DCI Cheese Company Seeks Growth through Competitor Acquisitions and the Implementation of Enterprise 21 ERP Software from Technology Group International
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Toledo, Ohio - March 30, 2007 - Technology Group International (TGI), a leading ERP software solution provider, today announced that DCI Cheese Company has selected and implemented Enterprise 21 ERP software as the replacement package for its existing legacy systems.
Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Richfield, Wisconsin, DCI Cheese Company (DCI) is the leading supplier of high-quality, value-added specialty cheese. The DCI unique business model has evolved to comprise a portfolio of leading company-owned or exclusively managed brands, dedicated supplier partnerships and a full service consolidation warehousing program. The company's brands include: Black Diamond, Salemville, Organic Creamery, Meza, Goldy's, Joan of Arc, County Line and King's Choice among others.
Over the past year DCI had grown rapidly through several acquisitions. Managing these acquisitions effectively required a fully integrated system that was capable of managing the functionality requirements of four existing legacy systems. According to DCI's Chief Financial Officer Tim Preuninger, "We needed a software system that allowed us to effectively manage our multiple businesses. One of those acquisitions was a spin-off of a much larger food processing company, so time was of the essence to effectively implement a software package that provided us the financial reporting and operational management capabilities that we required."
In addition to the technical challenges involved with managing four separate entities operating on four different systems, DCI faced additional supply chain challenges. Preuninger states, "As we continue to grow, it's becoming more critical that we identify and use key information to help us to quickly and accurately complete our financial reporting needs as well as achieve operational excellence within our supply chain. We also wanted to select a user-friendly software package that provided a certain level of flexibility to allow us to tailor it to our needs."
Preuninger and his team selected Enterprise 21 from Technology Group International due to the company's extensive experience with the cheese industry. In addition to the multi-company support required by DCI, Enterprise 21 also met a wide range of functionality requirements needed to manage food and beverage products. From market based pricing to complete lot control and reporting, Enterprise 21 was a strong leader in the packages reviewed. "We found that Enterprise 21 offered superior production planning support and data extract capabilities. We also found Enterprise 21 to be more user-friendly than most packages we evaluated, and the quality of technical support has been excellent."
When asked about the implementation process thus far, it is clear that DCI and TGI create a solid technical partnership. Preuninger states, "Once we are fully operational on Enterprise 21, we expect to achieve substantial operational efficiency improvements through better production planning, less downtime due to inefficiency and changeover, and better raw material inventory management, all of which should lower cost and improve customer service. Additionally, we expect to see our period-end closing process become more efficient, allowing us the ability to close our financial statements faster and more accurately as well as provide our financial group more time to drive our business results."
The implementation of Enterprise 21 is being rolled out to DCI's various companies in a well planned, controlled manner. Overall both DCI and TGI are happy with the implementation process and rate of user adoption. DCI proclaims the project to be an ongoing success and states "Our systems conversions so far have been nearly seamless and trouble-free. We were able to convert the spin-off of the much larger company within six months of acquisition, and the conversion was seamless to the customer. We are now able to get faster and more accurate access to our business data."
About Technology Group International, Ltd.
Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Technology Group International is a proven technology leader delivering Tier 1 application software functionality at a price performance level that can be readily accepted by organizations of all sizes. Specializing in software systems for small and mid-market manufacturing and distribution companies, TGI's integrated Enterprise Series software suite is a complete business process management solution. The product offering includes Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Warehouse Management System (WMS), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Decision Support System (DSS), Business Intelligence, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), and eCommerce.
Additional information is available at www.tgiltd.com.
