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Business Case - Metro Canada Logistics
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Overview
Country: Canada
Industry: Logistics
Customer Profile
Metro Canada Logistics is a third-party
provider of warehousing, transportation
and related logistics management services
in Canada. It manages more than six
million square feet of warehouse space in
Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver
Business Situation
As the company experienced rapid growth,
it realized it needed to streamline
operations and that its legacy business
solution was no longer meeting its needs
Solution
Metro Canada Logistics selected Microsoft
Business Solutions Great Plains to help
manage its warehouses across the country
and help streamline time-consuming
accounting processes
Benefits
- Increased productivity
- Improved business operations
- Improved reporting and analysis
capacities
- Improved accounting controls and
efficiency
- Accuracy and timeliness
"With Great Plains, we can be assured that the data
we supply to our management team is reliable which
helps them make better, more informed decisions.
That is a big, big gain."
Diane Bourassa, Director of Finance, Metro Canada Logistics
Metro Canada Logistics (MCL) is a third-party provider of
warehousing, transportation and related logistics services. As MCL
continued to experience rapid growth, the company realized current
applications software was no longer viable and a more flexible,
scalable and easy to integrate system was required. MCL selected
Microsoft® Business Solutions Great Plains® software to help it
streamline accounting processes and improve overall business
efficiencies. Since deploying Microsoft Great Plains, the company
has achieved significant benefits including increased productivity,
streamlined accounting processes and controls, and integration of
its financial system with its warehouse and transportation
management systems. As a result, MCL is able to generate a better
snapshot of its overall business performance, and ensure it retains
its competitive edge.
Situation
Metro Canada Logistics (MCL) is a third-party
provider of warehousing, transportation and
related logistics management services in
Canada. It manages more than six million
square feet of warehouse space in Montreal,
Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. The Laval,
Quebec-based company was founded in
1974 and has approximately 700 employees
across the country. It was also named one of
Canada's 50 Best Privately Managed
Companies by the National Post.
MCL prides itself on its ability to provide a
comprehensive package of services, from
warehouse management to transportation.
These services include: public/contract
warehousing solutions; packaging services;
transportation management; systems and
communications solutions; supply chain
solutions; real estate solutions; financial
solutions; and strategic alliances.
"It's a new way of thinking - companies are
used to having their own warehouse, their
own transportation centre or distribution
centre. As a third-party logistics provider, we
are here to provide those services as our core
competency,"said Diane Bourassa, Director
of Finance, Metro Canada Logistics. "On top
of that, we offer additional services like
handling, transportation, packaging and
more. It is the commitment of our
management team and employees to provide
customized and flexible logistics services to
our customers and continuously improve
those services as a result of performance
measurement."
Changing Needs
From financial processes to tracking
inventory at its warehouses across the
country, technology plays an important role in
helping Metro Canada Logistics manage its
business. But as the company continued to
experience rapid growth, it realized its current
business applications technology was no
longer meeting the company's needs. MCL
began searching for a system to replace
ALCIE, an Oracle-based suite of ERP products,
it had been using for about eight years. MCL
wanted a system that would help streamline
operational efficiencies and controls while
easily integrating with its existing technology
investments, such as its warehouse
management and transportation systems.
"Having grown from a 'Mom and Pop'
company to becoming a business with over
$100 million a year in revenue - we knew we
needed to make some technology changes,"
said Bourassa. "The ALCIE system was very
rigid. To do any type of data analysis was
time-consuming which meant that decision
makers in our organization were often not
able to get their information on time. That
was a big part of the reason why we decided
we needed to upgrade technologies. We need
a more precise system and faster access to
information."
According to Bourassa, the IT team also
wanted to move to a more user-friendly and
robust solution. "Our business has
experienced tremendous growth over the
years and we want to ensure we maintain our
competitive edge," said Bourassa. "We
require a flexible and scalable technology
solution that meets our needs today, but can
also scale as our company grows."
Solution
In an extensive RFP process managed by
MCL management team in concordance with
KPMG, MCL established a clear set of
technology requirements. With a budget of
$400,000 the company wanted an
affordable, scalable business solution that
would help streamline financial processes
while easily integrating with its existing
technologies such as its Delfour and Red
Prairie warehouse management systems and
its transportation management system from
Creative Systems. It also required a system
with multi-currency capabilities and
comprehensive data analysis and reporting.
In addition to the above requirements, the
company also needed a quick
implementation in order to minimize
downtime for the business.
"To keep our competitive edge, we need
quick and reliable access to business data,"
said Bourassa. "We need to be able to drill
down into the data and quickly create
accurate reports on our business. This
valuable information is required by
management to make better informed
decisions."
After examining offerings from a variety of
vendors including JD Edwards, the company
selected Microsoft Business Solutions Great
Plains. MCL selected Microsoft Great Plains
because it met all its technology
requirements and was also a solution the
company could continue to leverage as it
expands its business.
"Microsoft Great Plains is a great fit for Metro
Canada Logistics," said Jean-Francois Lortie,
Account Manager, LVMB, the Quebec-based
Microsoft partner working with MCL. "We
didn't have to make any modifications to the
core modules. Using Microsoft Great Plains,
we were able to add Web access to the
Purchase Order (P.O.) and Receiving modules
- and that meant we were able to get them
up and running quickly. As a Microsoft
product, it also allows them to easily
integrate the system with its existing
Microsoft applications, including Microsoft
Office."
