As part of our offer to provide free Power Analytics reports, one of our manufacturing clients took us up on the challenge — and the results have been transformative.
The Challenge
Our client, headquartered in New York, manufactures precision machine tools, aerospace components, and automotive parts. The company has a sister operation in Indiana, both owned by the same private equity group.
Their operations are tightly connected: the New York plant periodically ships work-in-progress orders to the Indianapolis plant for additional finishing processes. Once complete, those finished goods are shipped directly to the end customer.
This two-location workflow created a serious visibility problem. When customers called for status updates, the New York team often didn’t have real-time insight into what was happening in Indiana. Since each site runs its own ERP system — New York using Infor CloudSuite (SyteLine) and Indiana using Epicor on-premises — staff had to make multiple phone calls and emails to track down shipment status. They needed a faster, integrated way to see everything in one place.
The Solution
We accepted the challenge and designed unified analytics report that could pull and merge order data from two separate ERP systems — one cloud-based and one on-premises — spanning two different companies and cities.
Step 1: Extracting Data from Infor CloudSuite
Infor doesn’t make it easy to directly access data from their cloud systems. While they offer an API tool, it’s costly and relatively slow. To improve performance and reduce costs, we developed our own API to extract order and part information from the Infor Cloud environment. That data is then pushed nightly to our analytics server running on AWS.
Step 2: Pulling and Merging Data from Epicor
Next, we created SQL queries to extract corresponding order and shipment data from the Epicor on-premises SQL Server in Indiana. Fortunately, both ERP systems share a common order number, allowing us to match and link related records between the two datasets.
Step 3: Automating the Analytics Pipeline
Each night, data from both systems is transmitted to the AWS analytics server. Around 4:00 AM, our Power BI job runs automatically, joining and organizing the data into a single, unified Order Shipment Status Report.
By early morning, the report is emailed to management teams in both cities, giving them real-time visibility into every order’s status — regardless of which system or site the work is being performed in.
The Results
With this new automated report, customer service teams can instantly answer shipment inquiries without chasing down production staff or calling between sites. Management now has accurate, consolidated visibility across both companies, enabling faster decisions and better customer service.
Key Takeaways
- Integrated Data from Multiple ERPs: Combined cloud-based Infor and on-premises Epicor data seamlessly.
- Custom API Development: Built a faster, cost-effective alternative to Infor’s native extraction tools.
- Cloud Analytics Automation: Leveraged AWS and Power BI for daily reporting and distribution.
- Improved Customer Responsiveness: Eliminated delays in providing shipment status updates.
Next Steps…
If you have a unique challenge that needs highly skilled IT experts who can think out of the box and get things done, give us a call.
We live to solve issues like this.
