Dakota Red Corporation

Concrete, Masonry, and Landscaping Manufacturing and Distribution

Location: Headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

15 entities, 12 locations consisting of King’s Material, Midland Concrete Products, Hawkeye Ready Mix, and Stone Concepts

Website: www.kingsmaterial.com

Current ERP Software Application: Replaced Sage 100c ERP with Acumatica Cloud ERP

Why Dakota Red Made a Modern ERP Move to Acumatica Cloud ERP

Dakota Red Corporation is the holding company for King’s Material, Midland Concrete Products, Hawkeye Ready Mix, and Stone Concepts, which offer ready mix concrete, landscaping, concrete masonry, brick and a large assortment of building products. The company’s previous CFO joined the company in 1988, installed its first computer and software system, and used that system, along with spreadsheets, Microsoft Access and later Sage 100, for more than two decades. As the company grew, database after database and spreadsheet after spreadsheet were added to keep track of various business entities.

“We were running Sage 100, but only for accounting and payroll,” says Matt Stoner, Dakota Red’s new CFO. Individual locations used a custom program within Microsoft Access to handle point of sale tickets and transactions. Each standalone database contained inventory lists that were exported from Sage and then they imported sales information back into Sage.

“The system was put in place when we were only one company with three locations,” says Pat Sauter, co-owner of the privately-held family business. “We now have 12 locations and 15 entities.”

“We were pushing Microsoft Access to the limits and started to notice errors and issues,” adds Stoner. “We had no inventory visibility across locations, and some managers spent a lot of time walking their yard to see if they had certain products in stock.”

One of the reasons we chose K & R Consulting Group is they took the time to know our business, rather than just selling us a software package. K & R has been an great business partner!

Matt Stoner, CFODakota Red Corporation

Why They Selected Acumatica & K & R Consulting Group

The biggest time savings for us is not having to go out and wander through our yards of product to see what we actually have on hand. Having a live inventory has taken our end of day management of our transacting from almost a full time job at each location down to an hour or so at each location.

Patrick Sauter, Vice PresidentDakota Red Corporation

Dakota Red Corporation executives wanted an ERP system that was affordable, that could handle multiple entities, that would improve reporting capabilities, and that would allow them to accommodate more users as they grew and acquired more firms. They considered Sage, NetSuite, Acumatica, and several industry-specific solutions. They chose Acumatica largely because of its unlimited user pricing, ability to handle multiple entities, and ease of integration with third party software. But what sealed the deal was Brad Kain of K&R Consulting Group, Inc., (an Acumatica partner and reseller).

”K&R’s Brad Kain really took the time to understand our business and to help us make procedural changes, not just changes within the software. He went above and beyond just customizing our software and getting our data cleaned up,” adds Sauter.

Acumatica’s option to purchase and host the software itself rather than locking into a SaaS solution was a huge selling point also. “We’re looking at this as a long-term strategic solution and as a partnership with K&R and Acumatica,” Sauter says.

The company implemented Acumatica’s Manufacturing Edition, which includes Financial Management, Manufacturing, and Distribution Management Software. A Strong Feature Acumatica has is Intercompany Accounting –which allowed the Dakota Red team to manage multiple Entities and have better visibility across all locations. “This functionality was a significant reason why K & R recommended and Proposed Acumatica Cloud ERP,” adds Brad Kain (President & Owner of K & R Consulting Group).