DELMIAWORKS helps DPS Skis move on (and upwards) from QuickBooks

DELMIAWORKS solves DPS Skis business growth problems with move from QuickBooks

In summary:

• DPS Skis has saved up to five hours per day on accounting
• Easy to access business-critical data, which is now all in the same place
• Smoother, faster and more accurate inventory management
• DPS now able to reserve inventory in advance.

Dedicated to ‘the mystery encountered during a slide across deep snow’, DPS Skis designs and manufacturers the world’s most advanced skis from it’s base in Utah, USA.

Founded in 2005 through the partnership of professional skier and ski designer Stephan Drake and leading ski engineer Peter Turner, DPS sell and ship their skis and associated products worldwide through their website and in the world’s best ski shops.

Originally manufactured overseas for more than a decade, DPS Skis ‘repatriated’ their manufacturing to a state-of-the-art facility on the Wasatch Front in Utah in January 2013.

To support their continued growth, DPS realised they also needed to move away from their accounting package, Intuit’s QuickBooks.

Transition from QuickBooks to DELMIAWORKS

DPS, like many businesses in their infancy, started running on Quickbooks.

As they expanded however, they soon realised that the accounting package was proving to be a major challenge and was holding them back – especially considering DPS’ complex business model: a highly seasonal product and the fact the manufacture a very expensive product whose cost limits volume, therefore margins for error are minimal.

QuickBooks was also making inventory management and order entry difficult. Jaime Hirsh, Sales Operations Manager at DPS Skis explains what problems they faced:

“QuickBooks was good for a while. In the beginning, we kept all our skis in one location; we took orders, manufactured at an outside location, and shipped the product. Then as we grew, we set up our own factory in Salt Lake City; it soon became apparent that QuickBooks was challenged. Coordinating and integrating sales order entry with QuickBooks was always very difficult for us. It really didn’t suit our purposes, and the more we progressed, the more we realised that QuickBooks was holding us back.”

When evaluating ERP vendors, Hirsh focused on real-world inventory management ‘disaster’ scenarios at DPS and asked each company to show her how they would avoid them using their software.

They all failed except for DELMIAWORKS, which at the time of ERP selection was known as IQMS, according to Hirsh.

“Our production, while we do build all year round, isn’t linear. We build up a lot in the slow season. Sales can reserve that inventory based on location, and it’s immediately taken out of inventory. DELMIAWORKS lets our sales personnel see real-time inventory in the system and commit with confidence—there’s no longer a need to check with offices or locations to verify inventory. The process is smoother, faster, and less error prone. Customer satisfaction is not put at risk by bad or incomplete information.”

 

Gaining control of accounting and inventory powers expansion

Implemented during the relative slack period in DPS’ manufacturing before their seasonal peak, the results have been immediate.

“For the first time, all our data is in the same place,” reports Hirsh. “The inventory problems that we based our test cases on have been solved”.

“Now we have accurate, real-time inventory. Before there was always integration in process between one system processing orders and QuickBooks, which was so complicated. We also had to run other outside programs manually, on a daily basis. It could take anywhere from 10 minutes to five hours at the end of the day. Now, this consolidation is unnecessary, as all the information is at hand in IQMS. It’s really smoothed out our order entry and fulfilment.”

This development has been particularly welcomed by DPS sales staff who are now able to instantly see what is available to sell at any point in time. There are no longer any issues regarding consolidating information in QuickBooks or manually updating data.

And what’s next for DPS?

According to Hirsh, the next phase of the project will involve internal reporting and barcode scanning.