ERP Software Upgrade Fuels Collaboration and Growth for Online School-Supply Retailer
SchoolKidz provides a simple, cost-effective approach to fulfilling the school-supply needs of students, parents, and educators. In 2007, the company was acquired by Staples—a 60,000-employee corporation. Staples plans to aggressively grow SchoolKidz’s annual revenue. SchoolKidz upgraded its business management solution from Great Plains 7.5 (now Microsoft Dynamics® GP) to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 and deployed Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 to support the forecasted growth. With Microsoft Dynamics GP and Business Portal, SchoolKidz employees create reports, place orders, specify delivery methods, and share this information through Office SharePoint Server 2007. Now, employees can coordinate efforts to make better decisions and drive productivity. Since the deployment, SchoolKidz has doubled in number of employees, and Microsoft Dynamics GP has scaled to support this growth.
Situation
Owner and founder Tom O’Neill originally started Class Action Student Outfitters in 1995. The company changed its name to SchoolKidz in 2000 and became the first online retailer of grade-specific school supplies. Located in Woodridge, Illinois, the company takes supply lists to procure products and deliver customized, personalized school-supply kits for individual students—prekindergarten through eighth grade. SchoolKidz also provides a variety of purchasing programs that deliver bulk, packaged school supplies for whole grades and classrooms. SchoolKidz deployed Great Plains 7.5 (now Microsoft Dynamics® GP) soon after launching the company Web site, SchoolKidz.com. Microsoft Dynamics GP enabled SchoolKidz to manage all aspects of its business through one business management solution. Employees used Microsoft Dynamics GP to store kit requests and proposals; finalize pricing; print labels identifying a student’s name, grade, and school; organize kit-building assembly lines at the company warehouse; and specify delivery methods. SchoolKidz worked with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Unified Business Solutions (UBS) to customize Microsoft Dynamics GP using proprietary software language, Microsoft Dexterity®. The business grew and changed, and the demand for school-supply kits continued to increase. SchoolKidz hired new employees to accommodate each season’s rush and made frequent, time-consuming customizations to the system. New employees at the headquarters and at the remote warehouse needed licenses to access data stored in Microsoft Dynamics GP, but the company lacked the resources to provide access to everyone. As a small company striving to meet a large demand for school supplies, SchoolKidz aimed to ease customizations and improve communications among departments so that those with limited access to Microsoft Dynamics GP could get the information they needed. In 2007, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Staples—a 60,000-employee conglomerate. Staples intended to quickly grow the business, which would require additional staffing and further streamlining processes to support the foreseen increase in business. SchoolKidz saw the acquisition as an opportunity to derive more value from its existing business management infrastructure.
Solution
Initially, Staples suggested a migration to Oracle financial software to support the forecasted growth, but SchoolKidz was reluctant to switch systems. “We had tailored Microsoft Dynamics GP to fit our business needs. We knew that another system could not provide the flexibility, application versatility, and unique business-process customization of Microsoft Dynamics GP,” explains Joe Grlica, Director of IT for SchoolKidz. SchoolKidz reunited with UBS to discuss plans to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0. Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 offered SchoolKidz enhanced capabilities that would promote efficiency, improve collaboration, and support the growth requirements envisioned by its new parent company. Shortly after conducting a pilot upgrade, SchoolKidz upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 and deployed Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 as an online document management and collaboration tool. Office SharePoint Server 2007 extends full-time access to pertinent information stored in Microsoft Dynamics GP to all employees, including those working at the remote warehouse. Employees can access information, create lists and reports, share documents, and set up alerts through Office SharePoint Server 2007, without having to log on to Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Role-Based Information
Information from Microsoft Dynamics GP is presented on the SchoolKidz intranet site with information separated by tabs to cater to specific roles. The Business Portal module for Microsoft Dynamics GP occupies its own tab within the SchoolKidz intranet site, as shown in Figure 1. The data in Business Portal is presented in static spreadsheets and charts, providing a summary of relevant information to warehouse employees, the operations department, and the sales team. These departments use Business Portal to quickly run queries, access customer and order information, and review kit components at a glance. Using field-level security in Microsoft Dynamics GP, Joe Grlica assigned privacy settings for different roles and departments to ensure data validity and accuracy.
