GCI Outdoor stands up for Sage 100 ERP

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

System Integration

The Challenge

GCI Outdoor, a company that designs, manufactures, and distributes a variety of outdoor chairs, was facing challenges with its entry-level QuickBooks accounting software. The software was unable to track future orders and lacked sophisticated inventory-control features such as multiple warehouse and material requirements planning (MRP) functionality. The company was relying on dozens of spreadsheets to track sales and stock levels, which was becoming unmanageable. The order processing time was long, often taking 24 hours to get a new order out the door. Return processing was also a cumbersome manual process involving three-ring binders and much paper shuffling. The company needed a solution that could streamline these processes and provide accurate supply and demand data for lean operation.

About The Customer

GCI Outdoor is a successful ten-year-old company that designs, manufactures, and distributes a variety of outdoor chairs, including its best-selling Everywhere Chair® that adjusts to balance on hillside terrain. The company is based in Higganum, Connecticut and has one location. It has 11 employees and is in the outdoor accessory distributor industry. As GCI Outdoor grew, it found that its entry-level QuickBooks accounting software was becoming a limiting factor. The company needed sophisticated inventory-control features such as multiple warehouse and material requirements planning (MRP) functionality. It was relying on dozens of spreadsheets to track sales and stock levels, which was becoming unmanageable.

The Solution

After a comprehensive review of available mid-market solutions, GCI Outdoor decided on Sage 100 ERP. The software offered the best value for the money and had the flexibility to add additional modules as the company grew and its needs changed. Sage 100 ERP enabled GCI Outdoor to cut its order processing time in half. Salespeople could enter their own orders into the Sales Order module, and have the benefit of real-time available-item quantity information that they could share with their customers. The software's Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) module streamlined the return process and provided a tool for measuring product quality and identifying potential manufacturing defects. The MRP module helped GCI Outdoor produce monthly sales projections and generate supply and demand estimates.

Operational Impact

Sage 100 ERP has enabled GCI Outdoor to cut its order processing time in half. Now, salespeople enter their own orders into the Sales Order module, and have the benefit of real-time available-item quantity information that they can share with their customers.
The Sage 100 ERP Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) module has not only streamlined the return process, but through its ability to assign a Reason Code to each return, GCI Outdoor has a tool for measuring its product quality and identifying potential manufacturing defects.
The Sage 100 ERP MRP module helps GCI Outdoor produce monthly sales projections as well as generate supply and demand estimates from the Sales Order, Purchase Order, and Inventory Management modules and allocate incoming products to its open orders.

Quantitative Benefit