SMS Equipment Customer Success Story

Home / Customer Success / SMS Equipment Customer Success Story

SMS Equipment Chooses e-Emphasys ERP

SMS Equipment Inc., based in Acheson, Alberta, is a leading supplier of equipment and services for the mining, construction, forestry and utility sectors. With over 40 branches located across Canada, SMS is one of the world’s largest Komatsu distributors. SMS is a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, a global trading company with turnover in excess of $38 billion USD reported for their 134th fiscal year. Sumitomo Corporation (“the Company”) is a leading general trading company, boasting 150 locations in 70 countries throughout the world. The Sumitomo Corporation Group (“the Group”) consists of nearly 780 companies and more than 70,000 personnel. Sumitomo’s Construction & Mining Systems Division conducts business on global basis, and owns several distributors and rental companies.

The SMS organization began as a number of smaller equipment dealers that were acquired through parent Sumitomo Corporation. SMS senior management developed a sophisticated, multi-year plan to replace the multiple existing legacy systems inherited from the acquired dealer operations.

Challenges

Each of the acquired dealer operations were able to manage their individual operations using the legacy systems, however these systems (NDS, PFW, Rivtow) lacked the robust integration functionality that would be required to efficiently aggregate information from multiple systems.

Additionally, each of the legacy systems had advantages and disadvantages relative to the others. This lead SMS to search for a “next generation” system with comprehensive functionality capable of fulfilling the requirements of the entire organization and the flexibility to adapt to new requirements as the company grew.

SMS Equipment

Headquartered: Acheson, Alberta, CA

Founded: 1952

Locations: 40+ locations

Industries: Construction, Forestry, Utility, and Mining

OEMs: Komatsu, Wirtgen, Kleemann, Vögele, Hamm, Fecon, Terramac, Indeco, Sandvik and more

Solutions

Several years ago, SMS participated in a dealer consortium that outlined the requirements a modern, flexible system with comprehensive functionality and superior integration capabilities would be expect to fulfill. The consortium reviewed dozens of software packages and its members eventually narrowed the field to two main contenders: NxTrend (later acquired by Infor) and e-Emphasys ERP (based on Infor ERP). After an extensive examination of systems, SMS selected e-Emphasys ERP from e-Emphasys to efficiently manage their business requirements and support the growth of their business. SMS selected e-Emphasys ERP for three main reasons: its breadth and flexibility, its strong monitoring and reporting capabilities for department managers and owners, and its modern and future-proof technology foundation.

More recently, with their company’s growth, SMS saw an opportunity to participate in the current rapid development of Mongolia’s mining sector and decided to start up a new local operation. Mongolia, a land-locked country sandwiched between Russia and China, covers an area of about 1,564,000 square kilometers—roughly the size of Alaska. Ranked among the top three fastest growing economies, Mongolia has an expected growth of up to 10% in 2011. Primary growth drivers for 2011 include the US$2.3bn capital budget (over one-third of Mongolia’s GDP in 2010) allocated by Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto to develop the OT copper/gold mine project, strong and growing investments across the mining sector as well as other asset classes, the positive outlook for commodity prices and rising export values driven by strong Chinese demand.

The selection of e-Emphasys ERP to run the new SMS Mongolia mining business was based in part on the company’s experience over the past several years in using e-Emphasys ERP to manage their western Canada construction, forestry and utility operations.

SMS has seen significant benefits through the disciplined deployment of e-Emphasys ERP within our Canadian operations. As e-Emphasys ERP was also able to handle Mongolia’s unique language and currency requirements, it was the logical choice to support our new operation in Mongolia.

- Gordon Buttolph, SMS Director Information Technology, SMS Equipment

Results & Benefits

The SMS management team is pleased with the business improvement e-Emphasys ERP has enabled. SMS successfully converted their western divisional legacy business systems to e-Emphasys ERP and went live with e-Emphasys ERP for their new Mongolia operation. SMS also deployed e-Emphasys ERP BI to allow the organization to make more effective decisions quickly, with appropriate information readily available across their western branch network.

For more information about SMS Equipment, please visit smsequip.com.

SMS utilized e-Emphasys ERP’s Dynamic enterprise Modeler (DEM), which is an integrated best business practice modeler, to map and document the steps required to complete transactions. This documentation will be used to facilitate pre and post go-live training. Unlike any of our previous systems, e-Emphasys ERP provides the functionality and improves the processes that support our customers and suppliers. The disciplined approach in replacing multiple legacy systems with e-Emphasys ERP continues to yield significant benefits for SMS, including improved alignment of our operations, reduced costs through efficiencies and standardization within the company. With the effective use of resources enabled by e-Emphasys ERP, SMS can concentrate on growth and improving customer service.