Rocheleau is a Quebec wholesaler specializing in hardware for kitchen furniture and cabinets. They count on automation to support efficient growth. Rocheleau collaborated with the Fidelio team to maintain momentum in streamlining their operations. At the time, Fidelio was an on-premise ERP system. Now they have migrated to the SaaS version of the ERP system.
In an on-premise ERP, a company buys or leases the necessary IT hardware, pays a licensing fee for the software, and gets it installed by its IT team or an outsourced partner.
Typically, companies choose an on-premise solution for compliance or customization reasons. In the latter case, the companies foresee an ROI from customizing the programming of the ERP system to meet their unique needs. When Rocheleau decided to migrate to the new, cloud-based Fidelio, Marie-France Grenier, VP of Administration, Operations & HR, spearheaded the project.
We spoke to her about the experience and followed that with a discussion with Pascal Lambert, IT Manager. Both interviews have been edited for conciseness.
A: The short answer is to streamline updates.
As you know, we were working with the on-premise version of Fidelio. We had invested a lot in software customizations, so updates were process heavy, especially with testing, and ate up tons of staff time. Testing was absolutely necessary because nobody wanted to deal with the consequences of erratic or missing data.
As a result, we had to limit the updates to once a year. We’d schedule them with our different teams when the workload was less intense. All that coordination takes time. What’s great about the cloud-based Fidelio is that updates are as simple and automatic as updating your smartphone. What a difference!
A: As I mentioned, we had many customizations in the on-premise version of Fidelio. Quite a few of our business processes were based on these customizations, and we didn’t want to lose our investment or possibly have to revamp our daily work. At least, those were our concerns at the time.
A: The first thing we did was meet with one of Fidelio’s project managers. He worked with us to analyze which customizations we really needed. We gathered our team leaders and other colleagues, and then we went to work on the whiteboard. Believe me, we covered that whiteboard over and over with detailed breakdowns of our processes.
The Fidelio project manager became almost a member of our team. He facilitated the discussions, handled all the back-and-forth with Fidelio, and in the end, he wrote up the spec sheet for his team.
Results of the process analysis: We discovered we didn’t need most of these customizations anymore. Either the software had developed in ways we weren’t aware of, or we found easy ways to adapt our current processes. Frankly, the project manager saved us dozens of hours, and we called him often. He was always quick to respond.
A: I thought the migration would be a risky thing, like NASA launching a rocket. But no, I was pleasantly surprised. We did it over a weekend and didn’t have a single minute of downtime. We gave our customers advance notice that we would be doing some system maintenance. Our team leaders were on call, just in case. And of course, Fidelio’s team supervised every minute of the migration. We felt they had our back.
All the testing we had done paid off. All users connected without a hitch. We had no bugs. None!
A: Our first objective was to migrate successfully, not necessarily expand our use of Fidelio’s. But then we saw how we could benefit from new features and automations that simplify or decrease our workload. So now, we’re carrying out some new projects. We’re implementing the WMS (warehouse management system) module. We want to take our inventory management to the next level.
Results: The migration is a stepping stone to more streamlining of operations.
A: They had a very short period of adjustment. The power users on our team adapted quickly, which was a relief. But I should have expected it. The cloud-based Fidelio is built on the same easy-to-use principles as the on-premise version, so our teams also took much less time to get oriented.
A: The training lasted for two intense months, divided into two phases. In the first phase, we dedicated one week to each business function. We recorded each training session, and stored the videos on our intranet, so employees could refresh their memory when needed. In the second phase, our power users in each business function collected all employee questions and responded to them. Then we did another question collection, and Fidelio answered the questions our power users couldn’t.
To get a technical point of view on the migration, we spoke with Pascal Lambert, IT Manager at Rocheleau.
A: The on-premise version of Fidelio is really designed for desktops and servers and not for a mobile environment. Mobile access was increasingly important for our customers and our team. Plus, the old Fidelio needed three physical servers: one for the SQL database, a second for the TS application server which was essential for remote work, and a third for e-commerce and dynamic analysis. Those servers were the nerve center of the company, but they had a lot of ports open to the Internet. They exposed the company’s infrastructure to known and unknown security threats. All these issues limited our options as a company and increased our overall risk.
A: First of all, the major advantage is that the software is built with C# (pronounced “C sharp”), which is a major programming language by Microsoft. It opens up more doors to the web and makes it easier to extend the functionality of the application if, let’s say, we want to request some customizations.
Second, we don’t need any physical servers within the company to act as a hub for the ERP. That’s all taken care of by the Microsoft Azure cloud. What we have here is only an SQL server to house the database and an IIS (Internet Information Services) server to deliver the HTML pages or files.
Third, because the ERP is based in the Azure cloud, the system is more secure and simplifies the security work we have to do on our end. Lastly, updates are easier to manage, and our team doesn’t have to worry about how we can continuously improve the system. That frees up my IT team, which is great because there’s enough work to keep us busy without worrying about cloud security and updates.
To learn more about Rocheleau’s experience integrating Fidelio into their business, check out this other
success story: How Rocheleau increased online sales from 0 to 55% with Fidelio ERP.