Matthew Arp, Director of Estimating and Procurement, Arch Mills, Inc.
Arch Mills is a distinctive supplier of high-end architectural products and specialty millwork for both residential and commercial applications. With steady growth, the company sought to upgrade its accounting and order-processing software to contractERP. Facing a short, four-month timeline, leadership turned to eMazzanti Technologies to move applications and data to the cloud. A smooth and rapid server migration and responsive support paved the way for a successful year-end transition. eMazzanti’s premier cloud infrastructure and managed services enabled faster order approvals, responsive customer service and more time for leadership to focus on growing the business.
Arch Mills, a New Jersey architectural products company, manufactures custom wood doors, metal doors, and frames in custom sizes, as well as door hardware.
“We do a lot of custom inlays and profiles that others can’t or don’t care to do,” related Matthew Arp, Director of Estimating & Procurement, Arch Mills.
In the beginning, the company focused on the NYC Metro area, but now covers New Jersey and New York State.
Expanding into new markets, current work includes outfitting a hotel and condos in the Cayman Islands, with other jobs in Turks and Caicos and Seattle.
Arch Mills strives to deliver quotes quickly, ship and complete jobs on schedule and respond immediately when customers call.
To maintain its high standards and to accommodate their fast growth, the company prepared to advance its accounting, inventory and order processing software to the next level.
Converting from QuickBooks to contractERP typically requires six to twelve months. Leadership wanted to complete the transition in four months, moving the company’s server to the cloud at the same time.
Arp planned to begin the new year on contractERP. To be ready, he needed the conversion completed before December. “We were going for a very quick turnover,” he stated.
With a long task list and a short timeline, Arch Mills sought an IT partner that could make it happen quickly.
Early on, Arp worked with an independent IT vendor who investigated running contractERP on the cloud. He had some reservations, however, because the vendor had never done a contractERP cloud conversion.
“It seemed like more of a learning curve for him than a firm that had done it several times,” Arp explained. Then, Arp met Carl Mazzanti, Vice President of eMazzanti Technologies through his contractERP vendor.
“They put Carl on the call when we were finalizing contracts,” Arp related. “I had dealt with this vendor before. So, I trusted their judgement when they told me that eMazzanti was the right road to take.”
The decision came easily. “When we asked what was required, eMazzanti knew how to accomplish exactly what we needed,” Arp continued. “We trusted in the fact that they knew contractERP and the cloud. It just made sense to go with eMazzanti.”
Receiving the go-ahead, eMazzanti moved quickly to migrate the Arch Mills server to eMazzanti’s Azure-based cloud and set up a virtual private network (VPN). Not having to buy the equipment and ship it to the site, the infrastructure was up and running in a few days.
“Within a week, we had everything ready to go,” stated Arp. “We needed the cloud infrastructure right away and we had it up and running very quickly,” he exclaimed. “That was huge for us!”
When asked about support, Brandtley Ware, Estimator and IT Manager, responded, “Their technical support staff are friendly, knowledgeable and just great people. It’s been very smooth. We call, someone picks up immediately, and it’s fixed quickly.”
“We’ve seen eMazzanti’s staff be very forward in helping us and answering all our questions when we needed it,” added Arp. “Everything is up and running and we go live December 1st.”
Because Arch Mills now has their contractERP server on the cloud with VPN access, Arp can take his laptop to a jobsite, make changes to an order right in front of the customer and hand it back to them.
“Now, we can do on-site changes to pricing and everything we couldn’t do before,” explained Arp. “That’s priceless when you’re sitting in front of an architect and a miller and they’re ready to sign! Previously, we had to come back to the office.”
“I was driving to a jobsite and a customer called me with changes,” he continued. “I pulled over on the side of the road and changed the order using my phone before it went out.”
Now that eMazzanti manages Arch Mills’ IT infrastructure on the cloud, including maintenance and upgrades, Arp and Ware spend more of their time focusing on business growth.
“A lot of the liability is lifted,” added Ware. “We don’t do backups in house and having our server on the cloud frees up space. Resource upgrades are simply a matter of renting another slot.”
With contractERP on the cloud, Arch Mills can more effectively manage inventory. That means quicker turn-around on orders, yielding higher margins. The forecasting and demand planning capabilities in the new system also improve productivity and service.
“Having a live inventory keeps us more appropriately stocked,” related Arp. “We turned around four jobs for customers in two weeks”
The company’s customer service philosophy is to get back to customers faster than they expect. Having its system on the cloud enhances the company’s ability to deliver on that promise.
“All you hear in industry is how people don’t get back to you,” related Arp. “We do the opposite, and make sure that we always return the call instantly.”
Color coding in contractERP also makes it easier to track orders at a glance. “From across the room, I can tell the customer if something’s in or not,” explained Arp.
Where contractERP conversions normally take six months to a year, Arch Mills was aiming for a four-month transition period. “And, that’s what we hit on the nose,” stated Arp.
What would he say to other firms considering eMazzanti Technologies for a contractERP cloud migration? “I would tell them, ‘You should definitely go for it. Let them tell you the best way to do it, but also tell them what works best for your company,’” Arp responded.
Arch Mills’ team philosophy means that whether someone gets a sale, or an order wasn’t there on time, it belongs to everyone. “That boils down to the kind of service we provide,” explained Arp.
“Moving forward with a partner we trust definitely supports our team,” he concluded. “And, eMazzanti encompasses most of what we need. The bottom line is we’re growing together, we can trust who we’re dealing with, and we know that somebody else has our back.”
Arch Mills supplies and installs custom interior wood doors, exterior metal doors and commercial door hardware for clients in New Jersey, New York State and internationally. They rely on eMazzanti Technologies for contractERP cloud servers and back-up, remote everywhere access to applications and data, and IT managed services.
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