Following a period of impressive growth, Copper State Bolt & Nut Company quickly outgrew its previous enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. After evaluating its options, the family-owned and operated distributor and manufacturer chose to migrate all its ERP data to Microsoft Dynamics 365—a platform that could easily grow alongside the business. Now Copper State Bolt & Nut can ensure that it will never need to compromise on its commitment to delivering the high-quality fasteners and parts its customers need, when they need them.
“With Dynamics 365, I feel like I have my hands on all the levers of the business at once. I have total visibility into our data, and I understand exactly what that data is showing me at all times.”
Although Copper State’s products are relatively simple, its operations are anything but. With a broad product catalogue and a large, diverse group of customers, the company faced major challenges managing operational complexity and needed an ERP system that was truly fit for the purpose. To support—and drive—continued business growth and optimize its finance, manufacturing, and supply chain management, Copper State adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Microsoft D365 for Commerce.
Initially, Copper State had upgraded its home-grown system to an on-premises ERP system, Dynamics AX 2009, in October 2011. But after several years, Copper State was once again outgrowing its IT. Struggling to find an ERP platform that could keep pace with its growth, the company looked to the cloud to find a more scalable alternative that could support it long-term.
That’s when it discovered Microsoft Dynamics 365. Copper State Finance Vice President Carl Spackman spoke to the Microsoft team and learned that Copper State could quickly and easily migrate all its current ERP data into Dynamics 365—and start getting more from that data right away.
“With Dynamics 365, I feel like I have my hands on all the levers of the business at once,” says Spackman. “I have total visibility into our data, and I understand exactly what that data is showing me at all times.”
One of the main benefits of Dynamics 365 for Copper State is that the company won’t have to manage any more ERP implementations. As the company grows, Dynamics 365 will grow with it. Now it has an ERP platform that supports ongoing expansion without requiring an IT team to spend time on frequent upgrades.
“Switching to Dynamics 365 means no more expensive, time-consuming ERP implementations,” says Spackman. “Adopting Dynamics 365 is the last time we will ever need to touch an ERP system.”
“Without Dynamics 365, we wouldn’t be able to grow at the speed that we have to. And we wouldn’t be able to support our salespeople, who need to be out in front of our customers, or deliver products efficiently.”
Simplicity and scalability were huge drivers for Copper State’s move to Dynamics 365—but they weren’t the only ones. The company also recognized that this was a powerful opportunity to embrace the mobile-based future of ERP.
“If we don’t embrace the cloud and the mobile-based future of ERP, it would become a huge limiting factor to our growth and maybe even our existence,” says Spackman. “Without Dynamics 365, we wouldn’t be able to grow at the speed that we have to. And we wouldn’t be able to support our salespeople, who need to be out in front of our customers, or deliver products efficiently.”
The Copper State team uses the Dynamics 365 mobile and cloud-based capabilities to work in new, more flexible ways. Copper State’s team members are constantly on the move—visiting customers, delivering products, finding solutions—so being tied to a desk to get certain tasks done is an unnecessary time constraint.
Using Office 365 with Dynamics 365 is going to bring much higher levels of efficiency in communication, reduced time to focus, and increased throughput. What’s more, the company’s people and operational endpoints are now better connected than ever. Instead of having to build around the limitations of inadequate systems, Copper State is defining its future the way it always has—with a focus on being the best for its customers, vendors, and employees.
