| | Flexible Software, Great People, Excellent Support- And I Am Astonished at the Price! | "I am a finance guy, so I wouldn't say I'd be happy at twice the price," joked Mike Clifford, VP of Finance of McClarin Plastics, Inc. "But I am astonished at the price! Without reservation, I would recommend VAI's S2K Enterprise, yet I can say I have never endorsed any other product."
Founded in 1953, McClarin Plastics, Inc. is a $20 million manufacturer of plastic molded components. They have 140 employees and ranked 13th largest industrial thermoformer in North America. Like many businesses, McClarin faced the need to replace its' system to have Y2K- ready software.
Mike continued, "Our old system was batch-oriented operating in a centralized environment with 7 independent terminals tied to the system on an Advanced 36 platform. When we determined we had to replace our system to be ready for Y2K, we took an aggressive approach to install all new hardware and software. We determined we needed to update our system to a highly integrated, interactive real-time system with 26 PC desktops replacing and supplementing the "dumb" terminals.
"This is my third system install. Prior to this I had worked at larger companies with a custom-programmed system and MAPICS. When it came time to make a change, we looked at a lot of different systems--some of those systems were specific to our industry. Our goal was to find a very flexible system that could fit our needs as well as possible, without significant modifications. We found it in VAI.
"Working with VAI has been outstanding-a really fine experience. We had a very successful install, which was of particular concern to us given the fact that so many other companies were targeting to go live by January 1, 2000. We achieved our goal and we have experienced a high level of satisfaction throughout our user groups.
"After 12 months of use, I am continually amazed at how powerful S2K Enterprise is--especially at the cost of the package. I don't want to minimize the effort involved to get the system up and running nor the need for corporate commitment to make everything work, but we could not be more pleased with S2K Enterprise and the people from VAI.
"We had a great project leader from VAI. We found the VAI people to be very knowledgeable and experienced in offering solutions to properly profile the system to meet our needs. As part of the planning process, our project leader made some very insightful suggestions. For example, he helped us redesign our general ledger so profit and loss information can be obtained by customer. We can now track every piece of job-related information by customer and have a high level of confidence that we are able to evaluate true cost associated with manufacturing a part for a customer.
"Besides manufacturing and costing, we experienced benefits in other areas of our operation. Our sales reps really noticed a difference when the new system became operational. They were pleased with the timeliness and the quality of order information. Our reps are quickly notified when an order is processed followed by a written promise-to-deliver date. Further, our team has all the information to track and monitor all the key measurements to make sure we deliver to our customers as promised."
Mike noted that purchasing has also benefited from VAI's S2K Enterprise. "You really can't believe the difference. Purchasing enjoys an enormous benefit by having easy access to information enabling them to react to changing demand loads. Our people are developing so much confidence in the system that we are seeing old habits such as maintaining manual logs, etc. being replaced with a new, more efficient use of database information that suggests P.O.'s based upon the criteria we set. It gives purchasing a solid action list to intelligently react to. It has really helped us bring our inventory levels down.
"Because we installed S2K Enterprise with minimal modifications, we have VAI's R & D staff constantly updating the system on our behalf," continues Mike. "I feel we benefit greatly by having the resources at VAI constantly upgrading and enhancing their product to make it better. In fact, we are preparing to install to VAI's latest version next month. We are well-positioned to enjoy the many benefits VAI's S2K Enterprise has to offer with the enormous amount of information we have at our finger tips." |
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