Microsoft Dynamics
Customer Solution Case Study
Microsoft Helps Manufacturer Save Nearly
900 Hours Annually in Order Entry
Customer: Carma Laboratories Inc.
Web Site: www.carma-labs.com
Customer Size: 100-5,000
Country or Region: US
Industry: Manufacturing
Partner: SVA Consulting
“The impact on customer service was immediate, as
the order department began a shift from dealing with
inaccurate order issues to proactively connecting with
customers.”
Mike Pietsch, VP of Sales and Marketing Carma Laboratories, Inc.
Customer Profile
Carma Laboratories Inc. has manufactured
Carmex lip balm and related products since
1930. Headquartered in Franklin, Wis.,
Carma Labs recently experienced rapid
growth and expanded internationally.
Software and Services
 Products
− Microsoft Dynamics GP
− Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Carma Laboratories Inc.
Throughout the past 10 years, Carma Laboratories Inc. expanded
internationally. After upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 and
a fully integrated EDI solution, order-entry staff could electronically
process its 10,000 annual inbound and outbound documents,
rather than re-keying them manually. The Microsoft Business Portal
saved 80 hours monthly in generating sales reports, allowing the
staff to handle growth of trading partners and shipments.
Business Needs
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Carma Labs, headquartered in Franklin,
Wis., has manufactured Carmex lip balm and
related products since 1930. The company
had implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP
7.5 standard edition but was experiencing
explosive growth and needed to better
manage its expanding business.
The company realized that its current
solution needed to expand very quickly to
handle a surge in trading partners, product
shipments and the need for their new sales
force to have access to real-time reporting.
After 69 years with no direct sales force and
virtually no marketing, Carmex was losing
ground in a rapidly growing category.
Carmex lip balm had been sold years ago via
handshake deals with buyers from retail and
pharmacy chains. Carma Labs hired its first
salesperson in March 2006 and then
continued to expand its sales staff.
With a new sales force in place, it became
apparent that information needed to be
reviewed daily and in real-time to allow the
outside sales staff to keep on top of
opportunities and to identify purchasing
trends. The number of sales representatives
and different reports that were needed
consumed more than 20 hours of the
accounting staff’s time per week. This
information then needed to be uploaded to
the group’s Web site.
In addition to fulfilling the needs of the sales
force, Carma Labs moved quickly to secure a
site and begin construction on a new
warehouse about a half mile from their
existing offices and warehouse. The staff
realized that shipping orders from a separate
building could have a negative impact on
customer service if they didn’t know when and
if an order had shipped.
Solution
Carma Labs reviewed its requirements with
SVA Consulting LLC, which then drew upon its
expertise in manufacturing to propose ideas
where technology could create efficiencies
within Carma Lab’s business and
manufacturing processes.
SVA Consulting upgraded Carma Labs to
Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 professional
edition and added SmartList Builder,
Extended Pricing and Business Intelligence
Layer. In addition, all shipping functions were
integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP using
StarShip from V-Technologies. SVA also
brought Carma’s email in-house with
Microsoft Exchange Server.
Carma Labs leveraged Microsoft Dynamics
GP and vSync’s integrated EDI solution to
maximize the existing order-entry staff’s
efficiency, providing for electronic processing
of inbound and outbound documents.
Adding a fully integrated shipping solution
further increased customer service. The
warehouse staff now updates orders with
shipping information, giving the order-entry
department real-time visibility into order and
ship status.
Benefits
Carma Labs has gained substantial time
savings by upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics
9.0 and integrating EDI into the solution.
Manual entry of thousands of forms has
been eliminated, sales reports have been
automated, and customer service has
improved with greater visibility into order and
shipping status.
• Order entry. The order-entry staff saved
approximately 877 hours in 2006 by
implementing a fully integrated EDI solution.
The technology electronically processes the
company’s 10,000 annual inbound and
outbound documents, eliminating manual rekeying of the information. Staff now has time
to handle the anticipated growth of trading
partners and outbound shipments.
• Time savings. Approximately 80 hours per
month generating sales reports were
eliminated with the implementation of
business portal for the sales force. This time
is now spent on managing the increased
volume of EDI orders and overseeing
customer service.
• Customer service. Carma Labs now can
promise delivery dates more reliably with its
new level of visibility into shipments.
• Communication. Bringing e-mail in-house
has given Carma Labs greater control over
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published April 2008
communications with its business-tobusiness customers, vendors and even
consumers who buy Carmex.
You can read more about the EDI for
Microsoft Dynamics GP solution that Carma
Laboratories Inc. chose in the Microsoft
Dynamics Solution Finder.
About Certified for Microsoft
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