Danner Manufacturing recently faced an issue common to many of today’s manufacturers. To keep pace with increasing demand for its products, which include pumps, filters, lighting, and other accessories used in decorative ponds, pools, spas, and aquariums, Danner began purchasing component parts and products from vendors overseas. But this required the company to manage dramatically longer lead times than it had in the past. To overcome that, Danner sought an integrated distribution and manufacturing solution to more precisely forecast demand and plan production. It called on Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Business Solution Partners, which implemented Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution, a single, fully integrated technology platform. This solution, which was developed by Business Solution Partners, has helped Danner dramatically improve sales-forecasting accuracy, streamline ordering and purchasing processes, and provide more timely and accurate reporting to management and company sales representatives.

Solution
Danner called on Business Solution Partners (BSP), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner based in Roslyn, N.Y., to help improve its forecasting, purchasing, and reporting capabilities. Business Solution Partners evaluated Danner’s situation and deployed Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution, a single, fully integrated technology platform. The solution, which was developed by Business Solution Partners, helps manufacturers and distributors manage every aspect of their business—from order entry and procurement to inventory maintenance and shipment management. Built on the flexible and powerful Microsoft DynamicsTM technology platform, the Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution solution for Danner includes Microsoft Dynamics GP Distribution and Manufacturing Series, as well as powerful and robust Sales Forecasting, Purchasing, Manufacturing Resource Planning, and Bill of Materials capabilities. The powerful combination of Business Solution Partners’ Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution and Microsoft Dynamics GP gives Danner complete visibility into every corner of its business, allowing the company to improve forecasting and purchasing and ensure that it has ample stock to meet the demands of its customers. To provide Danner with state-of-the-art reporting capabilities, Business Solution Partners also implemented XL Reporter, a Microsoft Excel-based report writer and ad-hoc query tool from Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Solver, which further enhances the reporting Danner receives from its manufacturing and distribution systems. To make it easier for Danner’s sales representatives and sales managers to view reports and other critical information, Business Solution Partners used Microsoft Office SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics Business Portal to create a web-based portal that provides unparalleled visibility into the data contained in Danner’s Microsoft Dynamics GP back office system. Using the portal, sales representatives and managers can easily access sales data, customer orders, shipping information, inventory levels, customer status, and much more. For Danner, the difference between its old system and new has been noticeable. “The new system is a vast improvement over our previous system,” Schreck says. And because all parts of Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution work together as one complete, integrated system, Danner has been able to reduce the number of databases it uses, which improves the quality of data the company receives. “The complete Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution and Microsoft Dynamics GP system is working very well for us,” Schreck says.

Benefits
Using Microsoft Dynamics GP and Business Solution Partners’ Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution, Danner has taken control of its forecasting, planning, and production processes. Additional benefits the company receives from using the system include:

Improved sales-forecasting accuracy
Danner’s previous method of anticipating demand and forecasting sales was manual and time-consuming, using multiple Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and requiring plenty of patience. In the end, Schreck says, current forecasts were often based on previous ones. Using Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution Danner has been able to fine-tune its forecasting efforts, which allows the company to better anticipate demand and maintain less inventory on hand while avoiding the need to backorder products. Here’s how it works. Based on their understanding of their accounts, Danner’s salespeople provide expected sales data, which then flows into Danner’s Manufacturing Resource Planning system. Business logic within the system takes into account historical knowledge and myriad variables unique to Danner’s business and produces recommended purchase quantities. Based on this forecast, Danner’s decision makers know exactly how much inventory they have in stock for each product and can determine how much more is needed and in what timeframe to meet their sales forecasts.

Timely, accurate reporting
Danner’s previous system made reporting a difficult and time-consuming task that often resulted in reports that were stale by the time they were issued. “Before, we had to have someone take dribs and drabs of data out of different systems, compile it, drop it into an Excel spreadsheet and manually distribute it,” Schreck says. The process took at least two days, and, “by the time it was all done, everything had changed,” he says. With the combination of Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and XL Reporter, Danner now benefits from nearly real-time information for faster, more informed decision making. XL Reporter automatically extracts data right from Microsoft Dynamics GP and creates nearly a dozen different reports Danner can use to take the pulse of its business. Using this software, reports that once took two or more days to compile now take 30 minutes.

Increased visibility into accounts
In the past, Danner experienced difficulties sharing customer, order, sales, and other information with its sales representatives. “We used to get a lot of phone calls into the office inquiring about things like orders,” Schreck says. “It took a lot of time to track down that information and answer the questions.” Using Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Business Portal, Danner’s sales representatives enjoy access to virtually any information they need to meet their customers’ expectations. They can see at a glance such items as order information, shipping status, customer credit information, up-to-the-minute sales reports and analyses— even the latest product sales literature. Using the portal, the flow of information is two-way. And the portal has become a highly popular and efficient way of sharing information. “It’s been extremely well received by everyone,” Schreck says. “You hate to put in software and have people not use it. This is something that people actually use!”

The right solution from a trusted, knowledgeable partner
Danner has been impressed with Business Solution Partners’ dedication to providing the right solution for the company’s unique distribution and manufacturing needs—as well as the service and support BSP provides. “Business Solution Partners really took the time to understand our business and put together a great solution for us,” Schreck says. “I know that if I need a solution to a problem, I can go to them and they’ll know where we’re coming from and will come up with a solution for us. We’re very happy with the relationship we have with Business Solution Partners.”

Testimonials:

“The new system is a vast improvement over our previous system. The complete Advanced Manufacturing & Distribution and Microsoft Dynamics GP system is working very well for us.”  Tom Schreck, Controller, Danner Manufacturing