Client:

Sarnova is a leading emergency medical products distributor. Fire departments, ambulance companies, and other emergency service providers rely on the broad range of emergency medical products Sarnova delivers. With a highly trained national sales force, Sarnova provides its customers with information and products, allowing them to maintain the highest standard of care.  Delivering the technology that keeps Sarnova’s main office and distribution centers humming is the talented consulting team of Socius, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

Sarnova and Socius have a long-standing relationship that was originally developed through the implementation and use of their Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP solution.  As Sarnova has grown, they have come to rely more and more heavily on the data within their Dynamics GP software to help inform their strategic business decisions.  In order to ensure that they were extracting and analyzing their critical business data in the most advantageous way, Sarnova engaged Socius in an ongoing Business Intelligence (BI) project.

Although Sarnova was collecting and analyzing business information in new and advantageous ways, they were still challenged with sharing that information across their entire organization to all of the individual decision makers throughout the country.  Together with Socius, they launched a Microsoft Office SharePoint intranet site to share business data across their organization.

One of the priorities of the SharePoint site was to provide each salesperson with a personalized snapshot of the sales, invoices, credits, and backorders that are their responsibility.  Socius created a set of customer specific SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) report dashboards that tied the user logged into SharePoint to the salesperson ID.  This enabled each salesperson’s individualized data to auto-populate when they log onto the site so they do not have to search for their records and always have a clear picture of their own progress.

Sarnova was also in need of a means of managing the setup tasks when a new employee came on board.  Socius was able to create an InfoPath form with workflows built in to route the on-boarding process through all of the necessary teams.  Now, when a new employee comes to Sarnova and is added to the system, all departments are notified of the tasks they need to perform in order to get that individual fully functional.

The ultimate goal of deploying SharePoint was to provide management as well as employees with dashboard views of the financial and operational status of the business.  Socius leveraged SSAS cubes and SSRS reporting services web parts to analyze the data that was being pulled from Microsoft Dynamics GP and deliver those results in real-time through corporate and operational dashboards.  These dashboards give all users an up-to-date and accurate picture of the health of the organization as it pertains their individual roles.

Sarnova has already realized time and cost savings by providing access to critical business insights to everyone in their organization.  As they continue to work with Socius to grow their Business Intelligence and gain greater insight into their organization, they will continue to look for new ways to leverage SharePoint to display that data in usable formats and share it with decision makers in all areas of their business.

CHALLENGE
Sarnova was gathering tremendous business insights but needed to make that information available to the right people across their organization.

SOLUTION
Socius provided a customized SharePoint intranet site that gives users access to dashboard views of the information that is critical to their daily tasks as well as the overall health of the business.

RESULTS
Sales and IT staff save time by having information delivered to them, rather than having to search for it.  Everyone across the organization can make better informed decisions based on current and accurate information.

Nachurs Alpine Solutions is a manufacturer and distributor of high quality liquid starter fertilizers, other fertility amendments, and a variety of industrial products.

Despite being long-time Microsoft customers, Nachurs had a large number of disorganized Microsoft Office files that they used as templates.  They realized that they needed a place where they could standardize their Office templates and establish a document approval process.

Socius, Nachurs’ long-time Microsoft Dynamics GP partner, leveraged Microsoft SharePoint to create a document library.  The two organizations worked together to create base Office templates that would be the defaults in the library.  By storing standardized templates in the document library, Nachurs was able to eliminate redundancy in document creation which in turn saves time and helps to prevent errors.

Additionally, Socius created an employee list within SharePoint.  They also developed a workflow that pulls the appropriate approver from the employee list so that specific managers would be able to review and approve necessary documents during the routing process.

One area where this process has been particularly helpful is in the processing of internal expenses.  An employee can now access their personalized expense template and submit their expenses online using the SharePoint site.  That expense report is then automatically routed to the individual’s approver.  Once the individual’s manager either approves or rejects the expense report, the individual who submitted it is automatically notified by email of the status of their report and can take any necessary action.

