Project Profile 8

• Private sector
• International
• Distribution

Client: Maax Spas and Home Depot

MAAX is a leading North American manufacturer of award-winning products for the residential housing market. MAAX offerings are available through specialty boutiques, plumbing wholesalers and home improvement centers. MAAX employs over 1,300 people and currently operates nine manufacturing facilities and distribution centers throughout North America. MAAX is a privately owned corporation. MAAX has an exclusive contract with Home Depot Canada to sell their products.

The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,245 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces, Mexico and China. In fiscal 2009, The Home Depot had sales of $66.2 billion and earnings from continuing operations of $2.6 billion. The Company employs more than 317,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Project: EDI integration of ERP Systems (joining Home Depots system with Maax Spas system.)

Budget: $150,000

Leadership: The goal was to use EDI standards to interface the order entry, manuyfacturing and shipping portions of the Microsoft Great Plains ERP system with the new EDI standards from Home Depot.

A vital component of this project was effective communication. The two computer systems had to electronically exchange purchase orders from the Home Depot and convert these to work orders in the Microsoft ERP system, then send automatic shipping notifications to the Home Depot when the product was manufactured and finally create an electronic invoice for each purchase order.