Efficiency Redefined: Oscar W. Larson’s SmartConnect Integration

For more than 70 years, the Oscar W. Larson Company has provided full-service petroleum and fluid handling equipment contracting.

Founded in 1946 to serve the petroleum industry, the Clarkston, Michigan-based company has since expanded into the automotive, airline, restaurant, convenience store and service industries. Today they have 350 employees across 10 locations.

A Microsoft Dynamics GP user since 1999, Oscar W. Larson purchased SmartConnect in November of 2014. Initially they only used SmartConnect for ad-hoc bulk data imports. Recognizing the increased efficiency SmartConnect could bring to their company, Courtney Jandou, Business Analyst, led the effort to introduce integration in multiple departments throughout the company.

SmartConnect is a very versatile tool for integrating data and automating transactions. Importing transactions directly into our ERP system has allowed us to have more accurate information, reduce tedious and time-consuming data entry, and enable our employees to spend their time on more significant tasks.

Courtney Jandou, Business Analyst at Oscar W. Larson Company

Having a field service staff spread across 10 locations previously presented a challenge in managing inventory. Today their field service technicians utilize a mobile application, and that data is pushed to a SQL table where it’s picked up by SmartConnect and pushed into GP.

“Field technicians don’t necessarily go to a branch office frequently, so being able to push and pull data from them is really important,” says Jandou.

SmartConnect facilitates more than 3,550 annual inventory transfers between field technicians. When field technicians transfer inventory between trucks and enter the transfer details (part number, quantity) on their mobile device, that information is pushed to a SQL table. From there SmartConnect updates GP inventory tables which keeps their inventory sites live without manual intervention.

Company-wide Increased Efficiency

In addition to better managing their inventory, SmartConnect has also allowed for automation of the following transactions, all of which were previously entered into their ERP system manually.

• 65,000 SOP transactions annually, which allows Oscar W. Larson to keep their inventory quantities updated.
• 3,000 AP manual payments and 1,500 AP invoice vouchers each year. They combine more than 2,000 lines of data into a single AP invoice voucher with proper distributions to 45 different accounts each month.
• 600 purchase orders annually for technicians making purchases in the field.

Using SmartConnect has resulted in cost savings companywide. With minimal training, Jandou builds and maintains Oscar W. Larson’s integrations inhouse.

“SmartConnect has allowed us to develop comprehensive solutions to improve and automate procedures within all areas of the organization. We use it to create data integrations between different data sources to ensure all entities are connected and updated regularly,” says Jandou. “In addition, we are able to gather company data from several sources and import it into our ERP system to automate processes, as well as make tasks easier and more efficient for our employees.”