TigerFlow Industries, Dallas, Texas and Tulsa, Oklahoma
SAP® Business One Helps Pull Business Processes Together
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This leading supplier of equipment to the construction industry needed a better way to manage production, control costs and manage its finances. SAP Business One and VistaVu Solutions provided the answer.
Since 1985, TigerFlow Industries has made its name in the highly competitive pumping systems market, by engineering and manufacturing precision products to exacting specifications. It’s a bit ironic that, until 2008, this innovative company’s business software was anything but state of the art.
“We were using a code-written software from some guys in Dallas,” recalls Monroe Guest, TigerFlow’s Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Chief Financial Officer. “There were lots of issues with it, we were patching it as we went. And the support was gone, so at that point, we knew we needed something different.”
During the summer of 2007, Guest conducted a search for the best business software for TigerFlow and the best solutions provider to help implement it. To begin the process, he simply googled ‘manufacturing software’ and followed the trail. Over time, he narrowed down the search to a short-list of five companies that responded to TigerFlow’s request for proposal.
After an intensive review process, Guest and Dallas-headquartered TigerFlow selected SAP Business One and SRH Consulting of Dallas. Why SAP?
“It’s a well-known name,” says Guest, “and you know the support will always be there.”
Disciplined process, personal support drive implementation
Shortly after SRH’s Business One implementation process with TigerFlow began, SRH was acquired by VistaVu Solutions, an award-winning SAP Business One partner with operations in Houston, Dallas, Denver, Calgary and Edmonton.
According to VistaVu President and CEO Jory Lamb, TigerFlow’s choice of SAP Business One made perfect sense. First, it would end the patchwork approach to business software then prevailing at the company, by putting production, sales and finance on one integrated platform. Second, by choosing the world’s leader in business software, Guest’s concern about support would be answered for good. Finally, the company’s specific needs fit well with the SAP Business One system.
“The biggest issue for TigerFlow was job costing,” says Lamb. “SAP Business One allows them to see, in real time and post-project, how labor, inventory and production costs are influencing their profitability for each job. This adds a lot of functionality to their business. For the first time, they can see the whole picture.
Company sets process, SAP Business One enforces it
When a company chooses and purchases SAP Business One, they naturally want their system up and running as soon as possible. VistaVu Solutions’ 15-step implementation process is designed to give clients as much functionality as possible, with as little disruption as possible, in as little time as possible.
With the VistaVu team fully engaged, and with Guest and the people of TigerFlow fully committed, implementation and training took just a few months. Beginning in May 2008, Guest completed TigerFlow’s first month-end (April) on SAP Business One. One month later, the same process was even smoother.
“Any new software has its own quirks and its own learning curve,” says Guest. “The first month-end went well, but we found we had stuff to work on. In SAP, if you don’t close a job correctly, you normally can’t invoice for it. There were a lot of logistics to work out, but we’re on the right track now.”
To Lamb, it’s important to understand why there’s a learning curve with SAP Business One, and why that’s immensely beneficial to the client in the long run.
“SAP Business One doesn’t dictate how a company should run its business,” says Lamb. “You tell us how your business works, and we set it up the system to work the way you want. Business One enforces the business processes that the company has identified and makes sure they’re followed. That’s where the efficiency and the cost savings come from. The better we can set that up at the outset, the better the company’s results will be."