When Great Isn't Good Enough
ERP systems are big investments that shouldn't be ignored while Web-enabling software is being favored. One company found a way to jump the integration hurdle, discovering that ERP doesn't have to be a roadblock, but a building block.
[From iSource Business, July 2001] Sometimes, great isn't good enough. That was Larry Caltagirone's philosophy when, a year ago, he surveyed the state-of-the-art enterprise resource planning (ERP) system he'd woven together for Randell Manufacturing, a Weidman, Mich.-based maker of refrigeration equipment for restaurants and hospitals. Caltagirone, Randell's manager of information sciences, had just spent three long years installing the ambitious information system throughout the company. He wanted a way to leverage the considerable investment he and his firm had made by expanding its uses. The likeliest solution was to hook the system up to the Internet and allow purchasers to conduct Web-based transactions. But, in order to reap the same efficiencies they had experienced by installing their new information system, how was that to be done?
The fortuitous answer came from an unexpected source: a Chicago-based aggregator of manufacturing materials and supplies, named Prime Advantage, that Randell had started working with two years earlier. By working together closely, the companies were able to develop a transactional process that integrated the two systems, resulting in even further benefits for Randell.
How It All Began
Caltagirone first came to Randell four years ago with a weighty mission: develop and implement a top-of-the-line information system that would give the company a definite leg up in the highly competitive refrigeration equipment market. Randell, a 25-year old company, which had been bought by manufacturing giant Dover Corp. in 1986, was struggling to stay on top in an industry going through heavy consolidation.
