Enhanced Productivity with AI Assistance
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“From farm to fleet, we keep you moving.”
CFI Solutions has kept that promise for nearly 100 years. The nationally known tire and wheel provider specializes in helping farmers, commercial drivers and more keep their vehicles equipped with the best tires at the best price.
Based in Des Moines, IA, CFI has more than 25,000 customers nationwide and does roughly $70 million in business each year. Some of their clients have used CFI’s services since the beginning, trusting the family-owned company with their own family business through generations.
Relying on outdated, disparate systems
Despite the high volume of customers and revenue, CFI still relied on multiple older systems to run their operations. The company used Quickbooks for accounting, a small Australian company called Legrand for CRM and Fishbowl to handle inventory.
IT Director Matt McCormick said they had outgrown these solutions a long time ago and frequently ran into issues when they tried to make adjustments. Often, they reached out to support only to discover that a fix was years away — or not going to happen.
“We had just outgrown it. We had a lot of pains because our processes just couldn’t move forward,” he said. “We were just doing what we could to get by.”
They had 60-75 team members who needed to access the systems, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to get them all to talk to each other.
They vetted multiple products, including NetSuite and Salesforce before eventually settling on a Microsoft integrated solution for ERP and CRM. According to McCormick, CFI already used Microsoft Office and Power BI reports, so extending that investment further into the Microsoft ecosystem just made sense.
“We were pretty familiar with the ecosystem, and at the end of the day we just wanted to keep it within one environment,” he said.
A Microsoft integrated solution for ERP & CRM
CFI implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to handle their ERP/accounting processes and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales for their CRM/sales management.
The project generated so much interest among the team that finalizing everything they needed from the new systems took time.
“It’s a different stake when you’ve got a lot of family involved … Everybody came to the table to help out but then everybody had a thought of what would help them,” McCormick said.
The initial implementation took a full year, and they spent another six months fine-tuning the systems and extending capabilities. McCormick said they put in a lot of late nights with the Boyer team.
“There was a lot of hair pulling and hands wringing … It was like wrestling a tiger a little bit, but we got it in a chokehold,” he said.
When it came time to test their new system, CFI had dozens of users test the various processes. Giving this opportunity to multiple users instead of just a few subject matter experts gave them a better feel for what tweaks they needed to make, McCormick said.
With such a massive overhaul of their systems, it took the team a full six months after their initial go-live to feel fully comfortable.
One of their biggest challenges throughout the process centered on a tire-specific tax known as FET (Federal Excise Tax). The variable tax is so specialized that Boyer helped CFI implement a custom price list to relay the right tax amount for each tire between Business Central and their online store.
“That was a bear,” McCormick commented. “Now it works like a dream. We don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“What we’ve been able to do is basically kill our reliance on third parties.”
– Matt McCormick, IT Director, CFI Solutions
Ditching third-party solutions and saving money with integrated solutions
Perhaps the biggest ROI with their newly Microsoft integrated ERP and CRM is the ability to ditch multiple third-party solutions.
“What we’ve been able to do is basically kill our reliance on third parties,” McCormick said.
For example, they no longer need Hubspot for marketing because that capability exists directly within Dynamics 365 Sales. Similarly, they ditched a third-party solution that helps track shipping costs. Instead, they perform those tasks directly within Business Central now. A separate routing system and customer mapping system also bit the dust.
Overall, McCormick said CFI saved $160,000 in software costs by doing more within their new Microsoft solutions.
“That’s one of the things I like most about it. It is extensible. You can do anything you want with it,” he said.
For example, the integration with their website allows customers to place an order online — with the correct FET amount. That order is then directly processed within Business Central. This new process reduces the need for manual re-entry and improves the customer experience through accurate pricing and faster order fulfillment.
Plus, the strong Microsoft integration across sales, finance and operations leads to better insights and decision-making. McCormick can pull up his system anytime, anywhere and within minutes get up-to-date information on KPIs.
Working within a streamlined process
Learning how to work within the system was key to CFI’s success, McCormick said. To maximize their investment, they did their best to stick with out-of-the-box functionality. This meant adjusting some of their processes and only customizing when necessary.
The new system puts more controls into place, requiring team members to follow a set process along every step of the supply chain, from entering contacts to pulling an item for shipping. The result is much cleaner data and more accurate inventory tracking.
“Now we have the ability to create a hard, planned process that people have to follow if they want to get that order out the door. … Really what it is for us is an accountability system,” McCormick said.
Before the implementation, they had a much harder time tracking down specific inventory. Now, thanks to a set process and streamlined systems, they can easily see exactly which tires or wheels are on hand and better service their clients.
In addition to Business Central and Sales, Boyer also helped CFI set up an inventory-specific custom app to extend real-time functionality. The app allows sales reps working on Dynamics 365 Sales to pull information in real-time from Business Central so they can accurately share stock availability with their customers.
“I love it! Just working in it and learning both sides of it … It’s been a very fascinating kind of path,” McCormick said. As the company’s IT director, he is responsible for maintaining both the new ERP and CRM systems. When he gets stuck, he knows he can always turn to Boyer.
Choosing the right partner: Boyer
Even after they decided on a Microsoft integrated solution, CFI still had to determine the best-fit Microsoft partner for their project. Boyer went the extra mile, going on site to tour the facilities and demonstrating their expertise in manufacturing processes. The top Microsoft partner also suggested an in-depth assessment to provide a clearer vision of the final solution.
“Boyer was the one that really stood out,” McCormick said. “We got a good feel from them.”
He added that any implementation project has obstacles, but he believes Boyer rose to the challenge and worked to overcome those challenges.
“I knew how much blood, sweat and tears they put into the project,” McCormick said of the Boyer team. He added that Boyer worked hard to accommodate everyone’s wishes and met the high expectations of CFI’s nearly 75 users.
“The experience of working with the team has been great. I love everybody over there. They’ve always treated us very fairly and, you know, if we came across something that we had a disagreement on we always hashed it out together. I just really appreciate the team that (Boyer) provided, McCormick said.
