Success Story

Rowmark LLC

Customer Profile
In 1987, Fred Kremer, the CEO of Hancor Inc., a drainage pipe manufacturer located in Findlay, Ohio, had a vision. Mr. Kremer saw a growing need for extruded sheet materials in the engraving market. He established a working relationship with Don and Audrey Morrison of Rowland, Incorporated in New Berlin, Connecticut. With this partnership in place, he acquired a plastic sheet extrusion line and formed the Hancor Sheet Divisions. In 1993, Mr. Kremer purchased the sole sales and marketing rights for the awards and engraving market from Rowland. He created a new company, established as a separate division of Hancor, and named it Rowmark. Today, Rowmark has a 75,000 square feet facility, which houses multiple extrusion lines, press, lamination and hot stamp capabilities, 4 storage silos and a warehouse dedicated to raw materials, a finished goods warehouse, and administrative offices.

Situation
With the rapid evolution of technology, the world has no doubt become a smaller place. Instant communication and simplified travel has allowed for growing enterprises and companies to expand beyond their boarders. With increased globalization and transcontinental business transactions, companies need technology and software that will grow with them, offer support and a competitive advantage in an ever expanding market place, no matter where they may be.

In the case of Rowmark, the leading plastic supplier in the engraving industry, business opportunities began to present themselves across the globe. The success and growth of the company found them outgrowing their current ERP software and in need of a solution that would not hinder growth and success. The search for a new supply chain management solution and partner was predicated on important criteria, including scalability, features and functions and value or return on investment (ROI). After nearly three months of searching, Rowmark partnered with VAI to deploy its ERP Solution with S2K Smart Center, a browserbased, easy to use application with anytime and anywhere access, and S2K Analytics.

Challenge
With Rowmark’s acquisition of Johnston Plastics, a loyal customer at VAI for nearly seventeen years, Rowmark began to rapidly expand and soon came to the realization that onboarding new employees to the current ERP software would be cost prohibitive. The company’s goal was to adopt a solution that would improve ROI while streamlining operations and creating consistency throughout all locations across the globe, especially in the U.S, Europe and Australia.

Finding the Right Partner
After a careful and well thought out decision making process, Rowmark concluded that VAI and its S2K Enterprise solution was the best choice and partner. Because of the unlimited user licensing and onboarding support, Rowmark knew that its growth would no longer be hindered by its technology platform and, in fact, it will be an enabler of growth. S2K Enterprise is known for its ease of use and flexibility to tailor different companies according to their specific requirements. In addition, VAI’s reputation for offering a high level of customer service played an important role in the decision. The implementation process and training began almost immediately. Rowmark recognized that with supply chains at the center of everyday business operations, there was no time to waste in making the transition.

Benefits
VAI’s ERP solutions have supported and driven Rowmark’s business expansion through organizational ROI and inventory transparency. VAI’s unlimited user licensing has been a cost-effective solution for Rowmark during their acquisition of Johnson Plastics. “Adopting a new ERP platform is a substantial commitment,” said Gary Justen, director of information technology at Rowmark. “VAI’s unlimited user licensing, though, is a unique feature that we knew would directly impact our ability to scale effectively as our company continues to expand.” Rowmark has been able to confidently manage product and inventory across the globe with faith in the stability and ease of the platform; they plan to bring along VAI’s ERP solutions as they grow their business now and in the future.

Process
Rowmark began installing VAI’s S2K software in September of 2015 in the U.S. From there, the Australian distributors have joined onto the platform. Onboarding will continue throughout global locations until July of 2017. Currently, Rowmark has more than two hundred users on VAI’s platform with steadily growing numbers of users. This gradual onboarding has allowed Rowmark to better service their customers while creating consistency, transparency and organization from online ordering to shipping, invoicing and purchasing.

Using the Solution to Solve the Problem
“Making the transition to VAI’s S2K solution has been a worthwhile investment. The IBM Power system has been extremely stable and left us with virtually no down time, which can be a huge loss of revenue for companies with unreliable software,” said Gary Justen, Director of Information Technology at Rowmark.

While Rowmark is currently working with VAI’s on premise solution, the company is already looking towards the future with VAI and taking the next steps towards adopting the cloud for ERP management. VAI’s S2K Enterprise in the cloud offers growth companies, like Rowmark, the advanced technology needed to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and grow, in one easy to deploy and support environment. With built-in analytics and business intelligence, VAI’s S2K Enterprise ERP cloud-based solutions provide companies with the ability to confidently make smarter decisions that better address realtime business imperatives.

As Rowmark’s growth continues, VAI is the partner that will be there every step of the way.

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