OSAS and Red Hat: Fertilizing RSA MicroTech’s Growth
RSA MicroTech produces and distributes industrial fertilizer products to coast-to-coast wholesalers from four production facilities connected by their headquarters in Marysville, Washington. Orders range from a few hundred up to tens of thousands of dollars to make up $12 - $15 million in annual sales for the company. Along with managing inventory for the “on demand” orders that can comprise up to half of all the orders they receive, RSA MicroTech must also meet complicated reporting requirements that differ for each state in which they sell.
Although RSA MicroTech had used OPEN SYSTEMS® Accounting Software (OSAS®) for some time, they were using an older version that did not contain the latest enhancements that simplify workflow. In addition, there was little connectivity between production facilities and the company’s headquarters, leading to inefficient and cumbersome processing. There had to be a better way.
THE PROBLEM
RSA MicroTech used OSAS at its home office and at one of its production facilities in Kansas to enter orders, manage inventory, and complete accounting tasks. But since the home office wasn’t directly connected to any of the production facilities, accessing and transferring data was difficult.
“We would upload the data file from Kansas and the other facilities would dial in remotely,” says Ralph Rogers, Corporate Controller at RSA MicroTech. “It was cumbersome to get the data from Kansas and it was very slow for the remote users to pass all that data back and forth over the phone line.”
Because of this limited connectivity, order processing was centralized at the home office. While adequate, this practice made fulfilling “on demand” orders more difficult and delayed physical inventory processing. All procedures—such as filling orders or tracking down inventory issues—were initiated at the home office, slowing business.
RSA MicroTech faced more difficulties meeting reporting requirements for states in which they sold products. Many U.S. states require companies to report the amounts and types of fertilizer sold in that state. In addition, these requirements differ between states: one state may require companies to break up the report by county, while others require reporting only on the state as a whole. And most states institute penalties if reporting is not completed within the required timeframe.
“In the past, someone had to go through all the invoices and figure out where products went,” says Rogers. This task was more difficult because as Rogers says, “although it’s being billed from Iowa, the actual fertilizer may have been delivered to Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and so on.” Each invoice would be scanned individually to determine where the products were sold so that reporting could be completed as required.
THE SOLUTION
With help from TBC International, RSA MicroTech’s OSAS reseller, Rogers upgraded OSAS and switched from Windows to Red Hat Linux 7.1 to provide the wide area connectivity they needed. They then connected all branch facilities to the home office with a virtual private network (VPN) and terminal emulation software that allows employees to access OSAS over the Internet with a permanent, secure live connection.
TBC also helped RSA MicroTech modify OSAS to automate reporting. Says Rogers, “They set up reports to pull from the ship-to address instead of the bill-to address so we could report the correct information to the correct regulatory body.” Mike Scully, a consultant with TBC, describes the modifications this way: “It used to be just weeks and weeks of work for people. Now, we’ve turned it directly into spreadsheets: push a button and boom, here’s everything for this state, broken down by county or by whatever the requirements are.”
As a final step to ensure the new system would be successful, Rogers and TBC developed training for RSA MicroTech’s personnel. Employees were brought in to the home office from field locations, production facilities, and warehouses for training, allowing them to focus on the tasks at hand without distractions.
THE RESULTS
The wide area connectivity offered by Red Hat Linux has allowed RSA MicroTech to disperse order processing back to its production facilities, streamlining business flow. “Now they do their own data entry, run their own variance reports, and are able to investigate variance when it occurs,” says Rogers. “Inventory runs smoother because when something is out of line in inventory, they know about it first and can check it.”
Because sales representatives are always connected to all locations via the VPN, they can access information and check for item availability at other warehouses. Says Rogers, “it’s really about information access. If they want to know about a specific product in a specific warehouse, they don’t have to stop, call here, have somebody check; they can just go find out for themselves.”
Red Hat Linux has also proven to be a better fit for how RSA MicroTech does business. “Performance wise, when you compare OSAS on Linux to OSAS on Windows, it’s an order of magnitude faster. It’s no longer a network environment in terms of data sharing. Disk activity stays on the Linux box, increasing performance,” says Scully.
Red Hat Linux has also improved RSA MicroTech’s bottom line by saving money. “We didn’t have to invest heavily in T1 lines and stuff that causes infrastructure costs to go up. It’s very cost-effective because we’re paying for an Internet connection on one end and then there’s no cost after that,” says Rogers. “The machine also didn’t have to be as robust to process all the users who are on it now,” he continues. “It’s been very stable—it doesn’t crash, it doesn’t lock up. For the most part, we leave it back there and we really don’t think about it too much.”
Because of their OSAS modifications, RSA MicroTech also saves money by avoiding penalties assessed by states if reporting isn’t completed on time. “Our ability to generate the information and provide it to the states in a timely manner has been a cost savings. It’s allowed us to avoid penalties simply because we can collate the data and respond to their timeframe,” says Rogers.
Training and working with OSAS daily has also made a difference for employees and has smoothed their workflow. Rogers says, “they have a better understanding of OSAS and can utilize the information better. They now understand that this negative number means that the product was pulled from the wrong code and can investigate those things.”
RSA MicroTech has found the recipe it needed for continued growth: knowledgeable, connected employees that use streamlined business practices to minimize costs and maximize profits. All made possible with OSAS and Red Hat.
|
