The Background

Twenty-five years ago, while walking on a downtown Vancouver, BC, street crowded with various delivery trucks bringing office supplies, coffee, water, toner and groceries to the high-rises, Calvin Johnson had a brainstorm. Why not have one company deliver all the things that offices need? On that premise, Lykki was born. Today, Lykki delivers everything from bananas to binders to smart-thinking companies throughout the greater Vancouver area. Recently, when Lykki sought to ramp up its technology infrastructure in order to grow and expand the business, it selected Sage X3 and The Answer Company as its technology partners.

Structuring for Growth

“We recognized that in order to maintain and support our growth, we had to start thinking like what we really are, an e-commerce company,” says Johnson, the company’s Chief Energizing Officer. “So we gutted everything from server to desktops to software systems and invested in the technology that could get us where we want to be.” Johnson said that Sage X3 appealed to the company for its inherent flexibility, scalability and modern web-native architecture. “Plus it met our checklist of must-haves in the areas of financial reporting, inventory management and purchasing,” he says. “The Answer Company is one of Canada’s top Sage X3 providers. They are experienced and capable and we felt confident with their ability to get the project done.”

A Plan for Success

Together, The Answer Company and Lykki developed a detailed implementation plan with a fixed budget for the project. Johnson says the process was a success. “Sure there were bumps, but The Answer Company handled everything in a thoroughly professional manner. We really appreciate their attention to detail and their adherence to our budget. In addtion, they were able to bring over a lot of data from our old system, which made Sage X3 more useful to us from the start.”

Stable and Efficient

One of the single biggest benefits Lykki is realizing with Sage X3 is the stability and simplicity of the system, which requires fewer IT resources to manage and maintain. “Before, we were using a dozen different software applications to accomplish what we’re now doing with just one. Sage X3 is a very stable, cutting-edge platform,” says Johnson.

eCommerce Integration

Lykki’s popular website is a Magento e-commerce site, and The Answer Company identified and vetted an interface available from a Sage X3 developer that integrates Magento sites with Sage X3. “That piece has been fabulous for us,” says Calvin. “Orders from the website come into Sage X3 in real time.”

Access to Decision-Making Data

As a busy CEO, Johnson appreciates the dashboard views of data he receives from Sage X3. On his desktop are key performance indicators such as daily sales, quarterly sales, outstanding payables and receivables and gross profit margins. “Having this information in concise, graphical form gives me the right level of information without information overload,” he says. “I can click on a number to drill down into the details if I need them.”

Lykki is also utilizing the Sage Enterprise Intelligence reporting tool to produce sophisticated financial and operational reports quickly and easily. “We are able to continually monitor our customers’ activity. The software shows us active customers, and identifies those that haven’t ordered recently so we can pay them special attention with the hopes of bringing them active again,” says Johnson.

Extensible for the Future

Lykki has been live on Sage X3 for just over a year, and still has many plans for extending the use of the application. “We’re planning to modernize our warehouse operations with RFID scanning and routing,” says Johnson. “And we’ll further build out our website integration to add additional functionality for our customers. Because Sage X3 is so powerful and flexible, there’s really nothing we can ask of it that it cannot do.”

An Integral Partnership

Johnson praises The Answer Company for their extensive product knowledge and broad base of engineering and business resources. “You can usually categorize providers into one of two camps—those that fix one thing and break two more, and those that fix the one thing and it’s fixed. Unfortunately, we’ve had experience with lots of providers in that first camp. The Answer Company is firmly in the second camp—when they fix something, it works.” During the initial implementation and beyond, Johnson says The Answer Company continues to operate with a high degree of integrity. “They are accountable, fair and ethical. From the senior management on down, they take ownership of any issues and work to resolve them to our satisfaction. They have gone above and beyond for us many times.”

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