Inergex Helps Bluewater Thermal Processing Select And Implement A New Financial Accounting System

Client: Bluewater Thermal Processing
Client Location: United States
Client Industry: Thermal Processing

Client Profile
Bluewater Thermal Processing is headquartered in Amherst, New York with additional sites located in Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina, Michigan, and Canada. Bluewater has gained a leading position among commercial heat treaters in North America since its formation in 1996. Currently, Bluewater has 18 locations in 10 states and Canada that contain over 1,000,000 square feet, with upwards of a 1,000 heat treat professionals serving over 6,000 customers in all major industries. Bluewater’s client list is extensive—including: Caterpillar, General Electric, Frigidaire, General Motors, Ford, Whirlpool, Cooper, and Dana.

Business Situation & Challenge
Bluewater was divested from Gibraltar Industries in June 2006. As of November 2006, the financial accounting system they were using (which was part of Gibraltar) would not be available to them anymore. Therefore, the need to find and implement a new financial accounting system before November was imperative. Bluewater needed to find and implement a new system solution quickly and efficiently without disrupting the business environment. The solution also had to be cost effective and something that fit Bluewater’s specific financial management processes and business rules. The solution also needed to:

• Be a single solution that effectively simplified the company’s month-end consolidations
• Reduce system maintenance needs and costs—incurred by IT
• Enable the divisions to operate the new system easily and efficiently
• Be scalable and flexible enough to adjust to future growth and financial process modifications

Bluewater began the process of finding an adequate solution; however, realized early on that they were lacking some of the “know how” begin such an initiative—they never conducted a software selection project for a financial accounting system before. Therefore, they realized they needed help.

Solution
Bluewater selected Inergex due to past work Inergex did with Gibraltar as well as the fact that Inergex had the financial understanding—both from a business and IT systems side. One of Inergex’s senior business analsysts was assigned to the project due to her extensive background and knowledge in the finanical arena. A software selection project was begun. Inergex helped to solicit and document all business and technology requirements, researched potential software vendors, prepared the Request for Proposal, and analyzed responses and managed vendor presentations. Once the research and selection process was completed (MAS200), Inergex was asked to remain onboard to manage the implementation of the solution. This involved not only managing Bluewater resources, but also the selected implementation partner, located in another state, and the local technology support consultant. The solution was introduced and implemented first at the corporate headquarters and the North Carolina division, then it was rolled out to specific Bluewater divisions with no interruptions to the overall business environment—utimately all Bluewater divisions will be using the system.

Project Results & Benefits
Bluewater is continuing to track and measure the return on investment results. As of early 2007, the solution has been rolled out to the corporate office and their North Carolina divisions. The system will be rolled out to other divisions throughout 2007. For more information about this project and/or how Inergex can help you with your specific business/IT objectives, please contact us at cs@inergex.com.

For more information about Bluewater Thermal Processing, please visit www.bluewaterthermal.com.

CS_Bluewater_Inergex_5.07F.pdf