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SMART Technologies, a world leader in flexible, long term solutions for anywhere learning and collaboration, improves supply chain management and customer satisfaction by efficiently integrating their Oracle Agile PLM system into Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O using the To-Increase PLM integration solution.
Primarily catering to the education, business, and government sectors, SMART has been a consistent innovator for more than 30 years. They are the inventor of the SMART Board® and the developer of SMART Notebook®, the world’s most popular collaborative learning software, part of the SMART Learning Suite.
Why SMART Technologies needed a PLM Integration solution
SMART Technologies was looking to achieve an agile and efficient supply chain globally. They had been using a decade-old Oracle E-Business Suite, which involved a lot of custom coding in addition to a costly licensing.
As a result, they were stuck many versions behind the current product offering on the e-business suite. After evaluating the option of modernizing versus resuscitating the old system, most of their senior management were determined to move to the Microsoft Dynamics platform.
“To-Increase gave us an integration platform to bring everything in from our Agile and also provided us with all those functionalities inside of Dynamics which was not achievable with the standard Dynamics solution."
– Sean Perry, Application Business Analyst, SMART Technologies
Business Situation
The SMART Technologies team wanted to enhance their global supply chain management. They were using a decade old ERP system that was becoming more of a burden due to heavy custom coding and licensing costs. So, they decided to update their existing system and switched to the Microsoft Dynamics platform. However, now, their next big concern was going through the troubles of dealing with a separate Microsoft-specific PLM system.
They needed a reliable PLM and ERP integration solution, but they didn’t want to go for a whole new PLM system. They were happy with their existing PLM (Agile) and wanted to continue using it. So, they were seeking an integration solution that could track their Agile features into the ERP system. But, Dynamics out-of-the-box was too basic for that.
They were able to bring all the required data from Agile into ERP and have the desired functionalities using the To-Increase integration platform.
SMART Technologies is now able to have the desired, customized functionalities using the To-Increase PLM integration platform.
The integration has enabled the data to flow freely between their PLM and ERP systems. They now have complete visibility and are able to completely control different actions in their integrated system. This has reduced data redundancy and error rate, helping them save both time and cost involved in supply chain errors. Their global supply chain efficiency has improved helping
