Increasing functionality & reducing ongoing costs by moving away from tier 1 ERP
While Campbell Scientific is a small company by global standards, it has a complex manufacturing operation; the company makes-to-order one-third of its product line, while also carrying stock items and configure-to-order products. A key business challenge to manage complexity and improve efficiency was to improve ROI on ERP.
One problem was the company’s Oracle ERP system, which was deemed too difficult, expensive and troublesome to upgrade. “They were not happy with the cost of ongoing support from Oracle nor with their inability to make changes to the applications without paying a large amount for a big project,” said Ron Vogel, Vice-President of Rover Data Systems. “Plus, they had three full-time IT personnel dedicated just to servicing the Oracle database.”
Gary Swanson, Campbell Scientific’s Vice-President of Operations, had been contemplating making a change for more than five years. However, the complexity of Campbell’s operation concerned him. He was unable to find another ERP system with the functionality necessary to meet the company’s needs.
Finally, Swanson discovered Rover Data, makers of Millennium III (M3) ERP solution. Campbell Scientific was able to replace the complete Oracle implementation, including the DBMS and Business and Manufacturing applications. With the purchase of 60 licenses plus implementation and training, Millennium III cost less than one third of the financial outlay that would have been required if Campbell had stayed with Oracle.
“We ended up with more functionality, and that helped us gain a competitive advantage,” Swanson said.
With Millennium III, the company has significantly cut its overhead and support costs, while improving performance and user satisfaction. An impressive return on investment was achieved through reducing business costs, which supported the company’s ability to expand as their business grew, thus boosting their competitive advantage. The three employees assigned to the Oracle database became an internal team to support user change requests. Millennium III has also allowed Campbell Scientific to customize and increase its serial number tracking and add barcoding to some products.
Today, M3 is performing so well that Campbell is exploring ways to further expand the system.
Key Challenges with Oracle ERP
- Wanted to reduce inventory control costs
- Needed to improve data collection efforts to reduce stock shortages
- Wanted to improve customer delivery time
Key Results from Millenium III (M3) ERP
- Underwent a significant increase in performance and user satisfaction
- Support and overhead cost reduced
- System improvements in functionality and scalability