Successful ERP implementation at wholesaler ABF Bearings

ABF Bearings Enhances Wholesale Business Processes with Integrated ERP System

ABF Bearings, an international bearing wholesaler, is facing a number of challenges. First, customer expectations made it ever more important that the company processes bearing orders from online shops quickly. As soon as certain products are out of stock, customers will seek them from other suppliers. To meet this challenge and the company’s recent growth, ABF Bearings has rapidly expanded its staff from 12 to 30. However, the company lacked the IT infrastructure necessary to support these changes.

Previously, the company used to have a custom FileMaker-system. However, it was becoming more and more complicated to adapt that custom made software to support the company’s growth and rising customer demands. Also, the company depended on a one-man company for maintenance of the system, which left ABF very vulnerable.

In order to speed up the purchasing processes and to be able to better deal with the stream of inquiries, ABF Bearings wanted an integrated logistics and financial ERP system. For this reason, the company started a selection process that ended with the choice of the Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications and Oracle Partner Cadran. “There are various developments taking place at ABF Bearings. We are dealing with the growth of the business and, meanwhile, the environment is also changing, and customers want their inquiries dealt with quickly. Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne integrated ERP system has enabled us to speed up working processes.

Results

ABF now has software with which they can easily work through purchase biddings using CRM-software and they can create their own quotations within a matter of minutes. In the past this was a very time consuming effort. By using the Oracle JD Edwards EDI software, ABF is now able to receive and process hundreds of sales quotations a day. After JD Edwards automatically created the offer, it is manually checked and then automatically sent to the customer by e-mail. Using the integration of Oracle JD Edwards Finance and Logistics offers ABF an integrated online insight of their financial status, where they previously had to check several sources and then merged all the information manually.

Integrated Purchasing and Sales

Due to the company’s role as a wholesaler, sales and purchasing go hand in hand. Orders go from purchasing to sales and vice versa, so there is a strong need for integration and visibility. ABF Bearings worked with Cadran to rebuild its Oracle JD Edwards embedded CRM module and adapt it to purchasing, as well as develop analysis tools that make it possible to view underlying tables and data and to generate reports from the system. With this integration, ABF now has full insight in effective outbound calls, information gathered in those calls and purchases and sold items followed by these calls.

Why Oracle?

Fabrie said: “We chose Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne ERP software because of the flexibility of the system and its comprehensive functionality. We also wanted to be a multi-platform company, so that we could make use of different operating systems (OS) such as Apple’s Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.” Fabrie explained that another deciding factor was Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne’s web-based functionality, which meant that users could access the system easily and securely via an internet browser from any location. Also, Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, can run on different databases. Lastly, ABF appreciated that the knowledge of the program is so widespread that there is “likely to be a specialist wherever you are in the world,” according to Fabrie.

Why Cadran?

“Flexibility in implementing Oracle JD Edwards  and the ‘can-do mentality’ of the sales consultants were the reasons ABF Bearings chose Cadran over other suppliers on their shortlist. Furthermore Cadran possessed all the necessary skills, whilst not being an overwhelmingly large company. The match between ABF, being a mid-sized company and Cadran resulted in short lines to get the project done in a minimum amount of time, whilst choosing the best solution for every problem”, Fabrie said.

Implementation process

Implementing  Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne took ABF Bearings one year. “It was a complicated project due to the complexity of the processes and the extra functionality, which required us to make connections to external websites. Cadran set out to standardize as much as possible in the process,” Fabrie said. He added, “the advantage of the implementation is that we were forced to think about our processes, and the result was that we made them more professional. We now have an enormous quantity of data and know-how about the ERP system at our disposal, and we have a good picture of our business processes, which we have therefore been able to improve. Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne provides us with an enormous flexibility and supports future changes,” Fabrie said.