DIGITAL REPORT 2022 IN ASSOCIATION WITH: SYSTEMSLEGACYTRANSFORMINGDIGITALLY
2 global.ames.com PRODUCED BY: TOM VENTURO WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON THE AMES COMPANIES, INC.
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“Technologyorganisation.willhave a significant role to play in bringing suppliers, manufacturers and consumers closer together, especially when dealing with large volumes of data,” he adds. 4 global.ames.com
Abraham Kurian, CIO, The AMES Companies, on the company’s digital transformation journey for its legacy systems and ERP, as well as its process improvements
F ounded in 1774, The AMES Companies (AMES) is a group of organisations focused on products for in and around the home. AMES has four major business lines: lawn and garden; storage and organisation; outdoor living; and cleaning tools. As one of the largest and oldest brands in North America, AMES has so far brought together more than 20 brands into its group of worldwide employees.
Joining AMES in 2019 as CIO, Abraham Kurian entered the company at a time of change. “AMES went from being heavily focused on the manufacturing side of the business, producing large quantities of products to send to retailers, to rethinking its entire strategy. In the last three years, AMES has brought together its four separate organisations through a common business system to provide a seamless experience for its customers,” says Kurian.
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In his role as CIO, Kurian is responsible for both the technology side of the business as well as the business process implementation across the
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legacy systems
Being a group of organisations, AMES has multiple ERP systems – some of which are between 18 to 30 years old – and such legacy systems are unsupportive to the group’s operations, a primary driver for its digital transformation.
“We are dedicated to bringing all our systems together,” says Kurian “Not just our ERP, but our entire ecosystem. From this, we discovered seven key players that are integratable from an end-to-end perspective, starting from demand planning through to board-level reporting. We call this business system transformation.”Operatingona global scale, AMES has a presence in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and China.
The AMES Companies: Digitally transforming legacy systemsDigitallytransforming
TRENDS IN THE INDUSTRY
Looking to the future, Kurian explains that key trends in the industry are pointing towards closer collaboration, with both suppliers and manufacturers working closer with their consumer base. “This closer collaboration will be better for our industry,” says Kurian.
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“Due to the complexity and integration requirements of AMES, our organisation required a single system for its processes. To achieve this, we built a complete suite in one place, tested it, deployed it, and ensured we gained the maximum ROI out of it, before repeating the model in our other operating countries,” he adds. “So far, the US has been completed; we are currently working on the UK, and we are in discussions for Canada and Australia.”
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Choosing the right ERP system
“We planned to build and complete our business system in the US first, once established we will take that model and implement and expand it – if necessary –into other countries,” explains Kurian.
ABRAHAM TITLE: CIO INDUSTRY: CONSUMER GOODS LOCATION: FLORIDA, USA
KURIAN
Conducting a lengthy selection process over three months, AMES – being a group ABRAHAM KURIAN THECIO, AMES COMPANIES, INC.
Abraham Kurian is presently working as a Chief Information Officer of The AMES Companies, responsible for Global Technology and Business Processes. A highly accomplished senior technology leader/executive having 23 years of impeccable Business Transformation, Delivery & Finance experience with a proven track record of leading, growing large mature & complex businesses. Experienced with a variety of Senior Management roles, including P&L responsibilities and delivering Business and Technology Solutions across multiple industries, geographies, and cultures. Expertise in several industry verticals with a specialized focus on Manufacturing, Distribution, Retail, and Technology.
Planting seeds for growth in the cloud Increasing resilience and scalability for growth Watch now Infor® gave The AMES Companies the industry-specific functionality the company needed to maintain a competitive edge and lay a foundation for the future, while gaining the flexibility to respond quickly to changing market conditions. Learn why AMES chose Infor CloudSuite™ Industrial Enterprise to modernize its business. Copyright ©2022 Infor. All rights reserved. www.infor.com
of organisations – has unique requirements as a result of its multiple business lines.
“Creating a 600-page document, we harmonised the requirements of each division, and over the course of three weeks reviewed demonstrations from seven potential providers, ranking them from a capability perspective,” says Kurian.
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“For AMES, Infor’s ERP solution was the best tool for our needs. One of the primary advantages for AMES with this business solution was the ability to completely step back from the business database management operations. The patching, global.ames.com
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“ WE WANT TO WORK WITH OUR PARTNERS TO WEIMPROVECONTINUOUSLYTHESOLUTIONSAREUSING” ABRAHAM KURIAN CIO, THE AMES COMPANIES, INC. monitoring of data centres, and anything related to the hardware or the infrastructure.
“Another benefit from deploying out-ofthe-box ERP is that it ensures that we are consistently up to date with our systems, enabling us to remain current, as well as giving us the ability to automate our global.ames.com
“With this transformation, AMES has been able to increasingly focus its efforts on customer needs. Deploying this SaaS solution globally is also extremely simple for us to do, because we don’t need to worry about a data centre or setting up an instance somewhere in the world.
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“ WHILE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS A BUZZWORD, IT IS NEVERTHELESS CRUCIAL FOR INDUSTRIES TO ADOPT, TO TRANSFORM, BUT TO DO SO IN A WAY THAT IS RELEVANT” ABRAHAM KURIAN THECIO, AMES COMPANIES, INC. 12 global.ames.com THE AMES COMPANIES, INC.
Improving business process management Correlating to choosing the right ERP system and the use of automation, Kurian explains that, when an organisation has less touch on a transaction, there’s a significant cost improvement. “With this approach, we are focusing only on value-added elements.
relevant teams that the process is overdue. This is enabling our business to be more agile, with greater visibility into potential bottlenecks.” processes such as sales Withcustomers.shippingpicking,warehouseorders,andtothissolution, all our orders go through a single system without touching anybody else – a significant achievement from an automation perspective.” global.ames.com
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Automating the purchase order process has driven a significant capital improvement within the organisation, from touching 100% of our orders to only touching the 20% that
“ AUTOMATING THE PURCHASE ORDER PROCESS HAS DRIVEN A SIGNIFICANT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT WITHIN THE ORGANISATION” ABRAHAM KURIAN THECIO, AMES COMPANIES, INC. 14 global.ames.com THE AMES COMPANIES, INC.
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The next 12 to 18 months for AMES For AMES, the next 12 to 18 months are clear. “We want to continue the business system journey globally, following our deployment roadmap,” says Kurian. “Our ERP implementation over the last 20 months is just the beginning of the journey; we are excited to start reaping the benefits of these systems that we have implemented, which we will start to see over the next 24 months.”
Kurian concludes: “A key takeaway for me is that, while digital transformation is a buzzword, it is nevertheless crucial for industries to adopt, to transform, but to do so in a way that is relevant and that can bring you closer to the consumer. There are three processes to consider: 1) People; 2) Service; and 3) Profit. Placing important focus on the first two will automatically drive and align the third – this is what drives our strategy.”
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