At Premier Computing, we regularly provide our clients with business consulting and software support. We recently had the opportunity to partner with BLD Brands, a national restaurant company that owns Papa John’s, Hardees, and Spaghetti Warehouse. With over 134 restaurants in 10 different states, our business consulting expertise was needed in order to smoothly implement Acumatica, a new and innovative ERP cloud solution in each of the company’s establishments.

Working with BLD Brands CEO, Andy Gale, our business consulting team was able to successfully transition the entire company to the cloud in a quick, efficient, and effective manner. Here’s a brief overview of how the process unfolded:

An outdated ERP system wasn’t going to cut it any longer

When Andy Gale joined BLD Brands in 2017, he quickly noticed that the company was going to need to upgrade its ERP system. Having overseen 11 successful ERP implementations, himself, Gale quickly realized that if BLD Brands wanted to continue its growth, it would have to use 21st-Century technology. With an unsupported version of Sage Pro maintaining a series of complex schedules, charts and accounting calendars, there was just too much going on.

Business consulting: the ERP evaluation process

Before making a final decision on an ERP upgrade, Gale decided to take a look at the various enterprise resource planning systems that are currently available on the market. After investigating NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Acumatica and Intacct, Gale settled on Acumatica, the ERP provider that Premier Computing represents.

This decision was made in the middle of July 2017 and just three months later in September, the initial implementation was up and running. Contrary to what the track record might show, the implementation process took lots of time and effort.

In addition to hiring temporary workers and asking core team members to extend their work weeks, Gale also brought on a long-time friend and seasoned IT professional to help speed up the evaluation and selection process.

Fun aside: this same IT professional has now joined the Premier Computing team!

Implementation doesn’t happen overnight

Even with years of experience utilizing and implementing ERP systems, Andy Gale knows the process is still a challenge. In an article on Computer Economics, Gale says problems will arise and inevitably team members will either push new technologies away or resist their adoption. Fortunately, there is a way to keep things moving in the right direction even if there are hiccups along the way.

Aside from working with business consulting professionals, implementing an ERP system also requires a significant amount of time and effort committed to training.You can have the most high-tech, cutting-edge ERP system in the world, but if no one has been trained on how to use it, problems are sure to arise.

Gale describes the process as a “crawl, walk, run.” Even though Acumatica is officially up-and-running, Gale says BLD Brands is in the crawl stage. In the coming months, he hopes to implement other capabilities like dashboards and mobile apps, but that is still a ways off.

Premier Computing can help you

Business consulting is just one of the services that we offer at Premier Computing, and we are proud that our efforts have helped BLD Brands transition smoothly to the Acumatica ERP system.

For more on the company’s efforts, or to get some additional background information on Andy Gale and the work that he’s doing, we invite you to visit Computer Economics to read this in-depth article.

If you’re looking for a partner that can assist you with business consulting in Murray Utah, look no further than the team here at Premier Computing. Together, we can find an ERP or other software solution tailored to meet your specific needs. Visit our website to learn more. https://premiercomputing.com