MOVING TO THE CLOUD ENABLES MWS WIRE TO IMPLEMENT ERP BEST PRACTICES FOR AUTOMATING ACCOUNTING, MANUFACTURING, AND WAREHOUSE PROCESSES
WESTERN COMPUTER MIGRATES ERP PLATFORM FROM ON-PREMISES TO DYNAMICS 365 BUSINESS CENTRAL CLOUD
THE SOLUTION
MWS Wire first tuned to Western Computer back in 2018 when the company decided to deploy the on-premises version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV to replace an ERP system that was nearly 30 years old. With a veteran workforce accustomed to operating the distribution of wire products in a particular way, MWS Wire customized NAV to fit its unique needs.
“NAV matched what our previous system provided,” says CFO Denis Goss. “In 2023, we decided it was time to move away from our comfort zone and modernize our accounting and distribution processes on a cloud solution. We wanted to take advantage of new technologies and ERP best-practices that allow us to operate more efficiently in delivering products to our customers faster and accelerating our cash flow.”
Goss and the leadership team at MWS Wire decided to turn to Western Computer once again to assess the status of the business in relation to the ERP capabilities that would be needed to get the company to where it wanted to be in 10 years. “Essentially, we wanted to find a way to grow the business without adding to our headcount,” Goss adds.
Western Computer recommended taking on this challenge by migrating from Dynamics NAV to Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud. “Moving to the cloud was very appealing for us,” says Chuck Bailey, the Director of IT for MWS Wire. “Business Central already has much of the customization we require, and for the functionality we need to add, it’s much easier to apply code changes in the cloud.”
With the Business Central model, customers don't need to touch the base Microsoft code when making adjustments. Custom code created by customers can sit on top of the base code so it’s much easier to make updates. “Each time Microsoft offers a new feature, if we want to try it out, we just click and start using it immediately,” Bailey explains. “This has enabled a fundamental change, knowing we can develop custom code on top of Business Central more aggressively.”
While configuring Business Central, Western Computer helped MWS Wire handle the unique challenge of varying units of measure for the wire spools MWS Wire provides to customers. The company presents product pricing by following the preferences of customers and vendor partners. Some prefer to price wire by length measurement units while others prefer weight units. And with operations in the U.S. and Europe, both English and metric measurement units come into play.
“If one customer wants to order in feet and somebody else wants to order the same material in pounds or somebody overseas wants to order it in kilograms, we accommodate them to enhance our reputation and keep them coming back,” Bailey points out. “Our material is so broad in scope in terms of the physical mass of the material that we can't just sell it in one unit of measure.”
MWS Wire solves this challenge by relying on Business Central to convert units of measure to match customer and vendor preferences—such as pounds, kilograms, feet, and meters. On the customer side, MWS Wire accommodates 12 units of measure along with eight units of measure on the vendor side. “Once we set the exact conversions, we don’t have to write down all the conversion codes—Business Central does it automatically,” says Bailey.
THE BENEFITS
One of the immediate benefits MWS Wire realized by deploying Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud is automated payables, which helps keep supply chain vendors happy. MWS established a process that integrates Business Central with Xflow and connects to an MWS Wire bank. MWS Wire now has a system that automatically receives invoices, runs an optical character recognition scan, and posts the invoices in a payment queue.
For each vendor invoice, Business Central takes the cost from the invoice, reconciles it with the corresponding purchase order, and applies the cost to a specific lot number. “We saw immediate dividends from this,” Goss points out. “This process saves our accounting team between 10-20 hours a week, which is key since their bandwidth is already over-stretched.”
Another process improvement in the works involves quality control. MWS Wire previously compiled wire quality test data by hand and then keyed it into the ERP system. When customers requested test reports, the quality control team then manually copied the data into a Word document to format.
With Business Central, MWS Wire can compile the testing data right into the quality control module. In conjunction with this process, Bailey is working with a third-party software provider that uses Microsoft Power Automate to program a process to generate reports automatically. “With one click, we can produce a report and email it to a vendor or customer,” says Bailey. “With these capabilities, we will eliminate a lot of manual data entry.”
A third key process improvement on the horizon involves manufacturing, which currently relies on paper-heavy processes. “We want to integrate manufacturing with Business Central to collect information so we can eliminate paper logs of hours and machine time,” says Bailey. “This will allow us to forecast more accurate manufacturing production schedules.”
In the shipping department, MWS Wire implemented quantity tolerances to conform with industry standards of plus (over) or minus (under) 10% for shipments. “If we have a customer order a hundred pounds of wire, and the shipper tries to send 150 pounds, they will get an error message that stops them from making a mistake,” says Brett Fancon, a Sales and Service Supervisor for MWS Wire. “We can also set varying tolerances for individual customers. For some, the tolerance is set to 0% so we can ensure we always send them exactly what they order.”
Fancon appreciates how Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud easily integrates with third-party solutions that enhance particular workflows. For example, via a connection with iSolutions, customers can submit credit card payment information through a portal.
“Before, salespeople were either taking card numbers over the phone and inputting them into the system, or the customer emailed the info,” Fancon explains. “These methods are error-prone and not secure. A salesperson can now just send the customer a link to enter their credit card information, and the payment flows automatically and securely into Business Central.”
Looking ahead, MWS Wire will collaborate with Western Computer on Microsoft Power BI reporting and a Microsoft Dataverse solution to synchronize data outside of Business Central with other information from industry sources. As Bailey often does, he will dive into the solution to get started and take it as far as he can. “If we break it on our own, we feel confident Western Computer can fix it for us,” Bailey predicts. “They’re great at helping us figure out how to get technology to work the way we want it to.”