Murdoch’s unifies retail operations and POS with Dynamics 365

Necessity leads to planting the seeds of change

Murdoch’s has been in growth mode for the past two years, with three new stores joining its locations in Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Texas. Although its website accounts for just 10 percent of sales, traffic and revenue have grown consistently, thanks in part to the pandemic but also because more consumers are turning to e-commerce as a convenient shopping option.

Murdoch’s relied from the beginning on an on-premises enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to process point-of-sale (POS) transactions, manage inventory and purchasing, set pricing, process payments, and run accounting operations and reporting. Learning this solution would no longer be supported, Murdoch’s leadership team began researching alternatives.

In a way, the timing was fortuitous. The company had grown beyond what its legacy software offered. Updates occurred only twice a year, and recurring issues like the following were beginning to affect the business:

• Reported data was inconsistent.
• The system had difficulty handling intercompany transactions.
• An excessive number of assistive applications made employees’ tasks more complicated.
• Asynchronous product update processes threw off inventory information.
• Inventory discrepancies and manual reporting delayed and drew out month-end closings.
• Customer relationships and engagement suffered from a lack of shared data and connecting touchpoints.
• No integrated general ledger for budget and expenses and other Finance functions.
  
  

Leadership recognized the need for centralized data and a streamlined approach to operations, security, IT maintenance, and customer relationship management (CRM). In short, it was time to move to a cloud ERP platform. But which one? 

Saddling up with Dynamics 365

Finding the “Goldilocks” solution Murdoch’s was looking for was easier said than done. Options were more suited to small, local retailers or large, national chains than a mid-size, multi-state retail operation like Murdoch’s. After considering solutions from SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft, the leadership team concluded that Dynamics 365 offered the flexibility, scalability, security, and innovation the company needed. Importantly, Microsoft and Dynamics 365 met their three key vendor requirements:

1. Vision, capacity, and ongoing R&D investment in the retail space.
2. Reasonable total cost of ownership while also being customizable to their needs.
3. A full range of ERP functions such as finance, supply chain, commerce, and advanced warehousing with mobile app functionality, and a modern POS system.

As Rob Meshew, CIO of Murdoch’s, said, “The system should serve us, not the other way around.” He was confident that Microsoft Dynamics 365 could do just that.

Lining up the right team for a large technology project is essential. Murdoch’s selected Sunrise Technologies as its implementation partner. The teams agreed on a plan that covered all aspects of the implementation, from data migration, must-haves, timelines, testing, and ownership to employee training. In all, 63 data migrations would be needed, more than half of them for master data. Dynamics 365 would integrate with 13 other business systems, including the four independent software vendor solutions to enhance retail operations. The teams decided on six design sprints and three test runs prior to cutover to the live environment.

The teams stayed on-task and met all deadlines, and Murdoch’s went live with Dynamics 365 in May 2023. In parallel with the smooth, on-time deployment, the company opened four more stores without interruptions or hiccups.

Better seed, better harvests

While moving to a new system has taken a bit of getting used to, everyone from cashiers to leadership has seen positive results from the transition, especially in the three new stores that launched fresh with Dynamics 365 since May. More than 500 employees are now using Dynamics 365 Finance, Commerce, and Supply Chain Management. Training and onboarding are faster and more intuitive than with the old system, helping employees feel more confident in their tasks, which leads to better customer experience.

Other benefits include:

Vastly improved finance capabilities with centralized data.

Month-end processes are significantly faster, and robust controls are leading to more accurate reporting.

Accurate inventory on demand.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management improves inventory visibility at all stores for their 300,000 SKUs. In the past, what was in stock was a guessing game. It was hard to share inventory between locations. Now, live inventory-on-hand and sales data from stores make forecasting and ordering more accurate. Murdoch’s can look at trends and buying rhythms in various areas, and with Amicis JustRight, make better purchasing decisions to match the preferences and needs of each store’s customers.

Flexible supplier promotions and loyalty program rewards.

Dynamics 365 was easily extended to accommodate 7,000 suppliers and a wide variety of promotions. The POS system can now apply complex, varied vendor and in-store discounts like “bounce back” offers (with a $100 purchase, customers get a coupon good for a return visit before an expiration date), Buy One, Get a Gift and Buy One, Get One, and Murdoch’s popular bucket sale, which offers a discounted price on as many different products as a customer can fit into a bucket. All these transactions are captured in the customer profile to better understand product and shopping preferences.

Better customer experience with improved cashiering.

With a more intuitive and modern POS, cashiers have more functionality and need fewer steps to provide better, faster service. Training is easier and retention has improved since employees have less to learn and look up to complete transactions than in the legacy system.

New purchasing options for enhanced customer service.

With mobile checkout devices, store associates can load a large order onto a rancher’s truck and take payment right from the vehicle, eliminating the need for the customer to park and go inside to pay. Busy farmers and ranchers appreciate this convenience. Customers can shop online and have the order shipped to their local store, or order from the store and have it shipped to the address of their choice.

Fewer and smaller devices save time and money.

Hand-held Android devices make it cheaper and easier for employees to print labels, count or check in inventory, and adjust floor counts as needed. They’re intuitive to use and less bulky than the laptops employees had previously, driving efficiency and reducing hardware costs.

Better store start-up and operational control.

Management can ship hardware to a location and roll out or update software on POS terminals from the cloud using Microsoft Intune, making it easier and faster to bring up new stores with less training needed.

Hitting the trail with new technology advancements

It’s common after a major implementation to take a year to settle in. Many companies like to work out process kinks, make use of all the major features, fine-tune automations, and assess ROI before taking on another IT project. But Murdoch’s is already looking ahead to enabling endless aisles and other omnichannel capabilities using Dynamics 365 Commerce distributed order management and ecommerce. And after seeing the advancements Microsoft has made in AI, the company is exploring the use of Dynamics 365 Copilot for various automations. A bit further down the road, Murdoch’s is open to moving its e-commerce platform to Dynamics 365 as well.

“We’re confident that Microsoft’s ongoing innovation will provide the capabilities we need to support future growth,” says Meshew. With a mandate to modernize and a clear vision, Murdoch’s is taking its retail journey by the reigns and the future looks bright.