Caplugs - Global Expansion and a Strategic Partner

Caplugs has been a global leader in product protection since 1948, offering the widest range of solutions, including plastic caps and plugs, masking devices, tubing, containers, wraps, and more. With manufacturing and distribution facilities all over the world and headquarters in Buffalo, NY. Caplugs can effectively serve its customers wherever they are with reduced production and delivery times. They offer comprehensive custom capabilities through a team of design engineers, who will work one-on-one with clients to develop a custom molded piece that fits your needs.

Enabling Technology

• Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Challenge

In 2014, Caplugs was in the middle of a nightmare. The company’s NAV ERP (version 3.7) was outdated and no longer supported, resulting in limitations to how they wanted to serve their customers, especially abroad. They needed a web-enabled solution, with web services, a browser, mobility, among other capabilities. Another major goal was to standardize companies acquired all over the world on the same ERP. Caplugs had been acquiring companies for about five years and had allowed them to use their current ERP. However, as the company has continued to grow—adding two to three companies every year—this strategy needed to change. “In another few years, I would be managing 20 ERPs, diminishing the value of the business,” said Tony Darden, Director of IT at Caplugs. “We needed to drive efficiencies by standardizing.” With Microsoft’s impressive product roadmap and vision, including integration with Microsoft 365 and cloud initiatives, Caplugs elected to stay with NAV, upgrading to NAV 2013. The upgrade, however, was going south, already far over budget and not even close to being completed.

Solution

Innovia was called in to help. The first step was “triage”—stabilization and completing the upgrade to NAV 2013. The Innovia team took advantage of Extensions and Events to move or eliminate heavy modifications and implemented many highly requested user features, such as improved integration with Office 365 and a much-improved user interface. Caplugs went live on NAV 2013 with no downtime. According to Tony, it was “an unmitigated success.” With that project put to bed, Caplugs was ready to take on the next phase, an upgrade to NAV 2018, with the ultimate goal of moving to Dynamics Business Central, with EDI and JIT capabilities. While the upgrade to NAV 2013 took over two years, the NAV 2018 upgrade took only six months, coming in on time and on budget.

“The 2018 upgrade came in at a fraction of the cost,” said Tony. “With Microsoft’s philosophy that an upgrade should be more like an oil change rather than an engine change, I expect the move to Business Central to take three months and at half the cost of the 2018 upgrade. The path to staying current moving forward has been streamlined,” he continued, “and it all started with the right discipline and building blocks put in place by Innovia.”

Results Achieved

Caplugs has benefited from upgrading to 2013 and then to 2018. Processes have been streamlined, requiring fewer clicks. Performance is improving as the system continues to be optimized. The company’s independent sales reps will have the ability to work remotely, with smartphone and tablet access. Users’ requests for a friendlier interface were also addressed. With a fully functional, robust ERP in place, Caplugs can begin standardizing on the same system at all locations around the world. Finance and accounting functions will be streamlined, visibility into the company’s operations and performance will improve, and management will have the insight it needs to make proactive strategic decisions that benefit the global organization. One big benefit that was unexpected: With Innovia, Caplugs gained a trusted strategic partner, not just a vendor. In the words of Tony Darden:

• Reps for Innovia are non-billable resources, so I can call anytime to brainstorm, share ideas— whatever I need without having the budget clock tick. They will even send someone over to observe a department or process so they can help with a solution. This translates to a much more productive relationship.
• The entire Innovia team subscribes to the idea of getting you what you need, even if it’s not their solution. In fact, here’s how not selfish they are: They aspire for the customer to have their own NAV team if they have the resources. They don’t want you to depend on them.
• Often resellers have smaller teams with people wearing multiple hats. At Innovia, they’re separate, dedicated roles. They come to you with an army, each focused on their job.
• They have told me things I don’t want to hear, but I’m hearing the truth. They don’t quote with optimism; they quote with realism, and history shows that they are accurate.

Above and Beyond

Innovia has demonstrated its commitment to Caplugs’ continued success. For example, the company recently was experiencing a problem with excessive record locking and performance issues. Innovia responded immediately, deploying a team dedicated to the project. Within a few days, the problem was identified and corrected, and the team took a step further and took steps to ensure the problem would not occur again. “I’ve dealt with other partners. Innovia isn’t the cheapest, but we spend less with them because things are done right the first time,” said Tony.

“When I’ve switched partners before, I was surprised and disappointed at the number of customizations that weren’t done right. Innovia inherited a plate of spaghetti and straightened it out. The NAV people we have internally here at Caplugs are very complimentary of the Innovia team.”

Interested in partnering with Innovia Consulting? Give us a call at 800.834.7700 today or email us at sales@innovia.com to begin the conversation.