The streamlined document management and processing that Nachurs has achieved through SharePoint has saved them time and prevented costly errors, enabling them to operate more efficiently and focus on continuing to grow their business.

CHALLENGE
Nachurs Alpine Solutions had disorganized Office files that they were using as templates which led to manual processes that left them vulnerable to errors and redundancy.

SOLUTION
Socius leveraged SharePoint to create an Office template document library and a workflow to streamline document routing through the appropriate employees automatically.

RESULTS
Employees are now able create and submit templates which are processed through a workflow, saving time and effort.

FFR-DSI, Inc. is the market-leading supplier of high-impact merchandising systems and accessories for all retailing segments. The company is known throughout the industry for its outstanding customer service, its wide array of products, and its quick delivery. To maintain and increase its success, FFR-DSI requires an ERP solution that supports its business processes, backed by a partner that understands service. For FFR-DSI, the winning combination is Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the professionals at Socius.

Business-Building Solution

When FFR-DSI acquired a similar company, it sought to integrate and streamline the combined operations. “The other company was running Oracle,” recalls Tom McNany, director of IT for FFR-DSI. “We considered standardizing operations on Oracle, but ruled it out in favor of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. With Dynamics, the total cost of ownership is substantially lower, the ease of use is notable, and it offers all the flexibility we need to meet our changing business needs.”

Microsoft Dynamics NAV had already been serving as the company’s ERP solution for nearly a decade, so the company had first-hand knowledge of the product’s functionality and power. “Coincidentally, our Microsoft business partner merged with Socius about the time of our implementation, so Socius became our support team,” explains McNany. “They have a broad range of talent, solutions, and resources and we really value their expertise.”

Back-Office Powerhouse

FFR-DSI leverages Microsoft Dynamics NAV in many key areas of its operation. “Microsoft Dynamics NAV is our backoffice powerhouse,” McNany says. “We utilize it for our accounting, purchasing, order processing, production tasks, and financial reporting.”

A Best-of-Breed Strategy

McNany notes that another reason the company elected to stay with its Microsoft solution is the broad range of companion and third-party solutions available. “We are thinking about incorporating Microsoft CRM, for example. And there are some powerful business intelligence tools we are evaluating as well,” he says. “By partnering with Microsoft and Socius, we are able to leverage our technology investment.”

An integrated warehouse management solution, Manhattan SCALE™, is the high-performing supply chain management solution that powers FFR-DSI’s distribution channel. “SCALE is built on the Microsoft platform, so it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It helps us get the right products to the right place at the right time,” McNany adds.

Socius introduced the company to other companion solutions that support job management, document management, and credit card processing. “Socius is helping us launch a new eCommerce solution,” McNany says. “We have embraced the best-of-breed strategy. By selecting the best and embracing new technology, we stay on top of our game.”

Scalable Power

The company has grown by more than 50 percent over the past several years. All the while its ERP solution has scaled to meet the increasing demands. “We now process some 25,000 orders each month,” says McNany. “And we have never felt like we were in any way stressing the software.”

The flexibility, scalability, and customizability of Microsoft Dynamics NAV are its biggest benefits to the company. “We are able to enhance our competitive position by modifying the software to meet changing business needs and address customer requests,” McNany says.

From an IT perspective, FFR-DSI has only praise for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. “It is incredibly stable and usable,” says McNany. “Users are able to get what they need on their own, which further eases the burden on my IT department.”

Expert Support

Socius provides what McNany calls a consistent resource base. “The same team has been there for a long time. The depth and breadth of knowledge among the group is enormous,” he concludes. “Socius has a great deal of experience with NAV and other Microsoft solutions— in fact many on the team are recognized as experts in the field.”

Client:

The American Red Cross helps communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies through training programs and coordinated volunteer efforts. To sustain its mission in the face of reduced funding, the Greater Cleveland Chapter needed to reduce costs by streamlining its operations, including financial, sales, and warehouse processes. Working with local Microsoft® Partner Socius, the chapter implemented Microsoft Dynamics® GP to help drive more efficient processes and provide greater insight into the organization’s financial situation. Since deploying Microsoft Dynamics GP, the Greater Cleveland Chapter has dramatically increased productivity, cutting annual warehouse costs in half and reducing staffing requirements by more than 50 percent while increasing its annual endowment from U.S.$7.5 million to U.S.$9 million.

