Envalo
ERP Re-Platforming Doesn't Have to Hurt

Businesses that are looking to stay competitive know that information – and instant access to it – is key. Unfortunately, many ERP systems are not up to the task, leaving some businesses wondering if they should change platforms to aggregate customer, order and supply chain information to improve the customer experience. “Businesses are pressured by system integrators or software vendors, claiming they need a single integrated ERP system,” says Michael Moores, CEO of Cleveland, OH-based Envalo. “They are told they have to start over with a new platform or live with their current system. But the decision to re-platform is a considerable investment of time and capital.” Envalo provides enterprises a “middle ground” by leveraging a plug and play integration framework that aggregates information from disparate systems into single, customer specific, mobile friendly, B2B portal. Standing as a pillar of strength for organizations looking to reinvent their customer engagement is Cleveland, OH-based, Envalo.

The “middle ground” enabled by Envalo is a modular and incremental approach to improve operational efficiency through automation for clients and provide them the visibility and self-service capabilities in business. As a part of implementing B2B Portals for clients, Envalo integrates its clients’ back-office systems for accounting, inventory, and warehouse management with their suppliers’ IT systems to provide complete visibility into the supply chain. Additionally, the integration framework simplifies ERP re-platforming as the old system can directly be mapped to the new system, without disrupting any operation. While end users see no change, companies get a new ERP system along with a host of seamlessly integrated back-office systems. A key highlight is that the company provides a high-end, mobile-friendly customer engagement portal in 3-4 months as opposed to 12-15 months needed for ERP re-platforming.

Through its portals, Envalo has successfully enabled visibility into the CRM, inventory, procurement processes, order processing, and other functional areas. The company has integrated its functions with e-commerce platforms such as Magento, IBM WebSphere, and ERP systems like Epicor, JD Edwards, NetSuite, Sage, and Microsoft Dynamics to enable several possibilities like pulling of live inventory feed or aggregation of multiple orders into one supplier order and pushing that into a back-end ERP system.

“We take a real-world view of suppliers, product information, invoices, and orders to map them independent of IT applications and aggregate them into one mobile-optimized user interface,” says Moores.

We take a real-world view of suppliers, product information, invoices, and orders to map them independent of IT and aggregate them into one mobile-optimized user interface

The value proposition of Envalo’s solutions has helped its clients serve market leaders better. In one case, when a Fortune 500 company outsourced a large division to one of Envalo’s clients—a distributor with a $10 million turnover—the main challenge for the distributing firm was to reduce the cycle time for orders. When Envalo was brought onboard, the company integrated the inventory and order management systems of all suppliers working with its client’s (distributor’s) systems. Order feeds entered by the distributor were automatically “pushed” to suppliers, which reduced order processing time by 40 percent, allowing the distributor to close customer orders in two days, which earlier took a week.

Envalo’s proprietary, cutting-edge technology for interactive schematic part solutions has also taken the industry by storm. Users can scan a barcode or QR code using a mobile device to see a product schematic, where clicking on different parts provides the information on the parts to be replaced. The technology helped one of Envalo’s clients reduce the return of parts by 24 percent as Envalo addressed the concern of people buying incorrect parts.

Going forward, Envalo intends to release a cloud-based B2B Portal system, which its clients can use as a front-facing tool, allowing the ability to plug all the data into their back-end systems without the need for integration. Moores confirms that the tool would be transactional and SaaS-based, which eventually would evolve into a low-cost business operating system.