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Acme Case Study

DataSwitch delivers seamless integration for Acme United Corporation

Acme United Corporation is a leading global supplier of innovative cutting, measuring, first aid and sharpening products to the school, home, office, hardware, sporting goods and industrial markets.

Based in Connecticut in North East America and with operations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, the 150 year old company comprises a number of well-established international brands including Westcott, First Aid Only PhysiciansCare, Pac-Kit, Spill Magic, Clauss, Camillus, Cuda and Diamond Machining Technology.

Leading ERP solutions provider, K3 Syspro, has provided Acme with seamless integration solutions for its US-based e-commerce operations, sales order processing and labor management analytics processing.

 

E-commerce integration made easy

Acme initially called in K3 Syspro to develop a solution that would integrate the company’s sales order processing software, Esker, with its existing ERP system (SYSPRO ERP). When this project was temporarily put on hold, Acme’s IT department then asked K3 Syspro to address the challenge of integrating its brand new Magento e-commerce software and website with its SYSPRO ERP system

After spending time in the business, K3 Syspro recommended and installed DataSwitch, a purpose built system integration and data manipulation tool developed by K3 Syspro. DataSwitch was installed across Acme’s three US locations, in June 2016, enabling Acme to automatically retrieve all B2C online sales orders from Magento and process these as new orders within SYSPRO. DataSwitch also automatically updates Magento with new stock items created in SYSPRO, as well as providing real-time updates on pricing information and shipping tracking information.

At a glance

Company:
Acme United Corporation

Industry sector
Manufacturing & Distribution

  • Consumer products

Solution & services

  • SYSPRO ERP
  • DataSwitch

The benefits

  • Automatically retrieve all B2C online Sales orders from Magento
  • Better responsiveness and Integration
  • Improved Customer service levels
  • Streamlined Operations
  • E-commerce, document management and payroll systems are fully synchronised with ERP system

Seamless sales order processing

Three months later, when the Esker integration project was reestablished, Acme opted to use DataSwitch again, this time as part of a project to integrate its sales order processing (Esker) with SYSPRO ERP. In this instance, DataSwitch automatically retrieves and processes all sales orders exported by the Esker system and updates Esker with the master data, which is used to map specific customer information, including customer address and items ordered.

DataSwitch works by applying a series of business logic validation steps to the orders before they are raised in the ERP system. This complex logic works in tandem with Acme’s distribution centres across the US and is also capable of
splitting out any kit items that need to be handled separately. Matt DeLaurenti s, Senior Customer Service Manager at Acme, comments: “Using DataSwitch to integrate Esker and SYSPRO has had a measureable impact on our responsiveness and resource utilisation. It’s helped to streamline our operations and we’re seeing faster processing of customer orders, reduced
demands on manual labour and reduced overtime.

We’re also able to respond to customers much more quickly – acknowledging their orders almost immediately, which we know is improving our customer service levels as our customers have peace of mind that their orders are in the system.

“Our main goals were to streamline our operations and free up employees’ ti me so that they can be moved onto higher value tasks – and DataSwitch has certainly achieved both these goals. Two more of our brands are about to be brought into the Esker system and will immediately reap the benefits of this
integration solution.”

Our main goals were to streamline our operations and free up employees’ time so that they can be moved onto higher value tasks – and DataSwitch has certainly achieved both these goals.

Two more of our brands are about to be brought into the Esker system and will immediately reap the benefits of this integration solution.

Cloud based Integration

Having successfully deployed DataSwitch in its e-commerce operations and sales order processing projects, Acme then turned to DataSwitch for a third time in a year to address another business challenge. The company needed a way to connect Xenium SwipeClock – a cloud-based automated timekeeping and payroll integration solution used across the business – with SYSPRO ERP.

Acme wanted to be able to extract the data from Xenium SwipeClock and store it somewhere, but lacked an in-house system that could do this. Acme immediately turned to K3 Syspro and, once again, DataSwitch provided a solution by automatically polling and collecting all employee clocking information from Xenium SwipeClock’s cloud, and returning this information back to head office where it is stored and used for analytical purposes. As with the Esker project, DataSwitch has significantly reduced the reliance
on manual inputting of data, increased the accuracy of data and freed up employees’ time to work on other tasks.

Using DataSwitch to integrate Esker and SYSPRO has had a measureable impact on our responsiveness and resource utilisation. It’s helped to streamline our operations and we’re seeing faster processing of customer orders, reduced demands on manual labour and reduced overtime

Reaping the benefits of a bespoke solution

John Bartsch, Senior Director and Enterprise Data Architect at Acme, comments: “DataSwitch has enabled our business to become much more integrated and efficient by automating processes and improving data fl ow. Using DataSwitch in our Esker integration project, for example, enabled us to move the considerable manual overheads of multiple order input on to an automated and integrated platform.

“Now our e-commerce, document management and labor management systems are fully synchronised with our ERP system, right down to basic informati on such as customer address details. The integrity and reliability of the transactions is one of the most signifi cant benefi ts and we couldn’t fault the expertise and knowledge within the K3 Syspro team.

“In terms of return on investment, we recouped the capital investment on DataSwitch in around six months – far quicker than we had anticipated. We’re currently planning a number of new and replacement integration projects and we’ll certainly be speaking to the team at K3 Syspro about using DataSwitch
again in these projects.”

Aaron Wilcock, Head of Automation & Integration at K3 Syspro, concludes: “Our work with Acme is a great demonstration of the way in which we can identify integration solutions in different parts of a business. We’re always looking for ways to enhance our clients’ experience and help them futureproof their businesses for Industry 4.0 and beyond, and that’s definitely
something we are helping Acme to achieve.

“We’re now working closely with John and his colleagues on a major upgrade of SYSPRO and, with DataSwitch in place, the upgrade will be much more straightforward as we’re able to mirror the back office integrations.”

In terms of return on investment, we recouped the capital investment on DataSwitch in around six months – far quicker than we had anticipated. We’re currently planning a number of new and replacement integration projects and we’ll certainly be speaking to the team at K3 Syspro about using DataSwitch again in these projects.”