Benefits
Whether it's managing the decentralized
purchasing process, integration of revenues
from operating systems or developing
business reports for management, Microsoft
Business Solutions Great Plains helps to
provide MCL with the functionality it needs to
boost business controls and efficiencies.
Since implementing the Great Plains
application, MCL has realized a number of
benefits including improved operational
controls and efficiencies on the purchasing
process with its warehouse and
transportation services, better drill down
capacity to operators on its monthly financial
statements, streamlined accounting
processes, time savings and increased
productivity.
Improved Operational Efficiencies with Web P.O. Applications
Metro Canada Logistics has 35 warehouses
across Canada, each with its own director of
operations managing the purchase order and
receiving process. With the old system, none
of the information could easily be accessed
by the accounting or management team at
MCL headquarters. As a result, it was difficult
to obtain an overall view of the business'
health using the legacy technology.
Looking to centralize and improve access to
this information for the management and
accounting team at headquarters, the
company turned to LVMB to develop a costeffective
solution with multi-currency
capabilities. To meet its needs, François
Paré, partner at LVMB decided to invest in
the development of a customized Web-based
P.O. and receiving application, which
leverages the power of the Microsoft SQL
Server 2000-based platform and integrates
with Microsoft Great Plains for posting
purposes.
"Web access for the P.O. system was really
something that was needed by our company,"
said Bourassa. "We are now able to link in
with our warehouses and access the
purchase order and receiving information for
accounting purposes on the Web. This helps
to save us time and helps us boost our
efficiencies as a company. This was one of
the reasons why we chose to go with
Microsoft Great Plains and LVMB. It has the
flexibility we needed to provide us with this
functionality."
Easily Integrates with Existing Technology
A key benefit of Microsoft Great Plains is its
ability to easily integrate with MCL's existing
third-party warehouse management and
transportation management systems. The
ease of integration helps ensure the system
was up and running quickly, keeping
downtime to a minimum. As well, it ensured
the company is able to leverage its existing
technology investments, which is important to
the bottom line.
"Integrating Great Plains with these systems
was crucial to our business," said Bourassa.
"This enables us to get a more accurate and
complete picture of how our business is doing
from all ends - from transportation services
to the warehouse to head office."
Enhanced Reporting Helps Streamline
Accounting Processes
Microsoft Great Plains also helps to provide
MCL's finance team the ability to extract
financial information faster and easier,
helping to improve the management team's
decision-making process. The team can take
advantage of FRx reporting tool to easily
create customized reports, which allows them
to update and maintain reports virtually
seamlessly and automate report processing
and distribution.
"With our legacy system, we were unable to
generate reports quickly and because it was
difficult to extract data, there was an
increased chance of errors," said Bourassa.
"With Great Plains, we can be assured that
the data we supply to our management team
is reliable which helps them make better,
more informed decisions. That is a big, big
gain."
Time Savings and Improved Productibity
With Microsoft Great Plains, the finance team
is also able to conduct financial processes,
such as month-end, more efficiently.
Automating what were once manual
processes has helped bring time savings for
the team and has boosted worker
productivity.
"Prior to Great Plains, we had a lot of manual
processes," said Bourassa. "For example, we
were making two different entries for
accruals and reversals, building the month
from beginning to end. Now that Great Plains
is in place, we have recurring entries and that
brings us a lot of time savings."
Under the legacy financial system, the monthend
accounting process often lasted three
weeks. With Microsoft Great Plains, the
amount of time to do the reports has been
significantly reduced.
"Financial results weren't going out until after
the third week after the end of the month,"
said Bourassa. "With Great Plains, we've
saved a lot of time which has helped us
improve our productivity. We're now at eight
working days, compared to 15 working days."
The Next Step
As Metro Canada Logistics continues to
expand its reach across Canada, technology
will continue to play a critical role in its
success. Microsoft Business Solutions Great
Plains is a technology investment it expects
to continue to leverage in the future.
"We're pleased with what Microsoft Business
Solutions Great Plains has been able to do for
our business processes so far," said
Bourassa. "We've improved operational
efficiencies from an accounting perspective,
and this ultimately helps our bottom line.
We're confident that with Great Plains, we
now have software that will scale to meet our
business needs today and in the future."
Microsoft Business Solutions
Microsoft Business Solutions offers
integrated business applications and services
that allow small and mid-sized organizations
and divisions of large enterprises to connect
employees, customers, and suppliers for
improved efficiency. The financial
management, customer relationship
management, supply chain management,
and analytics applications work with
Microsoft products such as Microsoft Office
and Windows to streamline processes across
an entire organization, giving businesses
insight to respond rapidly, plan strategically,
and execute quickly. Microsoft Business
Solutions are delivered through a worldwide
network of channel partners that provide
specialized services and local support
tailored to a company's needs.
For more information about Microsoft
Business Solutions, go to:
www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft
products and services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Center at (800) 426-
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-
2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing
can reach Microsoft text telephone
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in
the United States or (905) 568-9641 in
Canada. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local
Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com/
For more information about Groupe Conseil
LVMB products and services, call (450)
668-6664 or visit the Web site at:
www.lvmb.com/
For more information about Metro Canada
Logistics products and services, call
(514)333-5500 or visit the Web site at:
www.metrocanlogistics.com/
© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case
study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Microsoft, Example: Active Directory, Windows, the Windows
logo, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in
the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual
companies and products mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.
Document published September, 2004