Acquisition company grows operation with ERP, SOA

KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation

"Even a big solution like SAP is not a one-stop solution. We would still have to buy additional modules and customize it—and the integration with it and other systems is complex and point-to-point. With Microsoft Dynamics AX, we gained a superior architecture that would ease customization and enable us to use Microsoft BizTalk Server to establish a service-oriented architecture and actually simplify our ERP model."
 
By building its IT infrastructure around Microsoft Dynamics AX, KapStone has reduced costs in a number of areas:
 

• Implementation - Based on its existing SAP implementation, implementation costs for SAP companywide would be between $10 and $15 million. Says Sain, "Compared to SAP, the costs of implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX and all-new line-of-business systems were as much $9 million less."
• Total support - Ongoing total support costs for SAP in North America came to $5,537 a user per year. The solution based on Microsoft Dynamics AX, including Elixir, YardBoss, LumberTrack, Avantis, and BizTalk Server came to $2,371 a year. Across 120 full users per year, this comes to an annual savings of $379,920—around 43 percent.
• Ongoing maintenance - Compared to its previous solutions, Sain has found the ongoing maintenance of the solution based on Microsoft Dynamics AX to be considerably less. He says, "Due to the flexible architecture of Microsoft Dynamics AX, we feel our ongoing maintenance and support costs are 50 percent less than with previous solutions.