The Case for a Microsoft Dynamics AX and EDI Upgrade: Wakefield Canada

There is considerable pressure at the top of the supply chain, which is where Wakefield Canada sits. It is the exclusive Canadian distributor for Castrol premium lubricants.

The challenge is to integrate with and satisfy thousands of customers from coast to coast (see graphic), from strategic accounts like the giant retailers Canadian Tire and Costco, through OEMs like General Motors, down to sole-proprietor auto shops. Nothing short of excellence will do: those customers depend on Wakefield Canada for continued operations that meet their consumers' needs.

Wakefield Canada's customers make their satisfaction known via vendor scorecards, by word of mouth (both online and off), and through their continued business.

Wakefield Canada Inc. was founded in June 2005 out of a strategic partnership with BP Lubricants to assume exclusive stewardship of the Castrol brand and all customer-facing operations in Canada. Wakefield Canada provides sales, marketing and distribution solutions across a wide variety of customer channels:

• warehouse distributors (third-party logistics providers or 3PLs)
• automotive and heavy-duty jobbers
• franchised and independent installers
• Quick lube shops
• fleet companies
• new car dealers
• original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Managing such a deep supply chain via fax and paper invoices would be almost impossible and hugely labor intensive without B2B integration. Besides that, customers in the electronic age expect a reliable, always-on, easy-to-use experience that they can manage via computer versus phone and mail.

Wakefield Canada concluded that their enviable market position - but one heavily dependent upon customer satisfaction - required both enterprise resource planning (ERP) and ...