J&D Manufacturing
Discover how a large-scale agricultural ventilation and equipment manufacturer uses Cosmos to quickly access Business Central data for faster month-end reporting and business analysis.
It used to take me half a day and a separate laptop to run and calculate my commission’s report using our on-premise reporting software. With Cosmos in the cloud, I can run this report in seconds!
Results
Fast User Adoption
Thanks to its user-friendly interface and helpful training, Cosmos is being used by several departments, including accounting, sales, purchasing, and customer service.
Reports in Seconds
Now that reporting no longer ties up Excel or other business applications, J&D Manufacturing can run all its financial and operational reports in record time.
Smooth Implementation
J&D Manufacturing had a seamless transition from its on-premise reporting solution to Cosmos. They were set up in a couple of weeks and running reports immediately!Reporting Challenges
J&D Manufacturing is a family-owned and operated manufacturer providing high-performance equipment and technology to farmers in the United States and globally. Founded in 1981 in Eau Claire, WI, the company has grown alongside the world of farming–helping to drive advancements and maximize production throughout the industry.
As a long-standing Microsoft Dynamics AX customer, J&D Manufacturing recently transitioned to Dynamics 365 Business Central. The decision to right-size their technology has overall been beneficial; however, reporting in Business Central remained challenging. Using Jet Reports, the company’s small accounting team struggled with the time and complexity required to access the right data and run essential reports.
According to the Director of Finance, Amy Axness, they even purchased a separate laptop to run reports during the day so it wouldn’t interfere with daily operations. “I bought a laptop to run reports in Jet Reports during the day; otherwise, it would block up my entire Office suite and prevent me from getting any work done.” Without the technical background to leverage everything Jet Reports had to offer, she recognized the need for a more straightforward, faster reporting solution built to work with her current ERP system – which was now in the cloud.
That’s when she attended Summit NA, a Microsoft user group conference, and met Cosmos.
Existing Problems:
- Current on-premise reporting solution was slow–sometimes taking over 90 minutes to run a simple report
- Challenges writing reports and getting information from the right spot
- Jet Reports required more advanced technical skills to produce the reports they needed
Looking For:
- Faster reporting performance
- A user-friendly and intuitive system for non-technical users
- Cloud-based reporting system more aligned with their infrastructure
- Less technical complexities (i.e., table linking) to create and format a report
- A long-term solution
Now that I’m not spending so much time on reporting, I am able to push more projects through – like this exciting sales tax exemption project on my desk right now!
Cosmos Impact
She was hooked when the Cosmos team showed Amy how quickly she could build and run her own financial reports. “We were looking for a cloud-based reporting solution that was faster, but what we found in Cosmos was much more,” she explains. “Unlike Jet Reports, Cosmos is a tool that everyone has the ability to learn and use-without any knowledge of table linking.”
It was a quick decision, and within a couple of weeks, setup and training were complete, and the company was running reports in Cosmos. The implementation itself was seamless, and Amy speaks very highly of her experience working with Brian Petersen and his team: “This was the best software implementation I’ve ever experienced. Cosmos is easy to learn, quick to implement, and the support and training are fabulous. The software and the team behind it have definitely exceeded my expectations.”
Today, J&D Manufacturing uses Cosmos for reporting and analysis across the entire manufacturing organization. From purchasing to customer service, reporting has become incredibly easy and intuitive. The sales department has gone a step beyond and is currently using Cosmos’ optimized data in Power BI.
In the accounting department, Amy has since retired her reporting laptop and spends significantly less time reporting. Look at how much time she saves on monthly commission reports: “It used to take me half a day and a separate laptop to run and calculate my commission’s report using Jet Reports,” explains Amy. “With Cosmos, I can now run this report in seconds and move on to other projects.”
Now that regular financial reports are much easier to set up and faster to run-especially thanks to Cosmos’s new automatic scheduling and email functionality, Amy spends more time analyzing data and moving projects forward.
Cosmos has been a game changer for J&D Manufacturing so far. Not limited by the technical complexities, the company has been able to adopt Cosmos quickly and regularly takes advantage of its free online training. According to Amy, “It’s a huge help to have instant access to Cosmos’ training videos. They’re organized and short enough that I can usually find what I need quite quickly.”
This was the best software implementation I’ve ever experienced. Cosmos is easy to learn, quick to implement, and the support and training are fabulous. The software and the team behind it have definitely exceeded my expectations.