Client Story

Hernon Manufacturing is a long-time member of Central Florida’s industrial manufacturing community, specializing in high-performance adhesives, sealants, coatings, precision dispensing equipment, and UV curing systems. After four decades in operation, Hernon was facing rapid growth and extensive business change. With aggressive plans to grow 38% revenue per year, the company didn’t have an ERP system to fully support that goal.

In addition to multiple, disparate systems for different business needs, Hernon was running an outdated and unsupported version of SAP Business One. Employees were forced to do so many workarounds to get the system to do what they needed, and they didn’t have a reliable SAP partner to help. This caused increasing issues with reporting, performance measurement, data credibility, and overall operational visibility into the business.

Driven by the need for better data, reporting, and business processes, Hernon realized it was time for a change. When the company decided to make a decision about upgrading or changing ERP systems, they engaged Clients First. After meeting the team at an SAP convention 5 years earlier, they started building trust by using them for a few basic projects, like reports. “Clients First was a great fit for us,” said the Controller at Hernon, Jessica Rogers. “Not only were they technical, but they had the business and industry knowledge that added huge value to our implementation.”

With Clients First by their side, Hernon successfully upgraded their SAP Business One system and enabled efficiencies across the entire manufacturing organization. By eliminating workarounds and redefining business processes, they have been able to simplify and streamline production. They also added cost-center accounting.

Facing an accelerated timeline, Clients First pushed the project through, so it launched on time and stayed under budget. They removed several add-ons and custom-developed solutions to use core SAP Business One functionality and simplify the system. The team also provided extensive training to improve productivity and overall adoption. According to Jessica, “When you get training with Clients First, they can go up or down based on your knowledge level, and it is extremely efficient. Other partners are too technical or following a script, but Clients First can really adapt that experience and make it work.”

In partnership with iSystems, Clients First provided Hernon with a new high availability server infrastructure that they maintain under an annual maintenance plan. Although the SAP Business One upgrade and implementation is still new, business processes at Hernon are already simpler and easier to manage. The team now has better control over the system and complete visibility into their data. In the future, they are looking forward to taking advantage of the full functionality of MRP in SAP Business One.

Their advice for any company looking for a new ERP solution is to find a knowledgeable partner you trust. Your entire organization has to be on board from the beginning, and you need to be flexible and prioritize what’s really important.