How we resolved a client’s unexpected resource crunch and seamlessly managed their IT systems

As the world moved from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, the focus of businesses shifted from Systems, Structures, and Services to also include People, Products, and Processes. This shift meant the increasing realization that people and processes are a critical part of the success of any business.

While systems continue to be important in the functioning of an organization – whether it’s for organizing, tracking, or streamlining – people are at the center. This balance is sometimes delicate and can be disrupted, causing chaos and uncertainty.

Who

Our client has been in business since 1913. Their journey began with manufacturing jewelry for college fraternities and sororities. Today, the client is one of the leading companies offering commencement services. Higher education is a privilege and commencement ceremonies represent success. Through their products and services, our client ensures that students and families celebrate and commemorate these special and proud moments meaningfully.

An expanding business needs systems to monitor processes, optimize resources, manage finances, track quality, and ensure the continuity of established service levels. Many products, businesses & subsidiaries used different ERP systems to manage their core business and day-to-day business activities. Acquired subsidiaries also continued to function as a separate business unit, and the exercise to consolidate the ERPs was cumbersome. This resulted in the presence of multiple ERPs in their IT ecosystem.

J.D. Edwards was also being used across various modules within the company – manufacturing, sales, procurement, and many more. This added further complications to the process. And while all this was structurally very complex and definitely needed to be resolved, it didn’t represent an immediate threat to the business. It was therefore left to simmer on the back burner.

The heart of the problem

The Covid-19 pandemic meant that schools and colleges were forced to shut down. This sector represented the core of our client’s business and as a result, the client’s revenue streams were severely impacted. Profits decreased, and several difficult choices had to be made if the business was to remain afloat.

One of the unfortunate consequences of this chain of events was a forced reduction in their workforce. Losing several key personnel led to a paucity of information and knowledge of the company’s systems and the management of their existing ERP system.

This prompted the client to reach out to us. They had an urgent requirement to keep the business operational with support and management of the functional and technical aspects of their legacy ERP system. System administration and governance was also a concern that they needed to address. The need to consolidate all ERPs and migrate to a unified platform was now imperative.

Improving their business outcomes, swiftly…

The client needed expertise in understanding and managing ERP systems, notably J.D. Edwards. Marlabs Inc., was able to source this expertise for the client and quickly gauge the challenges in the client’s business. With disparate data sources, gathering the initial data and relevant information proved to be an uphill challenge. However, with regular workshops and brainstorming, we were able to bring these together.

One of the key asks was to develop and maintain strong and open communication with the business users. As a result, every ERP system issue that developed was attended to immediately. All stops were pulled out to ensure that all the resources required were deployed at the earliest so that business user issues could be dealt with promptly. Marlabs also documented the Standard Operating Procedures of repetitive tasks to ensure business continuity in case of a disruption in future.

Marlabs Inc. took complete ownership of the J.D. Edwards ERP system across all units of the client’s business.

The outcome

Marlabs worked closely with the client to create a transformative roadmap. We reimagined their native infrastructure and put together a team that can champion this effort. While an overnight overhaul was next to impossible, gradually bringing in the right digital interventions to strengthen their ERP showed the right results. We did a deep dive into their J.D. Edwards ERP system and plug in the gaps. This confidence and sense of security are strengthened by validated data which indicates that the number of issues raised about the J.D. Edwards ERP system has greatly decreased since Marlabs Inc. took over the management of the system.

The various J.D. Edwards ERP systems across various processes and business units are being consolidated into NetSuite. Marlabs continues to work with the client to streamline their systems, thus optimizing their business and improving results.

About Marlabs Inc.

Marlabs helps leading companies around the world make operations sleeker, keep customers closer, transform data into decisions, de-risk cyberspace, boost legacy systems, and capture novel opportunities and digital-led revenues. It provides digital-first strategy and advisory services, rapid solution incubation and prototyping, and agile digital solution engineering. Marlabs is headquartered in New Jersey, with offices in the US, Germany, and India. Its 2,500+ global workforce includes highly experienced technology, platform, and industry specialists from the world’s leading technical universities