D365 ERP and WMS Client Success Story
Building Materials Supplier Reduces On-Hand Inventory and Streamlines Order Processing
Industry:
Construction/fastening solution manufacturer and distributor
Customer Profile:
A leading global provider of premium engineered fastening solutions that improves contractor productivity and building quality in residential and commercial construction.
Challenge:
Disparate ERPs; custom-built, customer-centric workflows; unique pricing; automated sales orders; complex landscape with many partners and high-volume transactions
Solution:
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain with Advanced Warehousing as WMS, MCA Connect Order Orchestration Suite, AI-powered order processing, and e-commerce integration
Results:
Streamlined order processing, reduced on-hand inventory, goal of 100% next-day shipments for key product lines
At-a-Glance
Integrated & Automated Wins
The Challenge
Siloed Distribution Activities & a Fragmented ERP
This materials producer had unique pricing structures that dictate how materials are stored and routed. They also leveraged custom-built customer profiles and required nuanced sales policies to drive satisfaction.
But three different business units were attempting to manage these critical distribution activities on two different ERPs.
Plus, one unit wanted to implement Material Requirements Planning (MRP), while another preferred a Materials Review Board (MRB) process.
It quickly became clear that the company needed a singular, modern platform to meet the diverse needs of each business unit while maintaining what made their distribution model work — for the company as well as its customers.
Specifically, our client needed to:
The Solution
The Connected ERP Platform
Strategic Insights and Execution Plan
The construction provider uncovered inefficiencies, prioritized initiatives, and developed a connected execution plan in a matter of weeks with MCA Connect Strategic Services:
- ERP consolidation emerged as one priority
- The analysis stage uncovered broader opportunities for improvement, from commerce to fulfillment
- Execution plan was developed to include custom order entry framework, commerce platform modernization, electronic data interchange, and agentic AI
Powerful, Consolidated ERP Platform
The company unified its disparate ERPs with a connected Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform:
- Dynamics 365 Finance: Centralized order and pricing management to optimize fulfillment, meet customer service commitments, enhance loyalty, and streamline sales
- Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management: Optimized warehouse and fulfillment operations, increased efficiency through automation, and refined pick-and-ship processes for accurate, on-time deliveries
- Warehouse Management System (WMS): Enabled real-time inventory visibility, intelligent location tracking, and agile warehouse workflows to support faster, error-free fulfillment
- MCA Connect custom Order Orchestration Suite: Organized incoming orders into a consistent, systematized structure and routing of orders to the correct business unit or system based on predefined logic
The ERP also allowed the company-specific customizations that our client required, including:
Essentially, the unified ERP platform streamlined operations while implementing the core capabilities needed to support the materials supplier’s distribution priorities.
Commerce Platform Modernization
E-commerce integration met their commerce needs, offering:
- Customer-specific ordering, including tailored pricing, for order options that reflect their agreements and fulfillment rules
- Streamlined order capture, for faster fulfillment
- A central source of data for diverse product offerings, preventing errors in picking, packing, and shipping
- Self-service fulfillment tools, reducing service calls and manual lift
EDI Integration
Our client implemented an electronic data interchange (EDI) solution:
- Automating the exchange of purchase orders, invoices, and other key documents for faster order-to-fulfillment cycles
- Enabling accurate, standardized communication between systems
- Providing tracking of orders, shipments, and inventory
- Improving coordination and visibility into order and fulfillment processes
AI-Driven Order Entry Automation
The global supplier of building materials leveraged high-impact AI to address gaps in manual order entry. AI agents were leveraged to:
- Process sales orders received via email and customer portals
- Scrape data
- Automatically create orders in the system
These agents reduced the need for manual data entry and the associated errors, improved order processing speed and accuracy, and filled a critical gap in the existing order management workflow.
Results
Unified Systems + Personalized Customer Experience
With MCA Connect’s help, our client is positioned to benefit from:
What’s Next?
Optimization doesn’t stop there.
This global leader in building materials continues to explore data-driven distribution solutions, from AI-enabled materials review board (MRB) decision-making to additional MCA Connect intellectual property (IP).
The result is a forward-thinking operation, built to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving distribution market.
About MCA Connect
MCA Connect modernizes supply chains end-to-end through transformative consulting, unified data for business insights, process optimization and automation, AI and advanced decision making, and business application implementation.
As Microsoft’s top manufacturing and distribution partner, we combine global reach, seasoned experts, leading-edge tech, and a focus on business strategy.
