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Boulder Creek Stone, a family-owned manufacturer of stone and thin brick veneer, was operating its business using a combination of systems. Sage was used for inventory, sales order processing and accounts receivable, while Microsoft Dynamics handled the General Ledger, payroll and accounts payable functions. Data migration was done manually using Excel spreadsheets and Crystal Reports provided some business reporting. The company found it difficult to track the different lines of business efficiently and deep dives into company data to spot trends or operational deficiencies were nonexistent. The staff wasted a lot of time checking for double entries, verifying accuracy among multiple paper documents and reconciling them when questions arose. Operating with “laymen’s IT”, even small customizations were difficult in Sage, which meant Boulder Creek had to spend thousands of dollars in IT consulting fees when it wanted to customize Sage to conform to the way the company did business.

Ahlsell, a leading trading company in plumbing, heating, and electrical supplies, faced several challenges as it sought to expand its business. The company's aggressive growth strategy involved acquiring local businesses in strategic geographies and product segments. Each acquisition brought new business practices and established IT solutions, making it difficult to achieve synergies. Ahlsell also struggled with creating uniform business processes across different countries and customer types. The company lacked integration between sales, order processing, purchasing, logistics, invoicing, and distribution. Additionally, Ahlsell had to manage an extremely broad product assortment, which was becoming increasingly complex as the company expanded. The company needed a solution that could support its growth, streamline its operations, and provide transparency across its sales and supply chain.

Albert Heijn, the largest company in the Royal Ahold group and the grocery retail market leader in the Netherlands, needed to find a new supply chain solution to adapt more quickly to changing consumer behavior. The legacy software they were using was not up to the task of meeting the new requirements. The company was looking for a solution that could handle warehouse management, route management, quality control, and real-time mobile solutions for handheld and truck-mounted RF devices with scanners and voice interaction.

Before the implementation of the Respond solution, AXA Insurance was struggling to meet internal service levels. The company was also facing difficulties in capturing complaints and feedback from various parts of the organisation. This was a significant challenge as it hindered the company's ability to effectively manage and respond to customer feedback, which is crucial in the insurance industry where customer satisfaction can significantly impact the company's reputation and bottom line.

Berner Foods, a leading supplier of quality food products, was facing several challenges. The company lacked complete information from the shop floor, which prevented them from identifying and addressing root causes of inefficiencies. They were also struggling with capacity constraints, as they were unable to determine the root causes of production inefficiency and capacity constraints. This lack of visibility was restricting their capacity and business growth. Additionally, production personnel were spending hundreds of man-hours every week filling out dozens of forms. Supervisors alone were spending between two and four hours every day on paperwork.

CARF, an independent, nonprofit accreditation organization, was facing a growing demand for its services. The accreditation process was complex and demanding, requiring a significant amount of time, labor, and data collection. The process was also very paper-driven, which added to the complexity and inefficiency. The organization needed a solution that could streamline the accreditation process, improve communication among staff, customers, and surveyors, and manage the growing demand for its services.

Hammond Group, a global specialty chemical company, had been using Ross ERP since 2006. Over time, they had extensively modified the system to accommodate their unique business needs. However, maintaining these customizations became a difficult and expensive task, preventing them from taking advantage of key Ross updates and new features like data collection, quality control, TraceExpress, or Enterprise Viewer. When Hammond learned that Ross had developed a simplified installation process, they decided it was the ideal time to move to the latest version of Ross ERP and eliminate a good deal of their custom programming.

Illes Seasonings and Flavors is a third-generation family-owned company that focuses on developing and producing seasonings and flavors. To position itself for growth as a low-cost provider, the company needed a technology partner that knew Its business and wouldn't break the bank. The company was in need of a solution that could manage finances and develop KPIs so that managers could see data in real time, and make decisions based on knowing the details instead of general observations and historical data.

The Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY) had been using the same association management system for 10 years, but it didn't provide the modern features and functionality they needed. The system was also missing key member relationship and new member development functionality, including web capabilities to process online dues, events transactions, and sell MACNY professional services.

NorgesGruppen, a privately held grocery retailer, aimed to expand its business into a position as market leader in wholesale and retail in Norway. The company faced several challenges including high costs for growing business volumes, limitations in capacity and quality that drove the need to redesign the supply chain, inadequate systems for future state, and new product categories adding new requirements. The company was formed by acquiring several regional retail and wholesale companies. The new group structure includes common corporate-level functions for purchasing and logistics, but also continued operation of regional companies with full profit-and-loss responsibility for sales and operations. With this followed internal sales and purchasing transactions that needed to be automated as far as possible. At the same time, NorgesGruppen wanted to create a single face to all customers and stores with access to the same services and assortment.

Stryker Osteosynthesis, a provider of reconstructive, trauma and spinal products in the medical technology industry, was facing challenges in managing its supply chain. The company was struggling with high expectations from customers requiring 24/7 service levels on practically all product offerings, volatility in demand, aligning supply to demand in an ever-changing supply chain, and ensuring suppliers have timely visibility of requirements. The company was also facing issues with inventory quality and delays in product availability. Without strong supply chain visibility, Stryker was unable to optimize its operational effectiveness and efficiencies. The company was experiencing the bullwhip effect, which stems from incorrect forecasts and created additional supply chain challenges. Stryker’s operational efficiency suffered from inconsistent inbound/outbound performance and manufacturing loads, hindering the company’s ability to operate a stable, uniform-capacity load required for optimized process efficiencies.

