Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP Traverse Edition
EHOB Migrates to Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP in the Cloud to Achieve Greater Flexibility and Scalability Industry
Industrial Manufacturing
Challenges
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Difficulty keeping an on-premise system up to date Limited remote accessibility and cybersecurity concerns Behind on accessing new features to unlock maximum ROI
Benefits
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Automatically applied updates to keep software current and resilient Flexible and simplified remote access thanks to the SaaS model Total scalability to support growth with cloud implementation
As a manufacturer of medical devices designed to prevent pressure ulcers for hospital patients, EHOB—which is based on the treatment principle of “elevate head of bed”—serves an important need for healthcare providers across the country by providing high-quality support surfaces, heel protectors and turning and repositioning aides. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, the business has enjoyed tremendous growth. The company recently opened a large EHOB Distribution Center not far from their combined corporate office and manufacturing space, which doubled their space over this past year. And whereas their sales team was originally broken into just two groups—East and West—that team is now large enough to split focus across six smaller regions. “We’re just constantly growing, and even internally, we’ve grown so much,” Sa’rah Plesner, EHOB’s IT director, said. “I know a lot of companies slowed down during COVID, and we did too to an extent, but we never stopped working.” Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP Traverse Edition has helped facilitate this success, offering robust ERP functionality and dedicated features for every operational area, from accounting and finance to inventory and production. The positive impacts of the software have been felt across the organization, making EHOB’s leadership confident that they made the right choice when deciding on a solution.
That being said, they knew they could get even more out of the solution if updates and new features could be more easily implemented, as Aptean has continued to improve their offering over time. The existing on-premise modality made that somewhat challenging, though. “It was getting harder and harder to update the on-site software because an Aptean team member had to VPN into our network, then connect to the server and do all the work in conjunction with people here,” Plesner said. “We were behind with build updates.”
Forging a Path to the Future Plesner met with EHOB’s executive committee in 2021, at which point their system was more than two-anda-half years behind on updates, and recommended the company upgrade and migrate to a cloud-hosted, Software as a Service (SaaS) model. They collectively identified that this would be the right move to maintain the company’s momentum and help future-proof their solution. “The cloud just made more sense from a technology standpoint. It helps with cybersecurity,” Plesner said. “Plus it’s just better that it’s not on the server here—if we have some type of disaster, we know our data is safe in the Aptean cloud.” From there, Plesner worked closely with Aptean’s implementation and support teams to meet an ambitious target for the go-live date. Rigorous testing was necessary throughout the process, as EHOB needed to maintain certain customizations while upgrading to the latest version and migrating to the cloud, but Aptean’s dedicated professionals went the extra mile and helped to accomplish the rollout in just seven months. “The customer service team was great. I have to say, Aptean offers awesome support,” Plesner said. “I call them ‘my team’ because those are the people that always help me with issues. They’re super helpful, and they get stuff done in a really fast timeframe.” Together, EHOB’s IT team and Aptean’s support staff helped to integrate Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP Traverse Edition with other software applications. And when the week of the go-live date came, one of Aptean’s senior product solutions consultants visited on-site to ensure everything went smoothly. “The week we went live, he was right here, on-site, to get in touch with the team and resolve issues as fast as possible,” Plesner said. Case Study | EHOB Migrates to Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP in the Cloud to Achieve Greater Flexibility and Scalability
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Exciting Opportunities and Continued Growth The updated Aptean software provided access to exciting features that Plesner and her team are now making good use of, such as interactive views for each module, as well as options that can be added in the future, including warehouse management, documentation and delivery. Just as significantly, though, cloud hosting has made remote access much easier. “The greatest benefit for me is that when our employees go home at night and take their computers—or if they are on the road and working—they can still get things done in the system,” Plesner said. “The fact that nobody has to use a VPN is great in my opinion. As long as I have an internet connection, the desktop shortcut and my credentials, I’m in.” “I can easily do what I need to do, whereas before it was much more complicated to get access,” she concluded. That’s helped to keep employees efficient, effective and productive no matter where they are. Meanwhile, the look and feel of the interface is optimized for a better user experience, and applying updates and troubleshooting occasional issues is more streamlined, with Aptean’s support teams shouldering the load. “I like that it’s more modern-looking and that Aptean is constantly updating it,” Plesner said. “I really enjoy that when there’s a base build update, I just ask them to put it in my test environment. I test the things that are changing so that I know, and if it looks good, I just ask them to push it out. They do all the work, and I don’t have to schedule extra time to try to do it internally.” “It’s also very nice that if I run into an issue, it’s easy for Aptean’s support team to get in the system and fix it at a much faster pace and on their own time,” she added. Now, EHOB is benefitting from the advantages of industrial manufacturing ERP software implemented in a flexible fashion that offers full scalability and greater resilience to disruptions. They’re also primed for smoother integrations with other solutions going forward, and the company is considering some of Aptean’s other offerings like Aptean Ship, Aptean Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and Aptean Enterprise Asset Management (EAM).
EHOB’s Top Reasons for Moving to the Cloud
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Streamlined, automatic system updates Full scalability to facilitate growth Enhanced cybersecurity and data protection Improved remote accessibility
A Sound Approach Going Forward Finally, Plesner has some words of wisdom for other industrial and discrete manufacturing businesses that are considering moving their software solutions to the cloud or otherwise undertaking an implementation or reimplementation of an ERP. “If you’re going to SaaS—test, test, test. Make sure you get your people to test,” she said. “If there are any issues, anything you’re seeing that you don’t like, definitely talk to your solutions consultant about it, because they have great ideas and workarounds. It could just be that you’re not using something correctly when you thought you were.”
Case Study | EHOB Migrates to Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP in the Cloud to Achieve Greater Flexibility and Scalability
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Also, creating a vision for a successful rollout and clearly conveying to your software provider what you’re hoping to accomplish are critical steps to maximize the chances that you reach the needed return on investment. “Make sure you’re presenting all the problems you want to fix, and what you want to achieve, up front before implementation,” Plesner said. “That way, whomever you’re working with knows exactly what you’re trying to get to.” That plan certainly served EHOB well. Together with Aptean they’ve made great strides forward and are primed to continue their growth in the future. Ready to learn more about Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP and how a flexible SaaS deployment can lead to similar positive results for your business? Contact us today or request a personalized demo.
Are You Ready to Learn More? Contact us at info@aptean.com or visit www.aptean.com.
About Aptean
Aptean is one of the world’s leading providers of purpose-built, industry-specific software that helps manufacturers and distributors effectively run and grow their businesses. With both cloud and on-premise deployment options, Aptean’s products, services and unmatched expertise help businesses of all sizes to be Ready for What’s Next, Now®. Aptean is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. To learn more about Aptean and the markets we serve, visit www.aptean.com. Copyright @ Aptean 2022. All rights reserved.