Steve Aldridge, Accounting and IT Manager, Power Service

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Chemical Manufacturer Takes Advantage of RoleTailored Solution for Order Processing

the Role Center in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, our Customer: Power Service employees can quickly view the status of any order, Web Site: www.powerservice.com Customer Size: 40 employees allowing us to relay that information back to the Country or Region: United States Industry: Chemical, rubber, and plastics customer, which ultimately helps us improve customer manufacturing service.” Partner: Artifex Partners Steve Aldridge, Accounting and IT Manager, Power Service Customer Profile Based in Texas, Power Service has 40 Business Needs IT staff had to call on the expertise of the employees and is a leading manufacturer Headquartered in Weatherford, Texas, ISV to make any changes, which was a of diesel fuel additives. Power Service manufactures some of the costly and inefficient endeavor. world’s leading diesel fuel additives. These Partner Profile additives serve a range of functions—from To control costs and establish an agile IT Artifex Partners is a Microsoft Gold preventing diesel fuel from freezing in environment that could more easily adapt Certified Partner that offers personalized cold-weather environments to improving to changing business requirements, Power business software and expert advice to the performance of biodiesels, which are Service wanted to implement a solution help companies increase efficiency, boost often laden with impurities. Power Service that its IT staff could support and productivity, and better control costs. has 40 employees and sells its products customize in-house while still handling the The company backs its software systems through major retailers and wholesale same breadth of processes as its current with comprehensive training and state- distributors to clients that range from system. of-the-art support. freight businesses and truckers to the military and even automobile hobbyists. Solution Software and Services Power Service initially considered a range  Microsoft Dynamics To manage the sale and distribution of its of solutions, including those from Sage − Microsoft Dynamics NAV products to these retailers, Power Service and Syspro, but decided on Microsoft relied on a proprietary business Dynamics NAV. Steve Aldridge, Accounting management solution that an independent and IT Manager for Power Service, explains software vendor (ISV) custom built on top the decision: “To customize Microsoft of Microsoft SQL Server. Although the Dynamics NAV required a skill set that our solution supported all the business programmer was comfortable with and functions that Power Service needed, found easy to learn, enabling us to including accounts payable, accounts customize the solution more efficiently.” In receivable, order processing, and billing, its addition, Aldridge knew that the solution For more information about other proprietary nature meant Power Service would enable Power Service to take Microsoft customer successes, please visit: could not support or customize the advantage of its existing investment in SQL www.microsoft.com/casestudies solution in-house. Instead, the company’s Server while easing employee access to business data through the RoleTailored user those items that have been released to the to support the solution in-house, Power interface of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. warehouse. Service estimates a cost savings of nearly Power Service called on the expertise of 50 percent versus using a third party. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Artifex Extending the Reach of Information Partners to perform the implementation, For its large retail customers, Power Provides a Platform for the Future which included rolling out all core Service relies on the electronic data With a solution tailored to its business, yet accounting functionalities, such as general interchange capabilities of Microsoft flexible to change, Power Service readies ledger, accounts payable, and accounts Dynamics NAV to receive orders and for the future. Currently, the company is receivable, and connecting the solution to manage invoicing. To make business data pursuing customizing the solution to help Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to available to field sales, the company takes choose and calculate freight rates and is provide Web-based access to key advantage of integration between considering extending Microsoft Dynamics information in the underlying enterprise Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Office NAV to integrate with the company Web resource planning (ERP) system. SharePoint Server. By using Office site, enabling distributors to enter orders. SharePoint Server, the company’s eight Power Service also plans to implement the Taking a RoleTailored Approach field sales employees use a browser to sales and marketing functionality of Easing access to the information and view a synopsis of their sales, access Microsoft Dynamics NAV to gain a better functionality employees need, Microsoft reports, and drill down into data. understanding of customers and to Dynamics NAV offers a RoleTailored user perform more meaningful analysis of sales experience. A key part of this experience is Benefits data. Role Centers, which provide employees with With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Power a comprehensive overview of only the Service now has a flexible solution in place information and tasks they need to perform that it can support in-house. As a result, their specific jobs. Working closely with the company maintains the agile IT Artifex Partners, Power Service took environment it needs to respond quickly to advantage of this capability to initially build the future needs of the business while out a single Role Center that maps increasing productivity through the graphically to the company’s entire order- intuitive Role Centers of the solution. processing workflow—from initial sale to shipment. With this visibility, staff can Works the Way Your Business Works pinpoint where any specific order resides in Through one Role Center, Power Service the workflow at any given time. Explains employees can manage the entire order- Aldridge, “The people who input orders are processing workflow that is central to the sales support, but a couple of days or weeks business. As a result, employees after an order is placed, a customer may call companywide can rapidly find the and ask for order status. Now, we can look information they need, when they need it. up the order and see where it is in the Says Aldridge, “With the Role Center in workflow. This is especially useful for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, our employees anyone who wants to see status quickly, can quickly view the status of any order, including our company’s owners” allowing us to relay that information back to the customer, which ultimately helps us In Power Service’s order-processing Role improve customer service.” Center, new orders are represented graphically in an open-orders Cue—a visual In addition, because of the efficiencies of representation of an open order. As Power Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the Role Service employees process these orders, the Center, Power Service has been able to orders turn into released orders, approved support annual double-digital sales growth orders, and, eventually, open warehouse without adding staff. shipments. Warehouse staff manages items from those released, to picked, and then Eases Support, Drives Agility staged for shipment. From within the Role Following training from Artifex Partners, Center, Power Service staff also manage Power Service looks forward to supporting returned items and perform routine and customizing Microsoft Dynamics NAV inquiries. Throughout the entire workflow, in-house, helping the company build out the graphical user interface displays the functionality that meets new and emerging total number of items at each stage. In the business requirements. This ease of future, Power Service will provide support is due to the rapid adaptability, warehouse staff with a more focused Role simplified customization, and ease of use Center that provides visibility into only of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. By being able

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published December 2009