Liquor Control: Behind AlfaPeople's $19M Microsoft Dynamics AX Deal with New Hampshire

On the last day of June Microsoft Gold Partner AlfaPeople announced a $19 million deal to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 to support the New Hampshire Liquor Commission's (NHLC) retail and omni-channel business for the next 10 years.

AlfaPeople and Dynamics AX beat out a number of other large ERP providers, including SAP and Oracle, as well as smaller niche players to win the contract, which entails software, hardware and services for all the commission's retail stores and main central office, says Erik Hoiden, managing partner of AlfaPeople.

Currently there are 17 alcoholic beverage control states in the U.S., including New Hampshire, that have state monopolies over the wholesaling or retailing of some or all categories of alcoholic beverages. AlfaPeople has created a specific solution for the liquor control states that is helping multiple states across the nation, Hoiden says.

About three and a half years ago, AlfaPeople was invited to join with some other partners to bid on a deal that involved an overhaul of the IT backbone for the Ohio's Division of Liquor Control's inventory management, including replacing the point-of-sale equipment at liquor store checkout counters.

"We were not the prime on that, we just took care of the retail," Hoiden says. "AlfaPeople is very focused on retail in the US. After Ohio, we were lucky enough to get the state of Utah and then we bid on New Hampshire."

Several years ago the NHLC, which operates 79 retail locations throughout the Granite State and serves more than 11 million liquor and wine outlet customers each year, realized it was time to replace its 30-year-old legacy system.