Leading Bedding Manufacturer Finds Comfort in Microsoft Dynamics AX
www.google.com 2007-11-29
After a comprehensive review of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, the world's fourth-largest innerspring bedding manufacturer has selected Microsoft Dynamics AX to support its future growth with new manufacturing and financial reporting capabilities. Microsoft Corp. announced today that the Spring Air Company has chosen Microsoft Dynamics AX to integrate its manufacturing, distribution, financial, budgeting and procurement activities across the entire organization.
The Spring Air Company, which manufactures premium-value bedding products sold to consumers through leading retailers, recently merged with Consolidated Bedding Inc. to create a national organization committed to bringing consistent quality, service and value to its customers. The company has 13 facilities throughout the United States and currently employs more than 1,000 people. Spring Air also has licensees in North and South Carolina, Michigan, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Ireland, Australia and the Middle East.
Following the merger, the new company found itself managing six different ERP applications, none of which met the needs of a growing enterprise. Some applications did not incorporate manufacturing or financial reporting functions and did not integrate with the Microsoft Office system tools that the executive team needed. Moreover, the systems were difficult to use and the company did not own the source code, so its IT department was unable to design and implement its own changes. Most of the software had been developed for the company's needs before the merger and now was outdated. As a result, the older systems held back the new company's growth because they were not scalable.
"We have to be sure we can receive orders, manufacture the product, and get it to our customers on time, and Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 was the best ERP manufacturing application available to us," said Paul Davis, vice president of Information Technology at Spring Air. "Overall, it matched what we needed and we liked the technology behind it. We knew Microsoft would support it long term."
Spring Air had looked at 10 possible ERP applications, narrowing the contenders to Microsoft and Oracle J.D. Edwards & Co. More than two dozen Spring Air team members from finance, manufacturing, operations and customer relationship management scored presentations and demonstrations against Oracle. Microsoft Dynamics AX scored the highest, so Spring Air purchased the Microsoft technology and chose Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Tribridge of Tampa as its implementation partner.
"With its great history and performance in this area, we knew Tribridge would do an incredible job helping us drive this project," Davis said. "Spring Air also is in the process of integrating Microsoft Dynamics AX with RF-Smart software from ICS, EDI and other solutions."
(editor : jane)
