Their challenge

Based in Ann Arbor, MI, Backyard Products “makes the stuff that makes backyards,” including ready-to-build playsets, storage sheds, and pergolas. Over 45 years, they’ve sold nearly 4 million kits to big-box retailers like Lowes, Costco, and Home Depot.

Backyard Products has six distinct brands across seven global locations and aims to become a $1B company. However, they’ve outgrown their Sage 100 and Dynamics Great Plains solutions and need a modern ERP system to support their growth plans. The company also needs help with visibility into chargebacks and allowances, poor sales forecasting, and EDI complexities associated with their retail partner network.

Our solution

Backyard Products previously attempted to implement a competing ERP solution unsuccessfully. To ensure success this time, they enlisted a third-party consultant to assess ERP systems and ultimately selected Dynamics 365 over Oracle.

Backyard Products then needed an implementation partner. Steve Cohen, GM Business Applications, SMC East, and ISV partner RF Smart both recommended MCA Connect based on our industry expertise and successful D365 track record. 

In late September, MCA Connect team first met with Backyard Products’ leaders. We quickly got to work, evaluating end-to-end business processes, examining systems and analytics solutions, uncovering challenges, and identifying quick wins. Through plant tours, our sales team uncovered improvement opportunities in order management, retail partner integration, forecasting, and chargebacks that may deliver a seven-figure return.

The combined value of our industry expertise, IP, and Microsoft platform advantage enabled us to close the deal in early November – a sales cycle of just 44 days.

Backyard Products will implement the following solution at seven locations:

• Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management 
• Power Platform
• MCA Connect Inspire Platform™, a foundation for modern intelligence 

Licensing details include:

• $170k per year of Dynamics 365 revenue  
• 101 Finance and Supply Chain Management licenses  
• 30 Power Apps licenses  
• 36 device licenses  
• 70 activity licenses    

Expected results

Initial strategy work began in early December, with an anticipated November 2024 go-live for all seven sites. Upon completion, Backyard Products will:

Improve business with better visibility and reporting. With the unified Dynamics 365 footprint and Inspire Platform for real-time analytics, Backyard Products will gain insights into chargebacks and allowances and achieve a potential seven-figure dollar improvement. 

Enhance forecasting, increase sales, and improve on-time order fulfillment with better data. During this engagement, Backyard Products realized they underestimated demand, mismanaged orders, and missed out on sales opportunities. With Dynamics 365 and Inspire Platform’s real-time analytics, they can use data strategically to enhance demand prediction and optimize order management for better fulfillment results.

Improve retail partner and customer experience with streamlined and scalable EDI integrations. Our domain expertise equipped Backyard Products to better handle the complexities of their retail channel and EDI requirements.

What’s next?

After implementing Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, Backyard Products will explore opportunities to: 

• Replace their Salesforce Field Service solution with Dynamics 365  
• Replace NetSuite with Dynamics 365 at the company’s Studio Shed brand, the only division not yet standardized on Dynamics. 
• Automate documents and tasks with AI Builder