Integration of business processes was the key to continued growth for Southfield Packaging Inc. The company needed to tie inventory, management and finances together so they could manage their operations in real time.

“For us to continue to grow we needed to invest in our own infrastructure”, says president Mark V. Melfi III. “By using Microsoft Axapta we're now able to link our production and our inventory information with our financial data, providing a real time picture of our operations with just a few clicks of the mouse”.

Handle with care

Southfield Packaging of Stamford, Connecticut plays in integral role in the supply chain of their clients. They have been providing custom packaging, shrink-wrapping, and fulfillment services for 25 years, oftentimes doing projects that are not cost-effective for manufacturers to do in house, such as two-for-one promotional bundling projects. Most of the materials used in the repackaging program belong to Southfield Packaging's clients – the company provides only the tapes, glues, packaging materials and labor. Southfield Packaging's client list includes many of the countries top cosmetic, hair care, and health manufacturers. 

Major disconnect

Southfield Packaging had been using a FoxPro®-based program they had created in-house to manage inventory. It was outdated and cumbersome, making it difficult and time-consuming to provide customers with information about packages in transit. Billing and purchase order processing were completely separate from each other and the company's financials were disconnected from its inventory. The divide between Southfield Packaging's accounting department and its inventory department made it extremely difficult to efficiently manage costs, and almost impossible to obtain even an overview of business performance.

 More value

“We were basically just trying to keep track of our accounts, how much material we did have, how many packages had been processed, and how many were shipped out – and that proved to be a challenge. For us to continue to grow, however, we would need to invest in our own infrastructure and add to our capabilities,” explains Mark V. Melfi, III Southfield Packaging's executive vice president.  

Flexibility and integration

The Southfield Packaging management team found a flexible ERP system capable of integrating its accounting and inventory departments and a reliable implementation partner in its own back yard. Columbus IT has an office in Stamford – and it also has more than 5,000 successful implementations under its belt.