Rio Marine Inc. Extends the Life Of Dynamics GP with Popdock

Rio Marine Inc. began in 1929, initially focusing on serving the marine industry by offering engine and electrical repair solutions. Over the decades, this humble beginning has evolved into a thriving enterprise. Presently, Rio Marine Inc. stands as a multifaceted entity with a workforce of 200 employees, specializing in marine shipbuilding, maintenance, and service along the Gulf Coast. Rio Marine Inc. serves customers round-the-clock, throughout the year across nine locations and has four subsidiaries.

John Buchman is the Vice President of Accounting and Finance at Rio Marine Inc. As a long-time Microsoft Dynamics GP user who got started on GP 9.0, John has relied on Dynamics GP for almost two decades. Day-to-day, John manages Rio Marine’s financial systems and its network of users.  Rio Marine Inc. is currently operating on Dynamics GP 18.6.

Prior to Popdock, I was very much in the camp of, if there’s really not a true business need to switch ERPs then stick with what you have. For us, it (Popdock) meets all of the needs that we have – I feel strongly about that.

John Buchman, Vice President of Accounting & Finance at Rio Marine Inc.

Rio Marine Inc. faces the same daily challenges as most companies using Dynamics GP. A typical day involves managing multiple company databases, limited licenses, and non-transactional users monopolizing access during peak times.

“We have many field supervisors who are not transactional GP users,” he said. “And I am a big fan of having the fewest number of people in the ERP system as possible. If you’re a GP user, you know the frustrations of users who don’t close their sessions – especially, when it’s month end, and the things that can go along with that. And they were using licenses during peak production time.”

As Buchman explored Popdock’s capabilities, he saw an opportunity to meet Rio Marine’s needs. Initially, he focused on implementation for this specific group of users. However, as he explored Popdock further, he realized it could offer even more value for those who frequently navigate between different company databases to run similar reports.

“And that’s when I found that it filled a need,” Buchman said. “I didn’t realize that Popdock was a solution for that.”

The Solution – Popdock

Popdock helped Rio Marine address GP license limitations by allowing employees access to their data without the requirement of additional licenses by connecting directly to the SQL server database. “[Since starting to use Popdock] we’ve purchased 0 additional GP licenses,” Buchman said. Popdock provides a separate data access and reporting solution, thereby enabling Rio Marine to optimize their licensing costs while still providing access to critical data and reporting capabilities.

Further, Buchman says, they’ve been able to eliminate several steps for the on-the-go field user by providing a web-based solution that they can access from their mobile devices. “We’ve got MFA [multi-factor authentication] for those remote apps, something that you want to have these days, but it’s a number of steps to be able to open GP, and then once that’s open navigate to SmartView,” Buchman said. “We’ve been able to bypass that, and they can access this on their laptop if they like, but they’ve also been using their mobile devices on their Safari browser.”

“I would say prior to Popdock, my mindset was very much: if there’s really not a true business need to switch ERPs then stick with what you have,” Buchman said. “For us, GP meets all of the needs that we have – I feel strongly about that.”

One way Buchman has been using Popdock is through the dashboards. “The metrics that I’ve been able to make for our executive users – who are not GP users in general – include high-level dashboard view of certain metrics,” Buchman said. These dashboard views display metrics such as sales by period, account balances, and more.

Buchman said he understands that with any type of change, resistance is inevitable, especially in this case where many of Rio Marine’s employees have been longtime GP users. “There’s always some pushback on that, and we’re not unique,” he said. “But everyone I’ve spoken to that has eventually adopted [Popdock] has admitted that they do prefer it.”

Buchman said that he would be the first to admit that GP can be “clicky,” however, that is not the case for Popdock. “I’ve been a GP user for 15 years at least,” he said. “There seems to be an unnecessary number of steps to get to what you’re looking for. That’s not the case with Popdock. With the favorites and the really modern UI, it’s really just a more modern application.”

In addition, Buchman said Rio Marine has not had to purchase additional GP licenses for their peak usage times – prior to using Popdock, they would have needed a GP license for each user.

“Again, our transactional accounting users have told me that they – and personally I – enjoy running cross-company reports all at the same time using Popdock. I enjoy doing union queries through SQL where I could use some of those tools. But being able to do it in Popdock and publish it in a way that I can easily empower others to do it has significant productivity gains.”

SmartConnect

Buchman uses SmartConnect to integrate data from payroll into GP every evening. He said that with the four company databases, there are four company IDs through the payroll provider, and he must integrate the basic employee information as well as several other things, making automation valuable.

“I have a number of automated SmartConnect reports that run,” Buchman said. “I have an SFTP process that pulls the files down from our payroll provider, saves them in a file, then I have a number of SmartConnect processes that process those files into GP. SmartConnect keeps GP updated with all the important information our payroll provider needs.”

Buchman said that keeping GP in sync is crucial for numerous reasons, including ensuring the appropriate individuals have access, and if it wasn’t for SmartConnect he would have to exercise these tasks manually, which can lead to delays and human error. “Why have a human do it, if we can automate it?” he said.

Buchman concluded that for the critical thinker who may be resistant to seeking another reporting tool, he was that person too, but at the end of the day, Popdock and eOne captured his business. “From my experience in working with eOne through several different employers, eOne support is top-notch. I mean, you guys have been great with supporting all your products,” he said.  “Whenever I put in a support ticket, I’ve always appreciated the response.”