Maple Leaf Farms, America's premier producer of quality duck products, has deployed a suite of business integration software from EXTOL International as their platform for managing all business relationships. The functionality of the EXTOL solution enables Maple Leaf's lean IT team to rapidly meet the demands of new business opportunities and changing customer requirements. EXTOL is a leading provider of B2B integration software for both internal and external collaboration.
The high quality of Maple Leaf Farms' products has enabled the company to dominate its market, which comprises retailers, food-service professionals, and restaurants; and, technology has enabled a long track record of impressive growth. The company is using EXTOL Integrator to handle the high-speed exchange of B2B trading documents, and to seamlessly integrate these documents into their applications, systems, and processesùwithout custom coded interfaces. They are also using EXTOL Secure to enable secure transaction exchange and protected communication via the Internet using AS2 protocol, and EXTOL Portal, an economical alternative to traditional VANs, when that communication method is required by a partner.
With EXTOL, Maple Leaf Farms is able to automate many day-to-day processes, immediately get on board trading partners, and rapidly respond to customers' demands for new business processes and transactions. "One of our larger retail customers told me Maple Leaf Farms is 'light years ahead' of their other suppliers when it comes to EDI," explained Ted Gillem, application support specialist and EDI coordinator for Maple Leaf Farms. "This is because we use EXTOL for business integration."
Gillem was spending 50 percent of his time on EDI. Now he spends just 10 percent, and is implementing strategies to make EDI a "lights out" function. Maple Leaf Farms has over 100 trading partners and sends and receives more than 2,500 EDI transactions per month in more than a dozen different transaction formats.
Other departments are also benefiting from the improved business processes, such as shipping, customer service, and accounting. Their system delivers transaction data directly into Maple Leaf's ERP system, S2K from Vormittag Associates, Inc. (VAI). "The integration eliminates having to invest any staff time managing inbound or outbound transactions," explained Gillem. "With EXTOL Integrator, all the business department staff has to do is review the order right in the VAI system and check that the ship-to information is correct."
Further, because of the accuracy of the incoming orders, and integration with Maple Leaf's warehouse management system (an in-house written application co-developed with VAI), shipping errors have been dramatically reduced, increasing the productivity of warehouse staff, and improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, charge-backs, penalties, and fines have been virtually eliminated.
"Maple Leaf Farms is a prime example of what a mid-sized company can accomplish with good business integration tools," said Stephen Rosen, EXTOL vice president of marketing. "Integration translates to accuracy in orders, shipments, inventory and billing. And accuracy translates to 100 percent correct order fulfillment, satisfied customers, efficient personnel, and a direct contribution to a company's bottom line."
In business since 1958, Maple Leaf Farms is headquartered in Milford, Indiana. The company has 1,200 employees nationwide and sells 16 million ducks per year, shipping products throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Asia.
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