Client Success Story
Syndicate Sales Slashes Lead Times and Inventory with Real-Time Manufacturing Intelligence
Industry: Manufacturing
Solution: Dynamics 365 | MCA Connect Inspire Platform™ | Azure Data and AI | Power Platform
Introduction
Headquartered in Kokomo, Indiana, Syndicate Sales is the premier hard goods supplier for floral wholesalers and retailers across the United States. The growing company has ambitious plans to expand into new markets, but siloed data and an aging legacy system threatened to hold Syndicate back.
Challenge
Legacy systems limited growth and efficiency
For more than 20 years, Syndicate relied on a heavily customized, on-prem ERP system. Although the system worked, it was increasingly unable to support modern business processes or meet growing customer demand. And with an aging workforce, Syndicate wanted to avoid depending on a legacy system that only a few people could configure and maintain.
Looking for a more robust and modern solution, Syndicate chose Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management. However, a flawed implementation with another partner created challenges within their supply chain. As a result, Syndicate was unable to efficiently process and ship orders.
Siloed data hindered informed decision-making
Syndicate’s siloed data also made it challenging for leaders to access the information needed for informed decision-making. Like many manufacturers, Syndicate had vast amounts of data, but the reporting process was cumbersome and time-consuming.
Ten to twelve departments generated reports independently, using a mix of tools such as Power BI, Dynamics 365, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents. This disjointed approach often led to decisions based on gut feelings or guesswork. To enable data-driven decisions, Syndicate needed a simpler process that would free up employees to spend less time gathering data and more time analyzing it.
Familiar with our manufacturing and Microsoft expertise, Syndicate Sales contacted MCA Connect for help.
Solution
Phase 1: Optimize ERP solution
To help Syndicate get the most value from Dynamics 365, MCA Connect’s Manufacturing Strategy team assessed Syndicate’s current state, redefined their challenges, and outlined what they wanted to achieve. Our manufacturing and ERP experts then created a step-by-step, actionable plan to ensure Syndicate met their goals.
After completing system optimizations, Syndicate dramatically improved its inventory tracking with enhanced processes and the ability to perform cycle counts. They also established an inventory control team, leading to significant savings in time, costs, and warehouse space while reducing overtime. With MCA Connect’s support, Syndicate increased inventory accuracy by 20-30%.
”The MCA team had some very high-level people with deep manufacturing expertise. They completed assessments and helped us understand what we needed to do to get on the right path. Syndicate is now light years better because of it”
– Randy Burket,
Director of Information Technology
Phase 2: Unlock insights with MCA Connect Inspire Platform™
Once Dynamics 365 was running smoothly, Syndicate’s leadership team began exploring data platforms to give stakeholders easy access to critical information. After seeing a demo of MCA Connect Inspire Platform™, they knew they’d found the right solution.
A foundation for modern manufacturing intelligence, Inspire consolidates data and empowers manufacturers to make faster, smarter decisions. With it, manufacturers can spot trends, patterns, and anomalies, and track key metrics with prebuilt dashboards that include:
- Sales Performance data on customers, products, sales by territory and region, profit margins per customer, customer churn risk, overall profitability, and payment speed.
- Financial data showing revenue, costs, and overall profitability.
- Inventory Position details on product availability, inventory turnover, and stock levels across different warehouse locations.
- Supply Chain insights on vendor and supplier reliability, order fulfillment speed, and workforce productivity.
Manufacturers can also tailor dashboards to their needs and get instant insights with reports that offer both high-level overviews and detailed drill-downs.
”Seeing Inspire Platform’s 60 pre-built dashboards was huge. It significantly freed up our resources because we didn’t need to spend so much time building our own dashboards. Plus, the MCA Connect team already figured out how to integrate Inspire Platform with our ERP system, so implementing it was surprisingly quick and easy.”
– Mike Tuttle,
Chief Financial Officer
Results
“The visibility and ease of getting access to the data we need is fantastically superior to anything we’ve ever had. I don’t have to go to a different person to view supply chain data or financial data. With Inspire Platform, it’s all right there. I can see what the business is doing. I can see if we’re meeting targets. I can see how we’re impacting the business. We’re getting better every day at driving data-driven decisions and that’s what it’s all about.”
Randy Burket,
Director of Information Technology
After optimizing their system and unlocking real-time insights with MCA Connect Inspire Platform™, Syndicate Sales is now able to:
With centralized data, Syndicate Sales leadership team now has better visibility into operations and easier access to critical management information. This allows them to make decisions faster and respond more quickly to change
With real-time inventory visibility, Syndicate can quickly address issues and make informed decisions. Before, Syndicate managed the delivery of 120 containers over two months, a difficult task due to limited warehouse space and uncertainty about how much inventory they had in stock.
Now, with accurate stock data, Syndicate will eliminate guesswork, improve inventory turns, and reduce costly expedited shipping and freight expenses. Customer service teams also trust the real-time inventory data, a major improvement from the unreliable snapshots they relied on before.
With Inspire Platform, Syndicate now spends more time analyzing results instead of pulling data. They can quickly pinpoint issues and uncover root causes in minutes or hours, rather than days or weeks as they did before. With the ability to analyze data multiple times a day and drill down into details, Syndicate can monitor performance closely and uncover deeper insights that aren’t visible on the surface.
Before, Syndicate executives spent several days gathering the data they needed for leadership meetings. Now, executives can generate reports on their own, with analysis and prep work taking one day or less. Looking ahead, Syndicate’s leadership team plans to use Inspire to pull up real-time data during meetings.
Small to medium-sized manufacturers like Syndicate often feel overwhelmed by the idea of adopting AI. With Inspire Platform, all their data is centralized, making it easier to take on AI initiatives. Inspire Platform also evolves seamlessly with Microsoft technology, enabling Syndicate to leverage ongoing innovations and AI advancements.
“The foundation we now have with Inspire Platform, Power BI, and Dynamics 365, gives us a strong base to work from going forward. The tools are amazing, and the things we can do with Copilot in the future are going to be incredible. I think the coolest thing about Inspire Platform is that we’ve just scratched the surface, and we want to continue to partner with MCA to help us continuously improve.”
– Randy Burket,
Director of Information Technology
What’s next?
To better match inventory to demand, Syndicate Sales is now exploring MCA Connect’s Demand Genius™, an AI-powered predictive demand solution. Demand Genius™ can enhance forecast accuracy by 20%, decrease stockouts by 25%, and reduce excess inventory by 30%.
View Video Story
Customer Video: See the Success Story in Action
Watch this short customer success video to hear directly from Syndicate Sales on how they overcame operational challenges with the help of MCA Connect and Microsoft.
About MCA Connect
Through passion and deep industry expertise, MCA Connect helps manufacturers succeed by unlocking innovation with actionable business insights. Our strategic solution and industry intelligence help manufacturers gain visibility, improve profitability, and achieve a competitive edge. Contact us today to learn how we can help solve your biggest manufacturing challenges.
