A lot of moving pieces

For almost half a century, Phoenix, Arizona–based Copper State Bolt & Nut Co. has succeeded the old-fashioned way; it stocks simple, high-quality products and sells them to lots of customers. In fact, Copper State serves more than 6,500 customers, selling more than 40 million fasteners, safety supplies, industrial products, construction products, tools, and accessories every month. That’s a lot of moving pieces to track.

Despite experiencing explosive growth in recent years, at its heart Copper State is still the same family-owned and operated business it was on the day it was established in 1972. It’s still a great place to work, and it’s still producing high-quality US-made parts. Above all, it’s still committed to delivering the best possible outcomes for every one of its loyal customers.

But managing that growth hasn’t always been easy. With more customers to serve than ever, maintaining the company’s commitment to quality in both its products and customer experiences became harder. In response, Copper State sought out new technology solutions that could help it more efficiently and effectively manage operations as it grows.

Although Copper State’s products are relatively simple, its operations are anything but. With a broad product catalogue and a large, diverse group of customers, the company faced major challenges managing operational complexity and needed an ERP system that was truly fit for the purpose. To support—and drive—continued business growth and optimize its finance, manufacturing, and supply chain management, Copper State adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain Management and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Commerce.

Long-term growth with Dynamics 365

Initially, Copper State had upgraded its home-grown system to an on-premises ERP system, Dynamics AX 2009, in October 2011. But after several years, Copper State was once again outgrowing its IT. Struggling to find an ERP platform that could keep pace with its growth, the company looked to the cloud to find a more scalable alternative that could support it long-term.

That’s when it discovered Microsoft Dynamics 365. Copper State Finance Vice President Carl Spackman spoke to the Microsoft team and learned that Copper State could quickly and easily migrate all its current ERP data into Dynamics 365—and start getting more from that data right away.

“With Dynamics 365, I feel like I have my hands on all the levers of the business at once,” says Spackman. “I have total visibility into our data, and I understand exactly what that data is showing me at all times.”

One of the main benefits of Dynamics 365 for Copper State is that the company won’t have to manage any more ERP implementations. As the company grows, Dynamics 365 will grow with it. Now it has an ERP platform that supports ongoing expansion without requiring an IT team to spend time on frequent upgrades.

“Switching to Dynamics 365 means no more expensive, time-consuming ERP implementations,” says Spackman. “Adopting Dynamics 365 is the last time we will ever need to touch an ERP system.”