Business–Solutions–Axapta® 2.5, now part of Microsoft Dynamics™, in 2002 to automate and streamline its core business processes, it then upgraded to Microsoft Axapta 3.0 in 2004. Committed to staying at the leading edge of technology, the company now wants to expand its business capabilities into new areas such as e–commerce. As a result, the company is upgrading to the latest version as part of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0
Situation
LaVanture Products Company warehouses and distributes a variety of products to general industry and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). It has 32 employees. Its line of products ranges from trims, foam tapes and seals, hardware, truck and automotive accessories, 12-volt lighting, and electrical supplies, through to recreational vehicle components and many other speciality products. It has all items in stock, ready for immediate shipment.
The process of fulfilling customer orders as efficiently as possible is a critical part of LaVanture’s business. This includes the entire process from order entry and warehousing, to the routing, distribution, and shipping of the product to the customer. Orders tend to be small in size but high in volume.
Brandon Wiese, Chief Information Officer (CIO), LaVanture, says: “With high volume orders, minimizing key stroke entries and ensuring accuracy is important to the efficiency of our operations. Microsoft Dynamics AX helps to streamline our operations. It ensures we have the right levels of products to meet customer needs as quickly and effectively as possible. But we get pressure from customers to ensure we are current with the latest technology. Being on the latest upgrade path is important to make it easy for them to do business with us. We want to meet customers’ requirements, and provide them with a choice in the way they work with us.”
LaVanture therefore wanted to take advantage of new features within the latest version, Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, to extend the capabilities of its business, specifically to gain an advantage with its customers.
Wiese says: “There were strategic business areas that we wanted to address by upgrading, including the development of an e–commerce strategy. From our past experiences of upgrading this solution, we knew that efficiency and speed of the upgrade would be a huge benefit. The flexibility of the product also helps. We implemented version 3.0 just a few weeks after release and it was a smooth process. So it made sense to move ahead with an upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 as quickly as possible.”
Solution
LaVanture has used this technology since it first reviewed the market in 2001. At the time, the company had a custom built solution built on the IBM AS/400 platform, which no longer supported the needs of the business. Following an extensive review of the market, which covered 25 different solutions, LaVanture narrowed down its choice to only two or three options. Competitors such as SAP and JD Edwards were ruled out at the outset, because their solutions were considered too expensive and inflexible for a medium-sized business.
Wiese says: “The Microsoft Dynamics AX business management solution was a near perfect fit for our business. Its development capabilities were impressive for the few areas which needed customization. We can now integrate the core areas of our business. Another important point is that the cost of the upgrade wasn’t prohibitive.”
LaVanture successfully implemented Microsoft Axapta 2.5 in 2002 and upgraded to Microsoft Axapta 3.0 in 2004. LaVanture is now upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0,.
With the upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, LaVanture will be using the following Microsoft Dynamics AX modules: accounts receivable, sales order, purchasing and accounts payable, inventory management and warehousing, master planning, and CRM. Following the upgrade, it plans to use the new enterprise planning module for running a Web site on Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, specifically to provide information for prospective and existing customers.
Wiese says: “New developments tend to be driven by the need to improve customer satisfaction. For example, we are extending the capabilities of the products in some areas, such as adapting the customer deliverables forms to allow customers to highlight specific requirements.”
LaVanture’s upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 took four to six weeks.
Benefits
Because of he additional functionality available in Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0. business data can be used and shared better than ever before, helping LaVanture employees to improve efficiency and enhance customer service.
Greater Insight into the Business
LaVanture is looking forward to benefiting from the enhanced data mining capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0.
Understanding purchasing patterns gives users an understanding of the requirements of their customers. This will help managers make more informed business decisions in the planning and management of stock levels in the warehouse, and in the fulfillment of orders to customers.
Wiese says: “We are constantly monitoring sales histories to identify trends, better understand our customers, and plan our business processes accordingly. The reporting services and analysis tools in SQL Server 2005 are better integrated into Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, and we can quickly mine customer data. This makes it easier to extract the business analysis that we need to help with planning and fulfillment. We have a greater insight into our business as a result.”
Reduces Training Costs
LaVanture believes that the upgrade process to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 will be simple and efficient, primarily because the product has a similar look and feel to previous versions and is familiar to people.
In addition, the business management solution interface is similar to Microsoft Windows® and the Microsoft Office System, which are used extensively throughout the company. This ensures a common user experience across most applications.
Wiese says: “We don’t expect there to be a lot of training required with the upgrade. This reduces disruption to the business and means that people can continue to focus on core business matters.”
Wiese also believes the similarity between different modules of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 is important to the whole user experience.
He says: “If you’re used to the Microsoft Dynamics AX sales order module, you will be immediately comfortable with the purchase order module, for example. They are very easy to use and intuitive, which helps people get up and running.”
Improved Performance and Reliability
LaVanture has been careful to put in place measures for the success of the upgrade process to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0. There are four areas of focus: reliability; performance; feature fit; and time.
Wiese says: “The short-term success of this project covers feature fit and time. All business processes will be functional from the day we go live; and I get to go home on time. In the long run, what is important is the improved performance and reliability that we will achieve with Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0. Its flexibility will help us tap into the full potential of our business.”
Customer Choice and Improved Service
The upgraded version of the business management solution also integrates closely with Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003. This will help LaVanture develop additional e–commerce services where customers can access information on orders or deliveries online, at any time.
Wiese says: “Being able to offer our customers greater choice in how they do business with us is a key reason for upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0. We’re looking forward to the time when customers come to our Web site to review their business with us online. This will include monitoring the status of new orders, past orders, or tracking ongoing orders. They may even manage the process themselves. This will add value to our customer service now and in the future.”