HERD is one of North America’s leading vehicle guard companies. Since 2003, they’ve manufactured custom-made Bumper Guards, partial and full Grille Guards, Pickup Guards, Truck Guards and more. Today, they have around 150 staff between their back office and manufacturing shop floor.
As their company began to scale up and diversify, they noticed that their previous system, eci M1, was not allowing them to grow further. Their previous software was designed for how HERD had operated at the time, but now as their processes had developed and changed, their ERP system needed to as well.
After some research, they decided to implement Acumatica since it was completely web-based and provided the in-depth documentation that they needed. With the help of our team, HERD was able to have a system that was customized for their needs and allowed them to grow and scale alongside them.
Challenges
HERD needed a solution that could cover all of their front and back-end needs.
“One of our key needs was a solution that was effective on the sales end; from pricing schedule management to capturing the data we need from leads. We needed a solution that was strong on the inventory side, proper MRP & full tracking from end-to-end.” – Robert Vandenbyllaardt, CIO and CFO of Herd North America
Their previous system was integrated with proprietary software for manufacturers, but as they started to diversify, information between the two systems did not flow well between each other. This slowed down their processes and created extra manual work for their accounting and finance teams.
They also needed a system that could track and document all of their automated manufacturing processes. Since they made custom goods, they needed a system that could handle and track complex sales orders from start to finish.
Results
With Acumatica, HERD was able to:
- Reduce order entry from 25 minutes to 2 minutes
- Reduce their processes to be 95% paperless
- Alleviate their dependency on Excel and spreadsheets
Acumatica’s web-based functionality also helped them continue their operations during the Covid-19 pandemic as it allowed their staff to smoothly transition to a work-from-home environment. As long as they had an internet connection and a device, they were able to access updated information instantly. Also, Acumatica’s user-friendly dashboards allowed HERD’s staff to quickly view and understand all their information and make timely, informed decisions.
“Using Acumatica is great! Our Accounts team, especially, think so. They look after our customers and the dealers. Acumatica gives them the ability to look up inventory very efficiently.” – Robert Vandenbyllaardt, CIO and CFO of Herd North America