Situation

The American Red Cross provides disaster relief and emergency services for thousands of people every year. In addition to responding to catastrophes such as apartment fires and weather-related events, the organization serves local communities with education, training, and products that enable people to prepare for and respond to disasters and other life-threatening emergencies. The American Red Cross supports the mission of saving more lives by developing training and educational programs, and supports the margin needs of the organization by increasing revenue through the sale of training and emergency-preparedness products.

The American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland has served the community in and surrounding Cleveland, Ohio, for more than 100 years. The Greater Cleveland Chapter employs approximately 55 people to set up and teach training classes for businesses and other organizations, organize volunteer efforts, administer office operations, and manage the warehouse. The chapter also sells emergency-preparedness materials, books, and other retail class items through a sales team and the organization’s Web site.

In 2001, the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland replaced its accounting system with Microsoft Dynamics® GP, which offered greater integration with its donor management software and provided real-time insight into the organization’s financial status. Business Finance magazine awarded the organization a 2007 Vision Award for its business performance management efforts built on Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Like other chapters of the American Red Cross, the Greater Cleveland Chapter is continually challenged to achieve greater efficiency in its operations, enabling the organization to fulfill its mission in the face of difficult funding situations. “We rely on the goodwill of the American people for our funding, so as national and regional economic difficulties impact individuals and businesses, that in turn affects us,” says Bob Dills, CFO at the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland. “At that same time, other organizations are changing the way they allocate funding that leaves fewer resources for us. In the face of all this, we still have a vital mission to accomplish—it doesn’t cost any less to provide relief to a family that has lost their house in a fire, for example.”

Solution

The American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland decided to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 as part of a broader technology initiative that would enable the organization to further minimize overhead costs without compromising its core mission. Besides upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 to streamline internal operations, the initiative included deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a volunteer management, training management, and sales and marketing system to help recruit and process volunteers more effectively in case of a national or regional disaster and to assist in overall emergency preparedness.

Business Case for Upgrade

“We are very conservative in terms of our technology investments, but had no hesitancy about upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0,” says Dills. “Microsoft Dynamics GP combined with Business Portal is essential in our efforts to manage costs while maintaining our capacity to respond to events. The solution is even easier to use and makes relevant information and tasks readily accessible to more employees.”

Because Microsoft Dynamics GP looks like and works with applications in the Microsoft® Office system, employees at the chapter use the software more effectively. “Our employees are able to leverage what they already know about Microsoft Office Outlook® and Microsoft Office Word. Moreover, they can move information from applications in the Microsoft Office system directly into Microsoft Dynamics GP,” says Richard Hankins, CIO and Director of Administrative Services for the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland.

The Greater Cleveland Chapter worked with Socius to upgrade Microsoft Dynamics GP and deploy the volunteer management system based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. “We’ve worked with American Red Cross chapters for nearly 10 years and applied our knowledge of their operations to help set up the systems in a way that made sense for their unique organization,” says Denise Adams, Director of Client Services at Socius.

Access Across the Organization

Socius helped set up an online portal so that more people could easily interact with Microsoft Dynamics GP. “Not everyone needs to work with Microsoft Dynamics GP directly; they may only need to access a functionality specific to their role in the organization. With Microsoft Dynamics GP, we can keep our licensing costs to a minimum and affordably extend the reach of the system to more employees,” says Hankins. “Roughly 60 percent of our staff can get everything they need without ever needing to log in to Microsoft Dynamics GP.”

“Because of the systems we have in place, the sales staff, the customer service staff, the finance department, and the fundraising department automatically begin working together once they start seeing data move from their desktop to everybody else’s desktop,” says Hankins. “All that data is available to them at any time they want if they have the correct permissions.”

