When fleets of helicopters and trucks mix, distribute, and deliver customized chemical products in the middle of isolated fields, finding an ERP system that will accurately track the inventory and billings for the deliveries and services can be a challenge. The equation becomes even more complex when that pre-mix inventory can belong to any one of four related companies, with multiple company, vendor rebate, and vendor consignment transactions to account for.

When Red River Specialties, Inc., a distributor for every major producer of forestry and industrial herbicide in the nation, decided to implement a new ERP system, these were only a few of their challenges. Red River Specialties wanted mobile solutions in their helicopters and trucks to be able to enter and transmit information back to the home office whenever a connection could be made to provide delivery updates and information to their customers on a secure website.

Red River Specialties knew their new system was not going to come "off-the-shelf", but they also knew custom systems did not typically come with maintenance releases and upgrades. A permanent solution to stay up to date was important to Red River because they did not want to license a new system only to have it become obsolete within a year.

When Red River Specialties discovered Carillon ERP, they knew they had found their solution. The Carillon ERP system already offered much of the functionality they needed; however, Carillon's capability and willingness to develop new functionality and offer continuous maintenance and upgrades on the new builds sealed the deal.

Carillon was able to blend the best technologies from multiple vendors to enable the helicopters and trucks to have real-time access to the same Carillon ERP system. Using a combination of Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server, Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere, Sybase's MobiLink technology, and a custom PowerBuilder application developed by Carillon; the solution was one seamlessly integrated ERP system. Much of the information that Red River Specialties previously had to track and disseminate manually was now done automatically within the system. Not only did this reduce clerical processing, but it gave Red River Specialties a major advantage in providing timely information to their customer base.

"Having an ERP vendor that would enhance the system to meet our needs was remarkable," says Bill Alexander, President of Red River Specialties. "We have applied several updates since our initial implementation with no loss of the custom functionality they built for us. Carillon's also done an extraordinary job integrating the technologies from multiple vendors to bring us the best of all worlds."

Red River is still a proud customer of Carillon. The flexible solution created for them fits each segment of their business and updating the software is still as easy as it was before. The automation, the updating, the business reports, and the quality customer support remains reliable. As Red River Specialties' needs continue to change and grow now, Carillon continues to customize the system to match those demands.