Founded in 1889, Dunlop Protective Footwear is the global leader in branded protective footwear, with sales in over 50 countries and production facilities located in Europe and the USA.
Dunlop Protective Footwear’s rapidly growing global business requires a vast range of both internal and customer facing documents. These are required to support not only multiple languages and currencies, but also the varying legal and fiscal requirements of each country.
Time for change
With Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 installed, Dunlop Protective Footwear’s IT department was under increasing pressure to program and code all output documents manually. This required not only ongoing internal training, but also external courses to keep up to date with new releases. With a desire to focus on the core business, alternative solutions were explored, and the decision was made to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics 365 with the addition of Lasernet.
Alfred Muller, Global IT Manager, Dunlop Creative Footwear, said: “We concluded an ERP solution was not the right tool to create full featured documents. What we really needed was a dedicated solution that would allow us to generate, archive, print and provide us with distribution options such as email, hard copy etc. We investigated several options, and it was obvious Lasernet was one of the leading solutions”.
Alfred Muller, Global IT Manager, Dunlop Protective Footwear
Implementation began in the USA and needed to consider five different languages as well as regional regulations. Additional focus was placed on SAFT/PT in Portugal where documents were to be validated to meet both regional and global requirements. Continuity was essential to Dunlop Protective Footwear as they did not want to cause customers and suppliers confusion by sending documents in a different layout/appearance to what they had received previously.
Due to the project’s complexity and the required speed of implementation, basic Lasernet training took place to familiarise Dunlop Protective Footwear’s IT department with the software. It was important for them to fully understand what the software could achieve; August Bridge was then brought on board to make the requirements a reality. “We selected Lasernet and August Bridge to generate standardised, universal, easy to manage documents that are language specific and also meet the relevant legal/fiscal requirements. August Bridge had the knowledge, the expertise, and they really knew what we wanted. We relied on them to make it happen” added Muller. “The biggest advantage we found was not in the technology, it was in the cooperation with August Bridge. We would normally need to code everything ourselves, now we can simply go to August Bridge and say this is what we want to achieve, it should look like this, this is your source, please go ahead. Thanks to the service we receive from August Bridge, we no longer have to invest time and money in training to do it ourselves.”
With over 60 documents currently implemented via Lasernet and more in the pipeline, Dunlop Protective Footwear is looking to utilise the services of August Bridge to support its ecommerce offering. With a focus on automation, documents such as invoices and acknowledgements will be made available to view and print by the customer.
“At August Bridge we focus on long-term partnerships based on trust and our commitment to deliver quality. Working with the Dunlop Protective Footwear team to achieve their global document output management goals has seen our partnership overcome many technical challenges during the project. We look forward to the future and our partnership going from strength to strength” said the founders of August Bridge.
“Partners like August Bridge are specialists and we see them as an extension of our Application Management team. The advantage we see is in the long term. We have a dedicated partner, an easy-to-use solution, and processes in place to maintain and manage any problems we may face. We are never looking for short-term relations,” concluded Muller.
For further information about Dunlop Protective Footwear, please visit: www.dunlopboots.com
