Global office supplies manufacturer goes for world-wide Microsoft ERP

US-based global office suppliers maker and distributor Esselte is to consolidate 18 ERP systems and nine warehouse management systems into one global business solution from Microsoft Business Solutions. It’s the largest ERP deal so far for Microsoft, centred on its Axapta (Navision) system, and it brings together VARs Aston Business Solutions, Columbus IT Partner, and eBECS, which over five years will build a system covering four continents – Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific – and supporting 3,000 concurrent users. “Esselte is entering a five-year strategic plan… Implementing a global enterprise solution is one of Esselte’s corporate-wide initiatives to increase efficiency and profitability throughout the organisation,” says Magnus Nicolin, president and CEO of Esselte. A centralised IT infrastructure will streamline supply chain management and manufacturing processes, allowing us to focus efforts on our core brands and global expansion.” Lani Spund, CIO of Esselte, is leading the effort to retool the company’s fragmented legacy systems via a number of co-ordinated IT initiatives. He says: “Microsoft Axapta provides an ideal solution for managing multi-national companies over a cohesive, seamless network infrastructure. “The product integrates well with our existing European SAP implementations, is easy to maintain, and once the core configuration is completed, we can expect rapid, concurrent deployments at each of our sites, in about six months each. It is also rapidly reconfigurable, which supports our lean/kaizen strategy – the continuous improvement of business processes. “By consolidating our core systems, Esselte will meet many of the most pressing IT challenges facing global corporations today – inconsistent data, overly complex business processes, duplication of IT operations, and excessive administrative effort. We also expect the solution to provide us with greater visibility into global data and processes.” Interestingly, Esselte’s new ERP system will combine standard Microsoft Axapta functionality with specific lean manufacturing and supply chain modules developed by Microsoft partner eBECS. Meanwhile, Columbus IT Partner and Aston Business Solutions will develop a global core solution and ensure the ERP system complies with Esselte-specific, country-specific, and site-specific policies, developing add-ons and functionality to meet Esselte’s requirements in 30 countries. “This is a true co-operative effort,” says Bill Pollie, vice president of US sales at Microsoft Business Solutions. “This is a great example of how Microsoft Axapta can scale to meet even the most complex requirements of billion-dollar manufacturing businesses operating in multiple countries.” Esselte anticipates deploying the first version in Russia, Australia and Benelux by May next year. The second version will then go into the US operations by December 2004, followed by the UK and Poland by April 2005. Deployments are then to be accelerated in 2005, with all users on the new system by 2007.