What we did:
IT Department Management | Hiring & Training Staff | Information Security | Enterprise Solutions
Tech mogul Bill Gates famously said, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” When we were introduced to So Delicious Dairy-Free, a local company with a heart for family and the environment, we wanted to partner with them to broaden their vision beyond the short-term. They were growing by 25% each year; relying on an underpowered accounting system, outdated technology and manually processing large amounts of data using Excel. It was a house of cards ready to fall.
We were brought in to help solve current issues while enabling them to scale for the long-term. So Delicious had the momentum for continued growth, and there was no shortage of expertise among its employees. However, sharing information within the organization was difficult due to old technology and systems, which created communication silos.
We quickly realized that this was a company in desperate need of an integrated enterprise solution — one that could house critical production and supply chain transactions in addition to the typical month-end accounting entries. Combined, these tools would produce business intelligence the company could rely upon to make decisions quickly. This kind of project would require a different kind of information technology department; one less focused on piecing together Excel data and fixing desktops and more focused on security, unified communications, and business analytics. It also required a complete modernization of the company’s technology infrastructure.
Our first step was to assess the company’s people, processes, systems, and technology. We conducted interviews with key stakeholders and analyzed existing processes and documentation. This allowed us to create a Roadmap for Change, which included:
- bringing in additional skills,
- upgrading the technology infrastructure, and
- introducing an enterprise solution at a pace that could be digested by the organization.
Next, we presented the Roadmap for Change to the leadership team. In response, they asked us to take over the management of the IT Department to facilitate change quickly and effectively. We helped them hire and train staff into roles that could support an enterprise infrastructure, outsource when it made sense (e.g., desktop support, additional bandwidth for projects), and handle services internally when company knowledge mattered most (e.g, business analytics, report writing, enterprise solution selection, etc.). Eventually, the functional silos came together to create cross-functional teams that partnered to select collaboration tools like Microsoft Sharepoint.
We oversaw an information security oversight committee and improved collaborative processes, such as new product development, order to cash, and procure to pay. The result? Magic! We watched a solid organization evolve into one equipped with the knowledge and resources to grow at scale.
About So Delicious Dairy-Free
Nestled within Oregon’s lush Willamette Valley, So Delicious® Dairy Free has been bringing joy to dairy-free lives for more than twenty-five years. They offer an array of delicious dairy-free delights you can feel good about sipping, biting, pouring, scooping, licking, and chugging throughout your day. From their world-class allergen-testing program to the innovative work they do creating products made with only the highest quality ingredients, they’re committed to doing the right things for people and the planet. Many of their products are made with organic ingredients, and are always 100 percent plant-based and Non-GMO Project Verified with no artificial sweeteners, trans-fats, or hydrogenated oils.
Challenges:
- Aging infrastructure that wasn’t built to grow or scale. As transaction volume and complexity increased, the lack of processing speed attainable from aging hardware was slowing everything down; internet connectivity and internal wireless was woefully inadequate, and desktop and network hardware needed to be upgraded to handle the volume and size of data being shared.
- Inadequate Information Security, Backup Protocol and Disaster Recovery Procedures. This put intellectual property and other internal confidential information at risk.
- Lack of standardization and procedures for user access and account management put sensitive data at risk.
- Outgrowing their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)System. As a result, they were relying heavily on Excel Workbooks with lots of complex/linked macros that could become easily corrupted due to aging infrastructure issues and lead to errors and rework.
Results:
Following an assessment of the skills, processes, systems, and technology infrastructure in the Information Services Department, we:
- Expanded the skills and leadership in the IT Department. We knew they were headed for a new ERP solution and needed to upgrade their technology infrastructure to provide reliable, accurate business intelligence for fast decision-making. Their IT needed to become a proactive, strategic partner, so we took over and helped add business-minded leadership and analysts who could parlay business requirements into best practice process and systems.
- Designed and implemented an enterprise mobility solution by implementing a new wireless infrastructure within the offices, in addition to on the manufacturing shop floor to facilitate mobile device utilization and high volume data transfer.
- Completely upgraded their technology infrastructure (e.g., desktops, servers, routers/firewalls, wireless, and internet connectivity) to allow more flexibility, position the organization for growth, and enable a number of critical improvements, including:
- The creation of a highly available network that optimizes performance and reduces capital expenditure. This enabled a better use of resources (a lower cost for servers, less power utilization, and a more efficient use of resources).
- Centralized management of user access; leveraging Microsoft Active Directory to assign role-based permissions and security.
- Implementing an Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) Program that would align capital expenditures with growth.
- Implementing an information security program, including Logical Access Control, Information Sensitivity Classification Policy and Social Networking Policy. We also assembled a cross-functional information security oversight committee to secure intellectual assets.
- Implementing a Unified Communications (UC) platform or “single pane of glass” to merge telephony, web, social media, and instant messaging. As a result, the Customer Care Team was able to optimize the consumer experience.
We got the right people into the right seats using the right tools so they could do the right thing by:
- Creating a redundant, highly available, and secure information technology that could scale with the company’s growth and protect valuable assets along the way.
- Implementing Capital Expenditure Management that wouldn’t increase costs at the rate of growth through hardware virtualization and effective asset management and replacement.
- Increasing employee satisfaction and efficiency to by eliminating the frustration of using aging technology and trying to access files over a slow network.
What our client said...
“Syte was instrumental in helping So Delicious Dairy Free during a period of extraordinary growth. Their expertise enabled us to weather the difficulties facing us and emerge with the systems and procedures we needed for our success.”
– Robert Piercey, CFO, So Delicious Dairy Free
Doing Business Better
You strive for excellence, believe in your people, and want to do things right the first time. And you know that you need help to get to the heart of your business challenges and make the best choices for the future of your privately held manufacturing and distribution company. That’s where we come in.
We help you focus and find exactly the right path to accelerated growth and sustainable success — from your people to your processes to your ERP software.