Customer success story
Two Dynamics NAV systems, one warehouse, and nothing typed twice
IMAN Cosmetics handed its order handling, warehousing and delivery to an outside logistics company. That company ran its own, heavily customised Microsoft Dynamics NAV. From then on every customer, order and delivery lived in two ERPs that did not talk to each other, and IMAN still wanted to invoice, report and analyse from its own.
IMAN Cosmetics, the beauty brand created by Iman for women with skin of colour, runs Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 in-house. Its warehouse partner PDR runs a customised Dynamics NAV 3.7. Rapidi links the two, keeping customers, products, prices, orders, invoices and credit notes in step, by configuration rather than programming. IMAN keeps full control of its data and manages the integration itself, without a third-party consultant.
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It was very impressive to see the data transfer ‘just like that’. By using Rapidi we are able to instantly access the information we need.
Outsourced logistics, and a second ERP with it
Before Rapidi, everything at IMAN was done by hand. The company implemented Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 for its ERP needs and chose to outsource all logistics, meaning order handling, warehousing and delivery, to PDR (Packaging & Distribution Resources Inc.).
PDR provides back-office services for small and medium-sized businesses. It assembles kits, stores inventory and ships product to a range of retailers, and internally it runs Microsoft Dynamics NAV 3.7, highly customised for warehousing.
That arrangement is common, and so is the problem it creates. The brand owns the customers, products and prices, the warehouse owns the orders and shipments, and each keeps its own copy of the other’s data. Without a link, someone re-keys it, and the two copies start to drift.
Recommended by the warehouse
The choice of integration tool came from PDR itself. The warehouse already used Rapidi for its own integration needs and recommended it to IMAN. Because Rapidi is set up by configuration, with no programming, it fitted a company that wanted to run the link itself rather than commission custom code.
We chose Rapidi because of their large experience with data integration and MS Dynamics NAV. The way Michael transferred the data quickly and simply provided strong support and his professionalism, made it a pleasure working with Rapidi.
What IMAN needed from the link
“Before implementing Rapidi, we had our data in both our local and our warehouse MS Dynamics NAV. But the systems were not connected, so our employees didn’t have real-time access to the necessary data,” the company explains. To build an integrated warehouse solution, it needed a stable and secure link between the two.
Control mattered as much as connection. IMAN wanted to manage its data itself, and to build its own reports and analyses, which meant every transaction had to be available in its local Dynamics NAV, not only at the warehouse. Data had to be captured and transferred automatically, so nothing was entered twice and everyone in the organisation worked from the same up-to-date figures.
- A stable, secure interface between the two Dynamics NAV databases
- Flexible two-way integration
- Control over the data, and the ability to run the integration in-house
- Data accessible to the relevant people at IMAN
- Data kept consistent across both systems
How the data moves
Rapidi sits between IMAN’s own system and PDR’s warehouse solution and exchanges every relevant record automatically.
IMAN maintains all customers, products and prices in its local Dynamics NAV, and every change is updated in the warehouse system at PDR. PDR receives orders by EDI and ships them to IMAN’s customers. All the order and delivery data then flows back into IMAN’s Dynamics NAV, and invoicing is done from there.
The effect is that the master data starts at IMAN and the transactions end at IMAN. The warehouse gets exactly what it needs to ship, and the brand keeps the complete record it needs to invoice, report and analyse.
Rapidi is very easy to use. It is a very flexible solution that can easily be extended to our specific integration needs. Working with the configuration interface has made it easier to gain access to the needed data quickly without having to involve an IT consultant. Rapidi supports our vision of a fully integrated business.
Take it with you
The whole story as a PDF
Two Dynamics NAV systems joined across a brand and its warehouse, what flows in which direction, and the three results IMAN counts.
What changed
The implementation brought several tangible benefits.
Better work routines. With the two systems linked, IMAN no longer types the same data into several places to keep each system accurate. Fewer manual processes save a lot of time and free people for more valuable work.
Quick access to data across the company. Employees now have real-time access to an up-to-date overview. Because the transferred data sits in IMAN’s local Dynamics NAV, reporting and analysis work on the complete picture.
Control and flexibility. IMAN’s own staff manage the data without a third-party consultancy, which gives the company more control and makes it far more flexible to build the reports and analyses it wants.
IMAN is a hands-on, fast paced organisation. By using Rapidi, we gained the ability to manage our data ourselves, instead of having a third party consultant involved, which used to slow down our business routines. With Rapidi, we now have full control over our data and we have the flexibility we need.
IMAN Cosmetics was created and inspired by the internationally accomplished fashion and beauty icon Iman, born from her own need to find cosmetics for her skin tone. She understood that the face of the girl next door was changing, and that her needs would be the needs of the majority of women in the world. The brand now meets the needs of women with skin of colour in the US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Norway, Ireland, Africa and the Caribbean. More about the company at imancosmetics.com.
Your data in someone else’s ERP?
A warehouse, a distributor or a sister company on its own system is a link worth building once. Tell us what each side holds and we will tell you what should flow.