Organization: Whitaker Brothers Business Machines, Inc.
Users: 20
Current Solutions: MSFT Dynamics-GP and MSFT Dynamics-CRM
Modules: Core Financials; Inventory; Purchase Order Processing; Sales Order Processing (POP/SOP)
ISV Products Used: K-eCommerce; Avalara; FieldConnect
Who is Whitaker Brothers?
Whitaker Brothers Business Machines, Inc. (Whitaker) is a family owned and operated company headquartered in Rockville, MD with an affiliate office in San Diego, CA. Whitaker has been in business for over 70 years. They service the federal government, DOD contractors, and commercial businesses by providing data destruction equipment and services at competitive prices. You can find their equipment in over 115 countries.
Challenges:
KTL began working with Whitaker Brothers in 2006 as their go to VAR. In 2014, Whitaker was in need of updating their business system infrastructure which included ERP, CRM, Ecommerce and Service Models. At that time, the ERP system software was Microsoft Dynamics GP 9 with patchwork SAP Business One, which Whitaker found to be unsupportive of their business requirements. Additionally, the CRM system being utilized was a custom built version of Filemaker Pro. The Ecommerce platform was Magento. Each of these systems were stand-alone applications with no integration.
After further analysis by KTL, it was discovered that Whitaker’s Service Division was also experiencing tremendous inefficiencies using a paper based process to support the service model in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Together these system processing challenges contributed to Whitaker spending excessive amounts of labor time on daily business processing of sales purchases and service orders.
KTL’s Solution:
When KTL analyzed each of the Whitaker business processes, it became obvious that the most efficient formula would be to introduce and systemically define and deploy a cloud based software solutions system. As a starting point, KTL began with an upgrade to Microsoft GP 2015 coupled with a system migration from FilemakerPro to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
With the deployment of the Dynamics CRM software, KTL was able to offer Whitaker the benefits of standardized and automated quote offerings coupled with a dynamic customer database from which to launch their coordinated marketing plan. These enhancements permitted for a more efficient order processing flow along with a dynamic marketing database platform to communicate with their customers.
At that time KTL also introduced K-eCommerce, a trusted eCommerce ISV. The KeCommerce software integration allows for web order automation with cross system functionality into the GP and CRM systems.
The upgrade to Dynamics GP 2015 introduced many new features, to include items such as: integrated credit card processing and capture, custom smart lists creation to meet data processing and management data reporting requirements, and the automation of email for invoices and order confirmations. The upgrade also allowed for KTL to integrate ISV products such as Avalara, which permits for the automation of Sales and Use Tax across multiple state, local, and district tax jurisdictions; and FieldConnect, a software solution tailored to the support of the Service Areas.
Since the installment of the KTL systems solutions, Whitaker has been able to migrate from a focus on existing business processes to a focus more structured toward growing their businesses