Administrators at the Greater Cleveland Chapter now have greater control over business processes with workflow controls. They can set up approval processes so that system routes purchase orders through the appropriate channels, with review messages automatically appearing in the managers’ Office Outlook inboxes. “We have more control over the processes now that they are driven,” says Hankins. “For example, employees need to go through the proper channels before adding a vendor to the vendor database. This increases accountability and makes administration much less burdensome.”

By making important business functions available online, the chapter simplifies purchasing processes and helps employees avoid unnecessary tasks. When negotiating contracts, purchasing staff members access account histories in their role-specific dashboard to ensure the deal conforms to bidding rules. Purchasing staff members can also create minimum inventory levels in Microsoft Dynamics GP so that they automatically receive reorder alerts in Office Outlook when supplies are low.

Employees involved in the sales and shipping processes are more productive with Microsoft Dynamics GP and have cut lead times on orders by 40 percent since deploying the solution. For example, when salespeople finalize an order, Microsoft Dynamics GP sends an automatic notification to the warehouse, eliminating paperwork and possible miscommunication between the salesperson who placed the order and the warehouse employees who picked and packed it. Salespeople can easily check shipment status for an order online.

Department heads and financial staff are also more productive with Microsoft Dynamics GP. For example, with online access to reporting functions through Microsoft FRx® WebPort, department heads can securely publish, store, and manage reports, including Microsoft FRx reports, and Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheets. For employees in the accounting team, Microsoft FRx WebPort provides simple access to detailed information from multiple sources. Department heads at the Greater Cleveland Chapter use the online reporting tool to quickly find information during the budget creation and reporting processes.

The Greater Cleveland Chapter has roughly 75 projects and 15 departments. Every month, department heads have two and a half days to review statements, make adjustments, and prepare explanations to the finance committee. “Microsoft Forecaster works with Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft FRx Reporter to make this process tremendously easier. It empowers our stakeholders to investigate and collaborate to create a budget faster,” says Dills. “In the latest version, Microsoft Forecaster has a look and feel that is very similar to Office Excel. This eases adoption among employees who use the tools and increases their productivity.”

Setting an Example for Other Chapters

Based on the experiences of the Greater Cleveland Chapter and other regional chapters, more chapters of the American Red Cross are aware of the benefits of using Microsoft Dynamics GP. “Other chapters have approached us with interest about what we’ve done with Microsoft Dynamics GP. We tell them that it’s an investment, but one that pays great dividends,” says Dills.

The Greater Cleveland Chapter and Socius set up Microsoft Dynamics GP where employees access the system through Terminal Services. This approach lets the chapter extend the life of its desktop computers, simplify application maintenance, and provide smaller community chapters access to the same systems at a reasonable cost.

Benefits

Since deploying Microsoft Dynamics GP, the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland has reduced costs and focused its employees’ energies on its core mission. Microsoft Dynamics GP provides employees at the chapter with the tools and insight they need to be as productive and efficient as possible.

“The donations we receive are extremely important to this organization, and we have to be very careful how we spend them,” says Dills. “Microsoft Dynamics GP helps us keep our overhead low so that 85 percent or more of our donations go right to services for the people in the community or the nation.”

Reduced Costs

Since the Greater Cleveland Chapter deployed Microsoft Dynamics GP in 2001, the organization has reduced its paid staff by more than 50 percent—from 115 employees to just 55 full-time staff. Over this period, the chapter’s ability to fulfill its mission has remained unaffected and its annual budget has increased from approximately U.S.$7.5 million to U.S.$9 million.

“We are doing the exact same amount of work, but we’re doing it smarter,” says Hankins. “Microsoft Dynamics GP has improved our operational efficiency tremendously.”

