Merrick Pet Food manufactures handcrafted pet food and treats in their Hereford, Texas kitchen with sustainable ingredients from local farmers. The company was challenged to find out how much their finished goods were actually costing them by product size and by customer with their old system. In fact, once Merrick implemented Dynamics AX they realized one of their large customers was not profitable under their current contract. This knowledge enabled Merrick to negotiate a contract change and keep the customer happy. Recently the Clients First development team rolled out a mobile application to the sales team which has allowed 30 sales people to manage 2,500 retail stores. These are just a few examples of how the team at Clients First and Dynamics AX has helped Merrick become one of the largest specialty pet manufacturers in the U.S. and they are still growing.
Dynamics AX is an affordable full featured ERP solution for the medium to large sized enterprise. There is no tricky purchase trying to decide on what modules you need to buy; with your purchase you get the entire software suite. This licensing strategy makes it easy for growing companies to skip the low end business software solutions, save the money and aggravation of having to do a system upgrade when business is booming. In addition, you can license your staff based on what they need to do in the system: Enterprise license will have access to all the modules, Functional license may just be a one module person such as an AP clerk or staff in transportation, etc. Task licenses which are less than $500 would be your users that do one thing only, such as a warehouse worker picking orders.
Watch the review by Sam Spradlin, CFO at Merrick, discuss his business and their growth over the years, their decision to implement Dynamics AX and the on-going relationship he maintains to this day with the Clients First – Texas team.
Here are a few of the key points from the Merrick Pet Food Testimonial:
- Introduction to Merrick: Sam talks about the company’s rapid growth to “6 fold” their original size and their continual expansion.
- Why Buy a New System: Sam outlines their requirements for better product data and the need to better understand their costs to remain profitable while exploring new markets. Dynamics AX handled all of their requirements from start to shipping, every step of the way with no flaws.
- What is the True Benefit of Dynamics AX: Merrick’s ability to properly determine the accurate cost of each product and as a result determine optimal pricing of their recipes. Data also allows them to analyze and make strategic decisions regarding ingredients variables for improving and expanding their recipes, flavors and product varieties over time. Sam credits the use of AX as a primary reason for their ongoing growth, success and expansion.
- Budget vs Actuals: Sam outlines previous Dynamics NAV (Navision) experience with a chemical distribution company before his move to Merrick. As a CFO, Sam's knowledge is strong with both solutions as he’s understands the advantages of both Microsoft Dynamics NAV and AX. The original Merrick implementation came in three months early at 60% of the projected budget, allowing them to react to emerging opportunities in an unprecedented and timely manner.
- Final Thoughts: The CFO describes efficiencies achieved with the creative application of AX’s technology and how Clients First’s unique approach to training was a perfect fit for many of his first time users of an integrated system.
Merrick Pet Food is a good example of how Clients First implementation of Dynamics AX helped to make their company more profitable which has allowed them to broaden their customer base and making their on-going expansion as a company with little additional labor costs.
Let us add your company’s implementation and subsequent success to our reference list. Contact our sales team today! Sales@clientsfirst-tx.com or call us at 800.331.8382.
by Clients First South Central