Communication and Collaboration
SchoolKidz actively uses the integration between Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 to drive orders through the system and out the warehouse doors. Each time an order is placed in Microsoft Dynamics GP, the sales team submits a kit-build list that specifies kit components and delivery specifications. This information is immediately pulled into Office SharePoint Server 2007 where warehouse employees access the daily-build lists and create customized reports. Account managers use these reports to check kit status and create shipment-tracking reports that help manage shipment schedules. This process enables SchoolKidz to build and deliver kits quickly and accurately. SchoolKidz and UBS used the Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 to make simple, rapid customizations to the system. UBS developed a sales-order processing program and integrated it with Microsoft Dynamics GP to manage the sales-order and inventory-allocation process. This sales-order processing program is installed on every computer.
Custom Sales Process
UBS created an import tool so that the operations team can easily import a spreadsheet with order information into Microsoft Dynamics GP and attach it to the appropriate account number and order. The sales team will enter the order into the sales-order entry-processing program, which populates the order information into Microsoft Dynamics GP. The system sends alerts notifying the operations team of new orders and the purchasing department of inventory that is low in stock. The operations team also uses this custom information to print kit labels.
Alerts and Role Center Personalization
SchoolKidz employees use alerts within Office SharePoint Server 2007 to notify one another of changes in data. For example, Joe Grlica built an IT support request page where users can submit support requests. When an IT issue is submitted, Office SharePoint Server 2007 sends a link in an e-mail message, as well as a really simple syndication (RSS) feed, notifying him of new submissions and updates. SchoolKidz employees also use discussion boards and calendars on the Role Center page in Microsoft Dynamics GP to stay up-to-date on order and shipment deadlines, as shown in Figure 2. “Our users really like the Role Center in Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0,” says Joe Grlica. “They can easily customize the pages to set up to-do lists and quick links, so it’s easy for them to access tools relevant to their jobs on a single screen.” Jennifer Voirol, a Sales Assistant at SchoolKidz, states, “The Microsoft Dynamics GP Role Center saves me time by not having to access other windows. The quick links and tabs get me to the screens I want.”
Benefits
The company has customized Microsoft Dynamics GP to fit its business needs and is now well equipped to fulfill the growth initiatives set forth by Staples. Joe Grlica and Jim Mulder, Vice President of SchoolKidz, plan to attend the Microsoft Convergence® 2009 seminar in New Orleans, Louisiana, to present the advanced, innovative ways SchoolKidz uses Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Streamline Operations
By using Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Business Portal, SchoolKidz can complete tasks faster through increased collaboration, while reducing the number of licenses needed to access pertinent information in Microsoft Dynamics GP. With the inventory-allocation customization, the purchasing department is always aware of inventory levels and can keep supplies well stocked throughout the year. Problem areas or missing data can be identified early on in the process and escalated up to sales for clarification to save time and eliminate additional manpower required to expedite delayed orders. Microsoft Dynamics GP has saved each department countless hours in internal communications and report writing. “New tracking reports that display shipment information saves me 45 minutes each morning,” says Alex Browne, Shipping School Coordinator at SchoolKidz. The import tool saves the operations department more than one hour each day.
Enhance Decision Making and Business Intelligence
With Microsoft Dynamics GP, employees update information in real time, ensuring data is accurate and up-to-date. Automatic notifications assist employees to make quick decisions as changes are made, bringing attention to minor updates that are easily overlooked, but crucial to an order. If a school makes changes to an order and pays to have a pallet of supplies delivered to a unique location or packaged a specific way, SchoolKidz can make necessary accommodations early and respond quickly to any future changes made. “Microsoft Dynamics GP has become the information hub,” says Browne. “It allows everyone access to the same information rather than bombarding one person with requests.” This keeps everybody in the process aware of status and well equipped to respond quickly.
Customize Processes with Ease
SchoolKidz can easily customize the system with the Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics GP. The Developer Toolkit enables SchoolKidz to make customizations without having to contact UBS for every modification. This reduces development costs and minimizes the time devoted to planning and executing the change. Now, Joe Grlica can easily make customizations independently.
Promote Company Growth
Following the upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, SchoolKidz saved at least U.S.$30,000 its first business season. “The seamless integration between Microsoft Dynamics GP and Office SharePoint Server 2007 has enabled us to provide solutions to our employees and customers that are cost effective and give us a firm sense of direction in accomplishing our goals,” raves Jim Mulder. Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 has scaled to support the company’s rapid growth. Since the upgrade, SchoolKidz has nearly doubled in number of employees and has continuously acquired new team members with each business season. With automated processes and increased collaboration, Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 ensures SchoolKidz that each kit is built and delivered to meet customers’ exact requirements, creating a stable foundation for SchoolKidz to increase business and fulfill growth requirements envisioned by Staples.
