Disasters come in all shapes and sizes. They can be physical and natural, like wildfires and tornadoes, or events such as pandemics and economic downturns that are less tangible yet equally, if not more, destructive to our communities and livelihoods. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that agile businesses that are able to adapt to change quickly are the most likely to thrive.
Companies are accelerating their digital transformation to build the type of enterprise that can get back up and running fast when a disaster, or disruption of any kind, strikes. With the right software, businesses can protect against data loss, keep lines of communication open and use actionable insights from real-time data to make smart decisions about their organization’s next steps.
This is exactly what Autokiniton, with QAD at its back, was able to achieve when it experienced a direct hit from an EF-3 tornado in 2020, and its experience offers a valuable lesson for any business considering a cloud ERP deployment.
Disaster Recovery Planning Helps Autokiniton Save the Day
Natural disasters are particularly difficult because they’re highly unpredictable and almost impossible to plan for. That said, Autokiniton, the second-largest Body-In-White and vehicle-frame supplier in North America, was as ready as any business could be when an EF-3 tornado struck its Eastgate Plant in Tennessee and damaged another nearby.
Autokiniton had a disaster recovery plan in place and immediately got to work focusing on the most important thing: employee safety. No employees were injured during the event and Michael Butler, former Eastgate Plant Manager who now serves as Plant Manager of Autokiniton’s Axis Engineering division, estimated the company’s disaster recovery planning efforts saved 70 lives that day.
After ensuring everyone was safe, Autokiniton leadership turned their attention to the Eastgate Plant itself. The tornado had severely damaged the facility, wiped out its IT infrastructure and operations were brought to a standstill. Power was down and the plant suffered a complete loss of connectivity, presenting leadership with a serious challenge.
“Our Eastgate facility was a direct pipeline to our customer,” and, in just a few hours, much of its critical infrastructure was gone, explained Butler. Autokiniton had three days worth of supplies on hand and needed to resume operations – and shipments to customers – as quickly as possible.
QAD Cloud ERP Enables Autokiniton to Restore Operations in 36 Hours
The tornado destroyed the Eastgate Plant’s IT infrastructure, but Autokiniton’s data was protected inside the QAD Cloud. The company has been a QAD customer since the 1990s and moved its ERP operations from on-premise to the cloud in 2014.
“The QAD Cloud is everything for us to the fact that it’s literally not on-site,” explained Butler. “If there is a disaster, you still have your data sitting in the cloud and it’s always there.”
Leadership acted fast to restore power at its Lebanon facility. “As soon as power was restored at Lebanon, we were able to ship and do all of our normal QAD Cloud business processes out of Lebanon,” notes Andrew Amstutz, Director of IT for Autokiniton. “They would print product labels for Eastgate, do shipping paperwork and send ASNs. It’s really that teamwork from one facility to another that allowed us to do that.”
That’s a big deal from a customer satisfaction perspective, but also every hour of unplanned downtime costs mid-sized and large organizations at least $300,000.
“Once we got connectivity back, we were back up and running in record time” with the QAD Cloud, said Darian Lowe, former Materials Manager at Eastgate. “QAD Cloud ERP allowed us to begin using the systems much more quickly than we would’ve been able to if we had not had it.”
Why Disruption is a Driving Force for Digital Investment
Manufacturers are becoming comfortable with the discomfort of disruption and that isn’t a bad thing because it’s reality. The war in Ukraine, COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and recessionary risks have all become disruptive forces. Plus, natural disasters such as the one Autokiniton experienced will likely become more frequent as climate change intensifies.
Business leaders know that pretending their business operates within a bubble that’s safe from disruption isn’t an option. Instead, they’re investing heavily in digital transformation to achieve benefits such as faster time to market, scalability, reduced risk, accelerated innovation and, ultimately, the ability to act fast in the face of disruptive events.
Digital investment levels have been accelerating gradually for years and picked up even more speed since the pandemic. In 2022, 72% of executives said their operations had to change radically within two years to remain competitive, compared to 62% in 2020. The average leader plans to scale digital investment spending by 65% from 3.5% of business revenue to 5.8%.
For many companies, their digital transformation has or will entail a move away from on-premise ERPs toward cloud deployments. This is a relatively new but rapidly growing shift in the industry. In 2017, only 6% of ERP deployments took place in the cloud, compared to 65% in 2022.
Many companies are choosing QAD Adaptive ERP and other cloud-based ERP solutions over on-premise alternatives because they’re more affordable to maintain, easier to install and manage and more reliable, as Autokiniton learned firsthand when the QAD Cloud helped it back up and running in just 36 hours.
Moving to the Cloud is Easy with QAD Elevate
Modern ERP software was developed in the 1990s for a different type of manufacturing environment than we have today. Supply chains and processes were relatively consistent and manufacturers had the time and flexibility to shop around for the best procurement agreements without worrying about disruptive events around every corner.
Today, companies need an ERP solution and dynamic supply chains that help them respond to change with speed and agility – and that’s just what QAD Adaptive ERP was built to do.
Even though cloud ERPs offer many benefits over on-premise installations, many manufacturers have been slow to make the switch due to concerns about employee bandwidth and cost. If cost is holding you back, you’ll be pleased to learn that cloud deployments deliver an ROI that’s four times greater, on average, than that of on-premise ERPs.
We’ve also developed a prepackaged program known as QAD Elevate to help make the upgrade process quick, simple and affordable. Our program can help customers move into QAD Adaptive ERP 50% faster and reduce costs by 35%. Participants are connected with a dedicated team that guides them through every step of the implementation process using proven best practices, pre-built templates and data migration tools.
Autokiniton was an early adopter of modern cloud ERP technology and was able to recover from a natural disaster in just 36 hours. If achieving that same level of resilience against disruption is important to your business, read the full Autokiniton customer success story. Learn more about QAD Elevate and how it can upgrade your business to QAD Adaptive ERP quickly and cost-effectively.