The world's fifth largest software Infrastructure company is serious about customer service and relies on Knova knowledge management to help keep customers happy. Their innovative use of social media enhances support by adding proactive and interactive customer contact opportunities. Providing an excellent customer experience is considered a minimum requirement for successful operations. The company wanted to harness available resources and technologies to raise the service to a whole new level.

Audatex, a global leader in database development and implementation of software and services for the automobile and insurance claims processing industry, was facing challenges with their existing knowledge management (KM) systems and structure. Their homegrown systems were not upgradable, were beginning to show their age and lacked reporting. The existing solution did not support Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) principles and was, in fact, simply a repository – not a true KM system. There was no knowledge manager, no KM infrastructure, no consistent content structure or review process, and company information and knowledge were not under centralized management. These issues were hampering their efforts to provide superior customer service.

Building and maintaining solid member relationships, technological innovation, and exceptional service have long been the core of BlueShore Financial’s success. In the competitive, rapidly changing financial services industry, BlueShore Financial needed to improve its understanding of each member and expand the value of every relationship. BlueShore Financial needed to better match up services to members in order to improve customer retention, increase profitability, and provide superior service in an increasingly competitive environment.

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.

Faurecia's Columbus, Indiana operation, which specializes in the design and prototyping of automotive and heavy equipment exhaust systems, was facing several challenges. They were relying on an outdated DOS-based system and a lot of spreadsheets for managing production and inventory. The lack of a modern system made it difficult for them to control their inventory and accurately predict when a job would be ready to ship. The prototyping shop was always under pressure to deliver quickly, and every job was different. This made it challenging to handle the jobs and the paperwork. Furthermore, new orders were likely to disrupt any production schedule they already had in place.

Haynes Wire Company was struggling with an outdated and inadequate incumbent system that was increasingly unable to manage and provide access to the information needed to effectively operate its growing and expanding business. The company had a lack of information on per-order costs, which was a serious concern in such a competitive field. The order setup was cumbersome and had to be redone for each new order. The legacy system’s minimal reporting and tracking capabilities and lack of routing history left the company with little in the way of information tools to run the business.

Mission Pharmacal, a leading producer of pharmaceutical and nutritional products, was facing increasing competitive pressure in the pharmaceutical industry. The company was struggling to ensure accurate fulfillment and on-time shipments due to a lack of collaboration with its suppliers and customers. Additionally, the company had limited visibility between manufacturing processes, which made it difficult to manage materials throughout production. Costing was also a critical issue for the company as it sold its products into the consumer packaged goods market. Furthermore, the company needed to improve its lot-trace capabilities for its products in the event of a recall or audit by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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.

Children’s University Hospital Temple Street, an acute Paediatric Hospital, was facing challenges with promoting quality and managing risk. The hospital aimed to empower all staff to assume responsibility for effective risk management by reporting adverse incidents and complaints to improve the quality of patient care. However, the significant challenges associated with effectively managing risk and promoting quality and safety within a hospital environment prompted Temple Street to extend its Aptean Respond system, making it accessible at ward and departmental level by rolling it out across the hospital.

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.

Jamba Juice Bakersfield, a franchise of the world-renowned juicery and eatery, was facing a challenge common to many small to medium-sized businesses - targeting local customers and generating traffic. With an increasing number of competitors entering the market, the task was becoming increasingly difficult. The franchise, which operates four locations in central California, had a lean marketing budget and lacked an experienced marketer. They were in search of a quick and effective way to communicate with local residents to improve its in-store traffic.

Attic, a fashion-forward streetwear clothing retail store, was looking to cultivate a competitive edge in the fashion retail industry. They wanted to think outside the box with a winning marketing strategy for Black Friday. The strategy was to incorporate social media and mobile marketing through Trumpia to expand their marketing reach. They aimed to create an exclusive customer list, send promotional texts, and in Attic’s case, the text would act as a VIP ticket admission to the Black Friday event.

Michael C. Fina and Tacori, leaders in the jewelry and bridal industry, hosted their second annual 'Diamond Dash: Dash for a Diamond & a Cure' benefiting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The event was a one-day scavenger hunt that took couples racing around NYC in 15 locations, receiving clues via SMS messages where they had to participate in tasks such as taking a picture, finding a clue, and replying back via text - all in real time. For a smooth and successful campaign, Michael C. Fina and company needed a reliable and easy-to-use platform as well as delivery on real-time results throughout the campaign process.

7-Eleven Hawaii wanted a quick and easy way to send promotions to all their customers, but paper coupons are a nuisance to remember and carry. 7-Eleven needed a digital marketing solution that was easy to use and could handle the sheer volume of coupons they would need for all of their locations.

Advisors at Sonoma State University were facing a communication challenge. They were sending emails for department news, course offerings, etc. However, many students complained about receiving too many emails from too many different departments. The advisors also tried plastering flyers around campus and waiting for students to come into the office, but these methods proved to be unreliable. The advisors were in need of a new, more effective way to ensure students were receiving important messages.

Longwood University was selected to host the sole vice-presidential debate of the 2016 election cycle on their campus. This event required a significant amount of coordination and communication, particularly with volunteers who would be assisting with the event. The university needed a platform that could effectively coordinate volunteers in real time for the day of the debate and corresponding events the week prior. Additionally, they needed a way to keep attendees and students notified of on-campus events.