Employees now use Microsoft Dynamics GP to route approvals and notifications, cutting lead times on sales orders by 40 percent. “We’ve been able to reduce our inventory levels by one-third because we know we can get new supplies faster,” says Dills. “That saves space and means people are spending less time moving things around the warehouse, taking them out of boxes and putting them on the shelves. Most importantly, it’s increased cash flow for the organization.” Hankins, who previously oversaw warehouse operations, estimates warehouse overhead costs have been halved because of Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Increased Focus on Core Mission

Microsoft Dynamics GP helps the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland succeed in its core mission of providing disaster prevention, preparation, and relief services. The chapter uses Business Portal and Microsoft FRx WebPort to reduce the amount of time employees spend on administrative tasks and to empower them with the right information and functionality needed to do their jobs.

“Microsoft Dynamics GP helps us eliminate process inefficiencies so that our employees spend more time organizing volunteer training and doing other important tasks,” says Dills. “Microsoft Dynamics GP has helped us progress as an organization to the point where we’re not struggling with getting things done in the system, but rather using it to do things better and more efficiently.”

IT staff at the Greater Cleveland Chapter are more productive with Microsoft Dynamics GP, which the organization delivers to employees through Terminal Services. The IT team deploys software updates centrally and spends less time on maintenance. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics GP is easy to understand, so new employees are productive faster with less training. “We don’t have to go around and update nearly 50 computers. Instead, we have more time to deal with strategic issues,” explains Hankins.

And, by offering Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to community chapters, the Greater Cleveland Chapter enables these smaller sister organizations to better focus on their core mission. As part of the regional chapter, Hankins and Dills are glad to offer IT support and financial systems assistance to these important community chapters.

Improved Budgeting Process

The finance and IT departments at the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland collaborate to improve visibility into and management over financials. Microsoft Dynamics GP provides the foundation and tools for this collaboration. “We are very fortunate to have a great relationship between our IT and finance teams, as well as executive buy-in. When we first started our budgeting and forecasting process using Microsoft Forecaster, our CEO was the first to make an adjustment,” says Dills.

Online access to data and reporting functions in Microsoft Dynamics GP provides department heads with secure access to the accounts they are responsible for so that they can drill down from a category to account and to transaction. “We’ve set up the transactions in Microsoft Dynamics GP so that people can easily look into reference information such as vendor, donor, or customer name,” says Hankins. “Because I am responsible for several departments, I understand firsthand how having all this information in one place makes a difference. I can easily find out why costs are high in a certain area and answer questions about my budget with confidence.”

The American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland is now better equipped to meet future needs of the Greater Cleveland community because Microsoft Dynamics GP frees employees to focus on mission-critical jobs. The chapter has the tools to ensure its operations are as efficient and focused as possible.

“The award we won from Business Finance magazine for our business performance management initiative was absolutely, unequivocally made possible by Microsoft Dynamics GP,” says Hankins. “Microsoft Dynamics GP with Business Portal is extending the benefits of the system to more people in our organization.”

So how do you know what the solution you use (or were considering using) is called today?  Here’s a quick guide:

All Sage Peachtree and Sage Simply Accounting solutions are now a variation of Sage 50

Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200, Sage Fund Accounting, and Sage Master Builder are now Sage 100 ERP

• Sage ERP MAS 90 is Sage 100 Standard ERP
• Sage ERP MAS 200 is Sage 100 Advanced ERP

Sage ERP Accpac and Timberline products are now Sage 300 ERP

Sage ERP MAS 500 is now Sage 500 ERP

Other products that experienced a name change are:

SageCRM is now Sage CRM

Sage FAS Fixed Assets is now Sage Fixed Assets

Sage Abra SQL HRMS is now Sage HRMS

Sage Timberline Estimating is now Sage Estimating

All other Sage software solution names remain unchanged.

For more information on these changes, please see Sage’s branding page or contact your Socius Account Manager.

