Digital media leader saves $10m after standardising on QAD applications

The Grass Valley Group, a digital media and technology leader, has saved $10 million over previous IT expenses after implementing QADMFG/PRO enterprise applications at eight sites in five months, winning the 2001 QAD Case Study Award.

"The Grass Valley Group is an outstanding example of how to leverage the power of QAD applications to gain efficiencies and boost profits," said Pam Lopker, QAD president and founder. "With a dedicated staff of professionals, they have consistently delivered their best efforts to build a world-class enterprise system. Our 2001 Case Study Award recognises their achievements and celebrates the successful teamwork of our two organisations."

The Grass Valley Group is a manufacturer that serves broadcast and video industry customers as well as broadcast networks in South America, Europe, the Pacific Rim and the Middle East. The company faced a tremendous IT challenge when it was given six months to transition from the infrastructure of its former parent company during the launch of its most significant new product in 10 years, the Kalypso Video Production Centre. QAD MFG/PRO helped the Grass Valley Group meet that challenge ahead of schedule.

"There was a lot of scepticism going into this project," said William Benac, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Grass Valley Group. "But the biggest triumph for the entire MFG/PRO project team was the fact that we did what we said we would do, and we did it on time and under budget. QAD`s strategy of allowing you to build your e-business system component by component fits our strategy of getting immediate results." Prior to the QAD solution, the Grass Valley Group was running several disparate systems for general ledger, financials and global order entry. The company needed a simpler, integrated business system that could provide full-featured reporting, inventory control and customer/sales analysis. With service and exchange depots worldwide, global visibility of the company`s $40 million plus in inventory was a requirement. QAD applications, used successfully by the company at the plant level, were found to be the best choice to meet these needs.

The Grass Valley Group went live with QAD applications in February of 2000, running on Sun Solaris servers. It now utilises QAD`s SSM module in MFG/PRO to handle all aspects of service and support, including service engineering orders, time and material billing, product and warranty contracts, service call recording and tracking and equipment loan tracking - through one integrated system. Due to its success, the company is looking to QAD for help with its e-business plans.