Prior to its acquisition by Westrock in 2018, Kapstone was a leading North American producer and distributor of containerboard, corrugated products and specialty papers, (including liner and medium containerboard,) kraft papers and saturating kraft. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, Kapstone employed close to ten thousand people over several locations in the United States with annual revenues exceeding $3 billion.
In June 2013, Kapstone bought Longview Fibre, a large paper products company spread over 11 states. At the time of acquisition, SSNW was brought in by Kapstone to assess Longview Fibre’s software and provide across departments to best work within Kapstone’s portfolio. SSNW was perfect for the job, as our highly skill team of consultants and business analysts understand the best ways of extracting the most value during mergers and acquisitions.
Optimizing from Microsoft Dynamics 2009 to 2012
Before Kapstone acquired Longview, Brookstone Asset Management hired SSNW to speed up Longview’s close processes and manage the reorganization of Longview’s IT and Finance departments. That project ended with SSNW partner joining Longview as interim CIO, realizing savings of $2-3 million a year for Brookstone. Previous work by SSNW allowed Kapstone to achieve a highly intelligent integration with Longview--no mean feat, since Longview itself was almost half the size of Kapstone, bringing in thousands of new vendors and requiring hands-on expertise and knowledge of Longview’s operations.
Since Longview was running on JD Edwards and Kapstone on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, both ERP systems needed to be changed together. Upgrading Kapstone to AX 2012 was relatively simple, since their integrations and workflows largely remained the same. Longview, however, posed some systemic challenges that had already taken SSNW some time to solve (re: previous work done for Longview). However, SSNW’s team was well-versed in extracting value during simultaneous upgrades, having performed similar work for a manufacturing client. Therefore SSNW decided to tackle both ERP systems simultaneously and provide a competitive timeline for go-live. For the most part, we kept Longview’s integrations with JD Edwards, shipping them over onto AX 2012. This was only possible because our team was intimately familiar with Longview’s systems. Once AX 2012 was in place at Kapstone, SSNW managed Longview’s transition onto the software, building a few integrations along the way to streamline processes.
Prominent third-party integrations with Microsoft Dynamics AX
Move Longview from JD Edwards ERP to Dynamics AX 2012
Upgrade Kapstone from AX 2009 to AX 2012
Strategize the continued use of 60 third-party integrations with a focus on minimal third-party vendor support
Software plan
Primary
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Provides a strong financial foundation and supply chain management capabilities
Provides a robust platform for future enhancements
Runs locally as an application instead of a browser
Prominent third-party integrations
Due to the number of integrations SSNW managed (60), this case study highlights the major integrations that allowed for seamless continuation of day-to-day operations at both Longview and Kapstone during the transition period. The following third-party solutions all integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
Avantis Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
Designed for large companies
Offers condition management, predictive maintenance, inventory management, procurement and reporting functionalities
Elixir Tango for Finance
Replaced Longview’s Honeywell integration with JD Edwards
Streamlines and maintains work order creation and close processes
Axiant
Credit limit, invoicing
Yardboss
Specially designed for fiber supply management
Can pay an unlimited number of suppliers, landowners, haulers and government fees/taxes off a single load ticket
Special payment terms like production advances, lump sums, holdbacks and surcharges Truck management including overload flagging
Lumbertrack
Tracks lumber inventory from log yard, to mill, and reload yard.
Improves accuracy, efficiency, and responsiveness for customer service.
Analyzes and optimizes operations to reduce costs and maximize return on inventory investment.
Accelerate sales with real-time visibility into demand and production.
OTM Transport Management
Integrates transportation planning, execution, freight payment and business process automation across all modes of transportation (road, air, ocean, rail)
Results
Moved Longview onto Kapstone’s best-of-breed approach for selecting new software
Realized significant long-term cost savings through simplified integration processes
Reduced IT costs by $3 million
Reduced procurement spend by $16 million through vendor consolidation
Reduced finance costs by 35%
Reconfigured finance process reduced closes from 12 days down to 2.
Realized shifts toward automated workflows, increasing productivity
Strategic Solutions NW
Our work with Longview, through acquisitions and mergers (link to MA article), highlights our capabilities and versatility as Microsoft ERP partners and the kind of value we seek to bring our clients. Offering operational insights, the skill to configure technology, and the ability to execute steps to make the best versions of an enterprise a reality.
Strategic Solutions NW is a tight-knit business and technology consulting company headquartered in Beaverton, OR with clients around the world. We specialize in integrated software implementation and recovery, applying every solution with a business-wide approach. Our repertoire includes creating and managing the accounting function for 500 million-dollar manufacturers, specialized forest product experience, and longstanding partnerships with a swathe of major software vendors. Led by three partners with decades of experience in software and business solutions, we approach each client with a long-term relationship in mind, providing continued support and communication beyond project timelines. Contact us if you’re thinking of introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 to your enterprise for a free consultation.
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