Founded in 1983, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Benshaw
Inc. has risen to the top of its industry in the production of reduced
voltage, solid-state motor controls and advanced drive controls. A truly
multinational enterprise, Benshaw maintains state-of-the-art
manufacturing facilities as well as sales and service centers throughout
the United States, Canada, South America and Asia. Despite a
high-profile client base including General Motors®, Ford Motor Company,
United States Steel, Shell®, Exxon®/Mobil® and others, Benshaw realized
that competing successfully over the long term required that it shore up
its technology infrastructure and add new e-commerce capabilities.
To stay competitive in today’s volatile marketplace and
maintain a high level of customer service, Benshaw sought a fully
integrated e-commerce solution that could function harmoniously with the
company’s existing ACCPAC Advantage Series™ accounting package and
MISys® Manufacturing System. The new solution also had to unite
Benshaw’s remote locations throughout the United States and Canada so
that employees on the network could share data in real time.
Dave Richey, information systems manager at Benshaw,
wanted to add several elements to the company’s existing business
infrastructure in order to help it realize its full potential. Topping
the list was a fully integrated e-commerce solution that could integrate
with Benshaw’s existing ACCPAC Advantage Series accounting package and
MISys Manufacturing System, a manufacturing add-on solution offering
seamless integration with Advantage Series.
"We knew that we needed an end-to-end business solution
in order to have the company running on all cylinders. To stay
competitive in today’s market and maintain a high level of customer
service, we needed the capability to effectively integrate and manage
the financial, operational and manufacturing activities of our remote
locations, plus add integrated Web store capabilities that would
facilitate online customer ordering," says Richey.
A long-time user of ACCPAC® accounting solutions,
Benshaw sought the aid of ACCPAC Partner Applied Data Solutions (ADS) to
upgrade and expand its business/manufacturing systems’ architecture. ADS
assessed Benshaw’s system requirements and devised a cost-effective
implementation plan. ACCPAC Advantage Series was upgraded and the
network operating system environment was expanded to include a
Citrix®-based system for remote access to Benshaw’s offsite locations.
The next step in Benshaw’s technology makeover included
launching the online store. "As long as we were lacking a Web store, we
were losing revenues and risking our competitive advantage," Richey
says. "We evaluated several Web store software vendors, but only ACCPAC
eTransact offered seamless integration with our existing environment."
With ACCPAC eTransact in place, Benshaw customers can
place orders via the Web and data flows directly into the ACCPAC
Advantage Inventory Control, Order Entry and Accounts Receivable
modules, eliminating potential data entry errors. According to Fran Livingston, president at
Benshaw, "ACCPAC eTransact has generated an additional 10 percent of
revenue that we would have never received otherwise. We now have a
significant competitive advantage due to the implementation of the Web
store."
The functionality and integration between ACCPAC
Advantage Series and MISys has given Benshaw a system that is powerful,
versatile and expandable. Benshaw has also taken full advantage of
ACCPAC’s world- class, object-oriented, multi-tiered architecture by
developing in-house systems that tightly integrate with the ACCPAC and
MISys databases. For example, Benshaw developed a Customer Service
Management system that integrates with ACCPAC. It has also implemented a
First Pass Yield System, an Automated Proposal System and an
E-Procurement System. Under development is an Electronic Documentation
System.
Since 1981, Applied Data Solutions, Inc. (ADS) has
implemented practical solutions to real-world needs for a diverse client
base. ADS is an ACCPAC International Premier Business Partner and has
been consistently selected as top ACCPAC Solution Provider in the United
States. ADS is represented by a staff of highly trained certified
consultants and first-rate network engineers and programmers. The
company offers support and training for a range of ACCPAC End-to-End
Business Management Applications, and is an authorized reseller for IBM®
, Microsoft® , Computer Associates®, Compaq®, Dell™, HP®, Citrix®, and
3Com®.
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