ASTEELFLASH

The Challenge:

ACHIEVING RAPID GROWTH WHILE MAINTAINING CONSISTENCY A BALANCING ACT FOR ASTEELFLASH

Asteelflash is preparing for significant growth with a goal to double its revenue within five years. The company has a strong foundation in place having harmonized its global operations on QAD ERP but leadership recognized its ERP strategy would need to evolve to facilitate rapid growth in a landscape characterized by constant disruption.

“The current time is difficult. Our industry is an industry where profitability is driven by the top line and, when the top line is weak like it is right now, it's a challenge,” explained Nicolas Denis, CEO of Asteelflash. “Our challenge is to make sure that our cost structure is adapted to our top line. And when you are already very lean, it's not so easy to achieve.”

Asteelflash prides itself on its ability to adapt quickly to the needs of its customers and deliver a consistent experience across all regions but doing so can be challenging, given the complexity of the electronic manufacturing supply chain and headwinds like economic uncertainty, geopolitical conflicts, regulatory compliance and evolving consumer demand. 

“We have an ambitious objective to continue to grow and to be able to serve our customers. That means that we have to deal with business requirements that are in an environment that is changing and in constant evolution,” stated Frederic Martin, Business Process Owner at Asteelflash and Head of Accelerate, the Asteelflash initiative that harmonized all sites on QAD ERP. 

The business challenge was clear: Asteelflash needed an ERP strategy that would enable the company to efficiently onboard new factories and facilities quickly to support rapid revenue growth while also balancing the needs of current customers. 

The Solution:

ASTEELFLASH MOVES TO QAD CLOUD TO DELIVER ON ORGANIC AND EXTERNAL GROWTH GOALS

Asteelflash evaluated its options and determined that on-premise ERP hosting was at odds with the company’s projected growth trajectory, as was a move to a generic ERP provider. Asteeflash successfully completed a lift and shift to the QAD Cloud adhering to a strict deadline. 

“We decided to move to QAD Cloud for several reasons, one being cost savings,” said Frederic Martin. “We shifted from a licensing model to a revenue-based model, which gives us better predictability as we aim to double our revenue in the coming years.”

Martin pointed out that the move to QAD Cloud allowed Asteelflash to utilize its internal resources more effectively. Instead of spending time managing an on-premise solution, the team could focus on core business needs. Leadership is also looking forward to being able to take advantage of new functionalities faster with QAD Cloud.

The long-time partnership between QAD and Asteelflash was instrumental in facilitating a successful migration. “We have this skilled team internally that is basically the interface between the QAD world and the internal world. On the QAD side, there is also a team of individuals who were there 12 years ago, who are still there now. This team has also been very important in the success of the common relationship,” explained Martin. 

QAD and Asteelflash also found common ground in the recognition that software alone is not enough to achieve a successful transformation. People and processes are essential. Asteelflash found all of the support it needed and more in QAD Professional Services along with their skilled internal team on its journey to becoming an Adaptive Enterprise.

“Rolling out QAD ERP was not really just deploying a tool, it was building a team that was the benefit,” stated Martin. “It was not an IT project, it was a company project.”

The Benefits:

QAD SUPERCHARGES ASTEELFLASH’S EXPANSION WITH A FOCUS ON PEOPLE, PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS

“When I compare with other companies, every time there is a migration from one ERP to another, it usually takes over a year, costs a lot of money, and usually there are a lot of disruptions. At Asteelflash, when we roll out QAD to new sites, it takes less than six months and works from day one,” explained Denis.

The ability to execute in fixed time frames is in stark contrast to the well documented industry struggles when implementing technology from the larger ERP concerns. The combination of QAD’s off-the-shelf capability and the coordinated efforts of QAD industry experts and internal resources provided for this significant accomplishment.

Having the ability to onboard new facilities and factories quickly is a gamechanger for Asteelflash, providing the company with the speed and agility it needs to advance its five-year goal to double revenue. At the same time, Asteelflash will be able to continuously maintain operational consistency across its global operations and keep pace with the evolving needs of its customers. 

“Our core model based on QAD ERP has been very flexible and we have been able to adapt it to meet our needs, contrary to other solutions where you tend to be obliged to adapt to your ERP,” continued Denis. “We are able to fine tune QAD ERP to suit our needs and the important thing for us is to use the same ERP worldwide; the same controls, the same system and this is very effective with QAD.”

By embracing harmonization, Asteelflash has been able to develop an extremely lean and efficient enterprise. The company can easily transfer products between locations and integrate new assets into its operations because it uses the same ERP, PLM and manufacturing lines at every facility. 

QAD also has deep vertical expertise in the high tech industry, including the electronics manufacturing value chain, explained Nicolas Denis. “The flexibility of QAD allows us to adapt to local peculiarities,” including legal and regulatory requirements that vary by region. 

As Asteelflash looks toward the future, leadership is confident QAD’s capabilities will help deliver sustained growth, organically and externally. The ability to quickly scale new sites in the Cloud will help Asteelflash increase its market presence and new features will unlock additional efficiencies for the company.  “We are particularly excited about web functionalities that will enhance user experience and facilitate quicker access to data,” said Frederic Martin.

“We are able to roll out QAD in a new facility in a matter of months and we have a methodology and team to do it that works well. We're very confident that we are going to be able to grow with QAD in the coming years,” concluded Nicolas Denis.