Key Ingredient: Mother Murphy’s Laboratories, A Case Story

Flavorings manufacturer Mother Murphy’s Laboratories integrates front office with production facility — improving operations from initial order to final invoice.

“ Vicinity takes a strong distribution program in Dynamics and extends it nicely to be a terrific fit for our business.”- ROBIN CONNER, President, Mother Murphy’s Laboratories

For Mother Murphy’s Laboratories, the time for change had come. After years of running another process manufacturing application, the company found that its current system had not kept up with the technology needs of today’s process-based organizations. An upgrade was needed — one that would more tightly integrate production with accounting and provide employees the real-time information they needed to perform their jobs more effectively.

“We were looking to take the next step,” explains Robin Conner, President. “With Microsoft Dynamics® as our financial core, we wanted a solution that would both improve production efficiency and allow our front office and production facility to communicate better.”

For Conner, the search wasn’t just for a software product, but for a partner that understood the business. “We didn’t want to buy a solution off the Internet… We were looking for a partner relationship that would last.”

They found that relationship with Vicinity to review and analyze the situation. Mother Murphy’s recognized that Vicinity Software offered the latest in process-based technology and would be an excellent fit for their operations.

“We knew Vicinity’s software was built specifically for process manufacturers,” explains Conner. “Even more importantly, we knew that we had a partner that would listen to our changing needs and ensure that the software would address those needs in future releases of the product.”

Once the green light was given, Vicinity Software was up and running in under three months. The Vicinity team handled all data conversion from the existing system and gave Conner, who at that time served as the company’s MIS Manager, the quick-start training she needed to take the reins. “It was one of the most painless conversions I’ve ever been involved with.”

The impact on day-to-day operations was immediate. Sales orders are now generated in Microsoft Dynamics, and batch tickets are entered into Vicinity. Vicinity automatically updates finished goods manufactured and the raw materials needed to produce them. Batch tickets are then posted to Dynamics, perfectly synchronizing accounting and production from materials purchasing to final project invoicing.

“Vicinity takes a strong distribution program in Microsoft Dynamics and extends it nicely to be a terrific fit for our business,” explains Conner.

The new system has been a success with employees and customers. “We actually demo Vicinity to our customers to show our capabilities,” says Conner. “The software has become a selling point for winning new business.”

With its flexible Microsoft .NET™ platform, Vicinity has the potential to pay dividends for years to come. The solution supports third-party products including Microsoft CRM and web-ordering technology, giving Mother Murphy’s the opportunity to improve communication up and down the supply chain with customers, suppliers, and partners.