Austins & the ERP Makeover Contest are featured in ... - CONTAX Inc.

Taking on big dataout of the box ideas for the channelMarch madness?how the feds' spending has changedThe BYOD opportunityhow trend impacts channel PartnersC a n a d a ’ s C h a n n e l V o i c e f o r I T s i n c e 1 9 8 5Volume 28, Issue 3 March 2012computerdealernews.com

Dealscase studiesAn extreme marketing campaignoffers an extreme makeoverHow a Canadian SAP partner usedmarketing funds for a million dollarERP makeover contestby Harmeet Singhh s i n g h @ i t w o r l d c a n a d a . c o mWhile it may not be worthy of a realityTV show, a Canadian solution provider’sextreme marketing campaign is provingsuccessful for both it and for a familyownedcompany.Contax, Inc., an SAP AG partnerbased in Toronto, held its million dollarenterprise resource planning (ERP) makeovercontest in late 2011. “The extrememakeover campaign is something thatwe conceived in order to get attentionand exposure and publicity around SAPsolutions for small and mid-sized companies,”said Michael Pearson, president ofContax.In February, Contax selected JamesAustin Co., a family-owned manufacturingcompany based in Mars, Penn. as its winnerafter receiving thousands of applicationsonline.“They had a very compelling businesscase behind replacing their legacysystem with a new ERP system,” Pearsonsaid. Contax will provide up to $500,000of SAP software and up to $500,000 ofimplementation services, making its campaigna million dollar makeover.It will implement SAP Business Allin-One,which includes ERP softwarealong with customer relationship management(CRM) tools, supplier relationshipmanagement (SRM) software and businessintelligence tools. It also uses SAP’sNetWeaver technology platform, whichaims to allow for cost-effective add-ons asa business grows.James Austin hadn’t upgraded its systemin eight years and was looking for a refreshwhen its IT manager discovered Contax’smakeover contest.Its legacy system included software fromMacola, now owned by Exact America.James Austin Co.'s manufacturing facility in Mars, Penn. is one offour plants the company owns across the Eastern U.S.James Austin had implemented that ERPsystem in 2004. “It’s similar to SAP, butit has a lot of faults,” said Harry Austin,president of the company, now in itsfourth-generation of family ownership.“We have to do a lot of ancillary reportwriting to augment the system.”“We were on the back end of theirproduct life and then they came out witha lot of upgrades and we never installedthem because we had already done a lotof custom report writing to maketheir system work.”“We’re a medium-sized companythat can take advantage ofall the modules that are offeringby SAP,” he said. Austin describeshis family’s company as a mini-Procter and Gamble. With 245employees, the company manufacturesand distributes variouscleaning products and chemicals.It has four manufacturingfacilities in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,North Carolina and Florida. Each of thoseplants manufacture different products andthe company ships among them to distributeto its customers.The four plants are all managed fromits Pennsylvania headquarters. “We’ll createreports here that are very useful, butthe outside guys don’t know it,” Austinsaid. “The SAP system is going to allowus to let the outside factories have a morevisual perspective of what’s going on inthe business.”Harry Austin, president ofJames Austin Co.Contax began its consulting processlast month and has given a timeline ofthree to six months for completion. “Ourexpectation is that this will be not an easyconversion, but not extremely difficult,”Austin said.It has since created a high-level projectplan and is now moving into the blueprintingphase, or determining actualrequirements for implementing the software.Contax will likely have three or four employeesimplementing the project, whichPearson says speaks to a newer SAP, wherelengthy installations with full teams aren’tnecessary anymore.“Training is obviously a critical part ofthe process,” Pearson said. Contax willtrain the power users at James Austin first,then teach them how to train the rest ofthe staff.“We felt that there was a very strongcommitment from management,” Pearsonsaid, which helped solidify James Austin asthe winner. “We need the full support andcooperation and investment oftime and resources from the clientas well.”That commitment is alsoimportant for potential continualrevenue from the customer.While there is no obligation forthe winning company to continueits relationship with Contax afterthe initial implementation, theVAR was looking for a companythat would potentially invest inmore functionality down the road andthat sees IT as critical to business growth,Pearson said.“We had a lot of support from SAP,”he said. “We leveraged our marketingdevelopment funds to promote the contestthrough print, online advertising.” SAPalso helped promote the contest throughinternal publicity.Contax is planning another contest for2012 and for the next months will be regularlydocumenting the implementation atJames Austin on its Web site.22March 2012computerdealernews.com