Integration of business processes was the key to continued growth for Southfield Packaging Inc. The company needed to tie inventory, management and finances together so they could manage their operations in real time.

“For us to continue to grow we needed to invest in our own infrastructure”, says president Mark V. Melfi III. “By using Microsoft Axapta we're now able to link our production and our inventory information with our financial data, providing a real time picture of our operations with just a few clicks of the mouse”.

Handle with care

Southfield Packaging of Stamford, Connecticut plays in integral role in the supply chain of their clients. They have been providing custom packaging, shrink-wrapping, and fulfillment services for 25 years, oftentimes doing projects that are not cost-effective for manufacturers to do in house, such as two-for-one promotional bundling projects. Most of the materials used in the repackaging program belong to Southfield Packaging's clients – the company provides only the tapes, glues, packaging materials and labor. Southfield Packaging's client list includes many of the countries top cosmetic, hair care, and health manufacturers. 

Major disconnect

Southfield Packaging had been using a FoxPro®-based program they had created in-house to manage inventory. It was outdated and cumbersome, making it difficult and time-consuming to provide customers with information about packages in transit. Billing and purchase order processing were completely separate from each other and the company's financials were disconnected from its inventory. The divide between Southfield Packaging's accounting department and its inventory department made it extremely difficult to efficiently manage costs, and almost impossible to obtain even an overview of business performance.

 More value

“We were basically just trying to keep track of our accounts, how much material we did have, how many packages had been processed, and how many were shipped out – and that proved to be a challenge. For us to continue to grow, however, we would need to invest in our own infrastructure and add to our capabilities,” explains Mark V. Melfi, III Southfield Packaging's executive vice president.  

Flexibility and integration

The Southfield Packaging management team found a flexible ERP system capable of integrating its accounting and inventory departments and a reliable implementation partner in its own back yard. Columbus IT has an office in Stamford – and it also has more than 5,000 successful implementations under its belt.

The user interface design was one of the key selling points for Southfield Packaging. “It was simply one of the best we saw when looking around”, says Mark V. Melfi III. “It gave us the information we needed to our jobs without bogging us down with extra ‘junk'. It drew us in and was a major reason that we were able to get up and running on the system so quickly. The user interface carries over from module to module which increases productivity”.

Managing in real-time

Columbus IT developed a customized report screen that shows all the projects currently in production, the cost to date per unit, and projected profit and loss analysis in real-time. It also makes it easy for Southfield Packaging to provide status reports to its customers. ¨Southfield wanted the ability to track each project. We saw an opportunity to take the system one step further and built a customized ERP system that not only tracks each project – it also gives a projected profit and loss analysis in real-time for each individual package. What's more, this allows Southfield to give its customers greater real-time information about where their products are within the distribution channel. In one simple step Southfield leapfrogged the competition¨ Einar Ulfsson, executive in charge of developing ERP for Southfield. Its clients can now check the status of their orders, from their own computer, 24 hours a day.

A great project

“Southfield Packaging Inc. found themselves at the same crossroads as many other companies”, says Einar Ulfsson from Columbus IT Partner, USA. “The scope of their business and the expectations of their customers had outgrown the capabilities of their existing IT-infrastructure. They came to us and explained the challenges they were facing, and we sat down with them and were able to explain exactly how we could help. It turned out to be a great project, as the facts clearly show.”

 Impressive results

The Enterprise Resource Planning solution implemented by Columbus IT helps Southfield Packaging both manage its costs and keep its customers up-to-date. As a result, they've reduced their fulfillment and purchase order costs by 50%. Southfield Packaging has doubled their revenues without hiring any additional administrative staff, all while reducing their cost-to-estimate differential to 2%.

Changing Business Environment

Southfield Packaging has been using Microsoft Dynamics AX for seven years now, and its business has changed dramatically since the initial implementation. Dynamics AX's built-in flexibility is one of its greatest assets, and Southfield Packaging has added on new customers with over 1000 additional orders a day shipped to Wal-Mart, Target, Sears and other retailers.  Because Southfield Packaging has completely automated its business processes they can grow while continuing to provide the customer service that has been their hallmark for over 25 years.