The CFO of Valued Relationships Inc., Richard Filler, explains how Microsoft Dynamics GP has saved the company time processing their monthly recurring transactions:

“The solution that we chose to improve our financial reporting system was Microsoft Dynamics GP and the reason we chose it was its ability to grow with our business; we’ve tripled our client size over the last three years. We really needed a system that we could integrate with our operating system as well as improve financial reporting. The unique need for implementing Dynamics GP for us was the ability to handle monthly recurring transactions. We have over 7000 transactions that recur every month and the only solution that was really out there that could help us was Microsoft Dynamics GP. To start out with we saved FTE equivalents of about half an FTE from processing lockbox transactions alone. We’ve only been using Microsoft Dynamics for about a year, I really look forward to the next year where we’re going to gain additional efficiencies for processing fixed assets as well as collections management. Socius has really partnered with us to learn our business and understand our needs. Since they’ve sat on both sides of the desk, not only as implementation experts but also as people who actually use accounting systems, they are able to build solutions that really help my staff do what we need to do.”

Hear from Bev Johns, IT and HR Manager at SAW, Inc., how Microsoft Dynamics GP has supported the growth of their not-for-profit organization:

“We’ve been using Dynamics GP since 1997 and our business has evolved during that time from manufacturing and now we are doing more with urban farming, retail; so project management was something that we needed to capture our costs at any given point in time. The benefits that we’ve experienced using the GP solution is that the user functionality is very user friendly, so that when we have turnover in staff or someone filling in, it’s very easy to pick up from one module to the next. Working with Socius has improved the way we do business in that we feel continuity in dealing with the same people all the time, they know our unique business needs, they know our staff well, and we don’t need to start from square one each time we need their assistance. They’ve become more like an extension of our staff.”

Jim Felter, the Controller for Hattie Larlham Care Group, a family of not-for-profit organizations in Northeast Ohio, discusses the benefits they gain from managing inter-company transactions with Dynamics GP:

“We use Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010. It’s our main General Ledger package; we use it to pay our bills, we do our purchasing with it, we do the bank statement reconciliation and the financial statements and we’re using FRx. It’s been a reliable platform for us, we’re familiar with it, and it gets the job done. We have multiple companies and we are doing multiple general ledgers, they have intercompany transactions, and GP does an outstanding job for us at maintaining those intercompany accounts. We’re able to make one entry and it affects all of the companies; it keeps everything in balance. That’s a peace of mind for me as the controller. I don’t really think about those inter-companies like I would normally have to because I know they are in balance every month. My experience with Socius has been positive. They have fulfilled their obligations, they’ve made commitments and the follow-through is great, communication is good. They’re reliable and that is why we use Socius.”

Chris DiBenedetto, the CFO of BWF America, explains how the manufacturer gained business process improvements by upgrading to Sage MAS 200 EES, now Sage 100 ERP:

“We were looking at implementing a bar code solution for our business. We realized that we really needed to upgrade to the latest version of Sage MAS 200 to get a good quality bar code solution in house. We really liked the integration between the CRM product and the MAS 200 product and what benefits that gave us with the two products being integrated together, which is one of the main reasons we went to the upgrade of MAS 200 EES. We also added additional process improvements. We were using an 8 year old version of MAS 200 before then and we weren’t using all of the proper processes that company should be using. With the MAS 200 EES implementation, we have a better idea of what our business is doing and why it is doing what it is doing and how we can improve in the future. Since we started working with Socius, we have a better understanding of what MAS 200 can do for our business. That was something we didn’t get from our previous partner, but our relationship with Socius has been great. We just have a better understanding of what MAS 200 provides for us and a better understanding of our products.”

Craig Lutsi, Accounting Manager for The Shepherd Chemical Company, explains how the chemical manufacturer uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM to integrate their sales processes:

“Our company recently changed our organizational structure to integrate our sales staff globally. As a result, we needed to find a way to organize all of our data in a way that is accessible to all of our sales staff throughout the world. We also wanted to automate a lot of our sales processes. We selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM because we liked its out-of-the-box capabilities as well as its ability to be customized easily to fit our exact business needs. We’ve used CRM to streamline our call reporting processes, our sample order processes, and the organization of our account and contact data. The benefit that we have received from using Microsoft Dynamics CRM is that our sales staff has minimized the amount of time they put into day to day tasks and can spend more time in front of our customers generating more sales opportunities. We chose to work with Socius because of their reputation in the marketplace, as well as the strong recommendation we received from our sister company.”