Welcome to the world of Joyce Chen, Inc., a second-generation family business that specializes in products for Asian kitchen needs. Joyce Chen's slogan, "Eastern Cookware for the Western Kitchen," reflects its focus on providing high-quality, versatile tools and products that have Asian flair, but can be used in a western kitchen. Headquartered in Billerica, Mass., Joyce Chen's Keilen Limited division distributes its products through large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target Stores, JC Penney, Dayton Hudson, K-Mart, Linens & Things, Bed and Bath and Macy's. The Joyce Chen Products division sells through gourmet specialty boutiques.

When it came time to update its computer system, Joyce Chen had to select a system that was responsive to the needs of large retailers and at the same time allowed Joyce Chen to deliver "personal touch" customer service to its smaller customers. Madeleine Garland, CFO for Joyce Chen, said EDI (electronic data interchange) demands by its larger retail clients, and Y2K compliance were primary issues causing the company to reevaluate its business and accounting systems.

Joyce Chen previously used RealWorld Accounting Software on an SCO UNIX platform. "The constraints under the UNIX system were just a nuisance at first," said Garland. "But when customers' EDI requirements increased, those same limitations were affecting core business relationships."

In November 1998, when EDI trading partners began requesting Form 856 Advance Ship Notice, a new EDI document, Joyce Chen's system was put to a final critical test. "Adding the new document required mapping changes which resulted in more than a month of re-programming for our UNIX system in Cobol," explained Garland. "We had to find contract programmers to produce what seemed like endless lines of code just to add a single document."

Soon thereafter, Garland and her team joined to develop requirements for an upgraded accounting and business management system. To continue its strong growth pattern, Joyce Chen needed a system with the capability to:

1. Take advantage of Windows technology and features
2. Provide flexible Wide Area Networking (WAN) capabilities
3. Support enhanced EDI and provide real- time sales reporting
4. Provide a dynamic, user-friendly interface for customer service
5. Provide on-line analytical processing capabilities

"We looked at all of the major product offerings available," said Garland. "After extensive product reviews, we selected Navision Financials as the platform we needed to continue growing our business. Navision Financials gave us a system that was powerful enough to implement EDI for our large retail customers and at the same time provided a user friendly interface to work with our specialty customers."

After the decision was made to go with Navision Financials in November of 1998, the next choice was to select a Navision Solution Center (NSC) that could successfully complete the job of system implementation, training and conversion from the existing system. Joyce Chen selected RMI Corporation to implement Navision Financials on a Windows NT platform.

The new system will support major financial business functions, including: General Ledger, Sales & Receivables, Purchase & Payables, Inventory and EDI. RMI installed the system at Joyce Chen's corporate headquarters in Massachusetts. Navision Financials supports 20 workstations at the corporate location, and it will soon tie to a Los Angeles, California sales office to provide real-time sales reporting and analysis. The final decision to implement Navision was made in December 1998. RMI converted all data from the RealWorld UNIX system and cut over to the new Navision Financials within 120 days.

Results:

Working closely with Garland is IT Manager Bill Robinson. According to Robinson, the Navision system is already paying dividends to Joyce Chen. The most immediate benefits have included increased speed and ease of EDI programming and mapping, creating customized sales reports, overall user- friendliness and ease of customization.

"The EDI 856 document that took a month of custom COBOL programming can now be created in one hour, using Navision Software," said Robinson, who enjoys Navision Software's programming because of the similarity to Visual Basic. It utilizes "plain-English" programming which allows Robinson and actual users to do their own customization. "We added six new EDI trading partners within four months of introducing the new system," added Robinson.

Garland likes Navision Software's sales reporting capabilities. "We are now working on getting our L.A. sales office tied into Navision Financials to give them an instant snapshot of sales performance. Having quick access to this data will allow us to make critical supply chain and other business decisions faster and much more accurately." Under the old system, sales reporting was only available as part of month-end reporting, added Garland.

And what about the future? Garland and Robinson are excited about the prospects for even wider area connectivity. The company contracts out its warehousing and distribution and is already making plans for linking Navision Financials to warehouse computer systems for on-line, real-time inventory status.

Robinson gives Navision Solution Centers, and specifically RMI, high marks for the implementation. "I cannot emphasize enough how important the NSC was to this project," said Robinson. "RMI's team knew what needed to be done, how to do it, and they got it done.

"Navision Financials is an elaborate product to get your arms around and we had a deadline to meet. We could not have achieved the success we did without RMI's help. This is an example of an excellent product coupled with a great implementation team leading to a successful system," Robinson concluded.