Industrial Chemical Manufacturing Southern Silicone’s Cloud Solution Generates Rapid Time to Value
Southern Silicones supplies industrial, food, and cosmetic grade silicones from its southeastern U.S. manufacturing plant to customers all around the world. The company’s largest market is the automotive care industry, where it supplies washes, protectorants, and tire shine product. While Southern Silicones is young, its principals are industry veterans with more than 50 years of silicone industry experience and innovation.
" Within just a few months we were up and running and able to make and ship products, buy supplies, and invoice our clients. We were very pleasantly surprised with the speed of the implementation. RKL eSolutions worked hard for us, and we all worked well together. "
—Grant Morehead, CEO and CFO
FAST TRACK DEPLOYMENT
After founding Southern Silicone, Grant Morehead, CEO and CFO, says he and his partners wanted to invest their available capital and limited time in the operation, not on a lengthy implementation of a complicated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. “We didn’t have an IT department, and didn’t want to spend our resources assembling one,” he recalled. After having deployed Sage X3 at his previous company, Morehead immediately considered the program in his search for a new ERP system. “We decided to go out on our own”, Morehead explained, “so when we began shopping for a business management solution, our positive experience with Sage X3 landed it on our short list.”
“We knew Sage X3 was the right solution to handle our chemical manufacturing, and when we learned it can be deployed in the cloud, we were sold. It meant we could be live fast and with a minimal up-front technology investment.” Implementing a cloud based business management solution like Sage X3 saved Southern Silicone the steep startup investment typically associated with the implementation of a traditional, onpremise ERP system.
broad functional growth
The industry-specific functionality Sage X3 delivers ideally supports the company’s chemical manufacturing operations. “We need full lot tracking capabilities, quality control monitoring, and bill of material support,” said Morehead. “Sage X3 provides all of this and more.” The company next plans to implement the customer relationship management (CRM) component of the software, integrating the front and back office operations to support a continued high level of service and support.
robust functionality in the cloud
Having used Sage X3 as an on-premise solution, Morehead was concerned that the company might not have access to the rich functional scope and customization capabilities that Sage X3 is known for. “I didn’t need to worry,” he added. “Whether deployed on-premise or in the cloud, the functionality is identical. We can even customize it, something that’s not always an option with a hosted solution.”
access from any device
Morehead said that one aspect of Sage X3 that he especially appreciated is the ability to access the application from any device. “I use Sage X3 from my desktop, laptop, tablet, and smart phone. As long as I can get to a browser, I’m in business. As a busy business owner, this flexibility is very important to me.”
A solutions for the long term
“Thanks to the cost-effective nature of a cloud deployment model, we were able to secure a solution that can support our operations for the foreseeable future, instead of the typical path of a start-up company—starting with an entry level application and migrating several times,” says Morehead. “Using Sage X3, we can grow by a factor of 100 without stressing the software.”
recommended unconditionally
Morehead would absolutely recommend Sage X3; “It is easy to use, has tremendous power, is accessible from anywhere, and can support companies like ours that have global aspirations.”
He concludes, “With Sage X3 in the cloud, we are able to invest our time and resources into building this business. We don’t have to worry about servers, data security, and backups—that’s all handled by the experts.”
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