The Solution
Imperial began its due diligence in March of 2012. The decision to utilize VAI’s S2K Enterprise was made in May of 2012 with the assistance of outside consulting. Imperial evaluated several options and ultimately selected VAI for several reasons including:

• Imperial determined that S2K ERP was compatible with its existing infrastructure and equipment.
• VAI S2K ERP could enable Imperial to consolidate all systems onto a single platform and access data in real time.
• VAI and S2K ERP have a reliable reputation and could provide the flexibility needed for Imperial’s continued growth. Imperial began deployment and went live in May 2013.

Pre-deployment and ongoing professional consulting have ensured Imperial employees are effectively trained and make efficient use of the enterprise planning platform. This enables Imperial to better serve its clients while making the process more efficient and timelier.

Nucleus quantified the initial and ongoing costs of consulting, hardware, software, software license subscription fees, personnel time to implement and support the application, and employee training time to calculate Imperial’s total investment in S2K ERP over a 3-year period.

Direct and indirect benefits were also quantified over a 3-year period. Direct benefits quantified were the avoidance of additional warehouse staff, reduced in-house accounting personnel, transportation cost savings, reduced inventory carrying costs, and elimination of duplicative services. Indirect benefits quantified included the increased employee productivity driven by the deployment and were calculated based on the average annual fully loaded cost of employees using a correction factor to account for the inefficient transfer of time.

Said Jason Tillis, President at Imperial Dade, “In our business, it’s important to us to add value for our customers. Anything we can do to help our customers run their business better is what we want to do, and VAI has let us do that.”

The Result
The deployment of VAI S2K Enterprise has enabled Imperial to consolidate several systems onto a single, real-time platform. The flexibility and adaptability of S2K ERP has provided the base necessary for continued organic and acquisition growth of the company.

Imperial Dade deployed VAI S2K Enterprise to accommodate the fusion of multiple acquisitions under one Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package. Imperial Dade leveraged VAI’s unlimited user licensing to add hundreds of new users obtained during recent acquisitions. Nucleus found that S2K ERP enabled the company to migrate multiple software applications into one integrated ERP solution, providing a view of the entire business and providing real-time visibility throughout the organization.

The costs for the project consisted of consulting fees, initial hardware expenses, ongoing hardware maintenance, annual software license maintenance, and personnel time to implement and support the application. Imperial Dade also incurred costs for training its employees through both trainers’ fees and employee time.

ROI: 100% Payback: 1.1 years Average annual benefit: $1,194,353

Since the launch, Imperial Dade has been using VAI’s ERP software to:

• Integrate in real-time all applications
• Reduce staff overlap and personnel costs
• Improve delivery times and efficiency
• Reduce transportation expenses, warehouse carry costs, and the frequency of inventory transfers
• Increase efficiency in accounting
• Increase flexibility and visibility and support for continued growth