Rucker’s Finds Sweet Success with Microsoft Dynamics nav
Leading candy wholesaler reduces reporting from 3 days to 1 hour, achieves 99% inventory accuracy, and increases profitability by up to 7% with Microsoft Dynamics® NAV (formerly Navision).
MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV BENEFITS
- 3% to 7% increase in our profitability, largely due to the increased reporting capability
- Achieved 98% to 99% inventory accuracy
- Improved inventory tracking by 50%
- Reduced reporting time from 3 days to 1 hour
- Ability to access real-time information about the business to make better decisions.
Call us on 0845 084 0152 to see how Microsoft Dynamics NAV can help your business.
Rucker’s Wholesale and Service began as a small home-based business in 1985. Today, the Bridgeport, Illinois-based company remains family-owned and operated, but it has grown into a nationwide candy distributorship with 120 employees in 43 states with several traveling salesmen nationwide. Its goods are sold through in-store displays in individual stores as well as in larger chains. Rucker’s prides itself on guaranteeing more profit in less space than any other bag candy competitor.
Considered one of the fastest growing candy distributors in the United States, Rucker's soon realised that its Peachtree financial system could not keep pace with its growth. Determined to find a business solution that could allow Rucker’s to operate more efficiently and continue to expand, the company turned to Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Tectura.
ERP BUSINESS CHALLENGE
According to Rob Rucker, vice president of sales, the current financial system could no longer meet individual customer needs. And with customer relationships key to this business, Rucker’s knew it had to resolve this problem quickly and effectively. “As a wholesale distributor, we have regular and sale pricing associated with the same UPC and SKU tables specific for our customers. With our current system, these tables were becoming unmanageable. As a result, we were forced to employ many time-consuming manual processes, including a large amount of data entry, to gather and track this data,” says Rucker. “This slowed us down and prevented us from working efficiently with our customers. It also introduced the risk of error from incorrectly entered data.”
Rucker also wanted to better monitor sales and customer buying patterns, which meant having the ability to analyse this data. “We needed to produce more up-to-date reports, but we didn’t have the tools or technology to do this easily—if at all,” says Rucker.
THE MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV SOLUTION
Rucker was first introduced to Microsoft Dynamics NAV by a friend, and quickly realised that it offered the ERP functionality his company needed to gain better control and visibility into its business data. “Once we were shown the potential of the solution and how compatible it was with our business goals, we knew that Microsoft Dynamics NAV was the right choice,” says Rucker.
“We were most impressed with the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable modules. These were the areas where we experienced bottlenecks when handling entries for different customers with regular and monthly sale pricing and were therefore unable to produce a common report to show all the activity,” says Rucker. Microsoft Dynamics NAV offered us a proven solution for streamlining these processes and eliminating manual data entry. And it offered us the ability to analyse this data, so that we could use it to make strategic decisions moving forward.”
Rucker notes that Microsoft Dynamics NAV also provided the ability to balance inventories from raw goods to packaged goods, as well as streamline invoicing.
As part of its overall ERP system, Rucker’s installed Microsoft BizTalk Server. BizTalk Server is designed to help companies efficiently and effectively integrate systems, employees, and trading partners. “BizTalk has helped us improve customer service by allowing us to better handle the EDI process,” says Rucker. They also installed JetReports and are still exploring all the features of this reporting tool.
Finding a solution provider proved rather easy for Rucker’s. “After our initial consultation, we didn’t look any further,” he says. “We felt that Tectura understood our business and our IT-related needs. They understood how to leverage Microsoft Dynamics NAV to help us automate more of our processes and better serve our customers.”
According to Rucker, the implementation process ran smoothly and was both on time and on budget. “We feel that the implementation went very well,” says Rucker. “At times it was challenging to get the system to do what we wanted, but considering the size of the project and that the system was implemented in only 30 days, Tectura really pulled through. Looking back, I think the implementation methodology used by Tectura was certainly key to our success. ”
ERP BENEFITS
Rucker’s Wholesale and Service has experienced some solid results since installing its Microsoft Dynamics NAV system.
Profitability: Since installing its Microsoft Dynamics NAV system, the company has experienced a steady increase in profitability. “We’ve seen a 3% to 7% increase in our profitability, largely due to the increased reporting capability provided by Microsoft Navision. We’ve experienced a much faster turnaround in reporting than with our previous system, which has proved to be a tremendous source of value,” says Rucker. “Our trucks are going out daily 24/7, and this system has allowed all departments to work together seamlessly.”
Inventory turns: Rucker’s discovered that its Microsoft Dynamics NAV system helped increase turns. “As I’ve mentioned, we used to do a lot of hand entries that really slowed our process down. Navision has allowed us to connect inventory to sales more quickly.” The company also was able to improve inventory accuracy. “We are confident that we have achieved 98% to 99% inventory accuracy,” says Rucker. “And we’ve improved inventory tracking by 50% over our last software system.”
Reporting time: Rucker’s has reduced its reporting time across the board. “One type of report used to require three days to process. We now can run that same report in 1 hour,” says Rucker. “We not only can obtain reports on a timely basis, but also know that the data is accurate.”
Growth and efficiency: According to Rucker, the system has completely adapted to the company’s double-digit growth. And it has increased efficiency to the extent that the company has been able to do more with less. “Prior to this system we had about 180 employees,” says Rucker. “We are currently at 120. This is being helped at least 7% to 15% by the efficiency of our system.”
Competitive advantage: The Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution installed by Tectura has given Rucker’s critical reporting functionality and tools. “We now have the ability to more quickly access our numbers when we need to make decisions,” says Rucker. “By being able to access real-time information about the business, we can make better decisions. Together, the added flexibility of the reporting system and improved access to information have enabled us to better meet our customers’ needs, as well as our own business objectives.”
More Information
MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV CASE STUDIESMICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV VERSION 2009
Call us: 0845 084 0152 
Email us: uk.info@tectura.com