Press Releases

Catalyst Delivers SAP® Warehouse Management

PHILADELPHIA, PA AND LONDON, UK, March 26, 2008—Catalyst, a business unit of CDC Global Services, announced today that U.S. paint manufacturer, Dunn-Edwards, completed a successful go live for SAP® Warehouse Management (WM) and SAP console at Dunn-Edward's new regional support center in San Diego, California. The new system has been in operation since February 2007, and is delivering improved shipment and picking accuracy, as well greater efficiency and speed throughout distribution-related supply chain operations.

Dunn-Edwards have been using SAP business management software solution since 2002. "SAP has been a good solution for us, but we are always looking for ways to improve our overall efficiency, particularly in the supply chain," said Bart Bosveld, manager, SAP Systems Group. "In 2005, with the planned opening of a major store support center in San Diego, we decided that implementing a more advanced warehouse management system was necessary to ensure optimum administration of the facility. It also meant we were working from a completely clean slate so we could make sure the implementation was carried out without compromise."

Dunn-Edwards decided it needed to turn to specialists for assistance with the implementation. "Our expertise is in the manufacture and delivery of paint. Although we had some SAP system knowledge, we knew we needed experience guiding this first implementation," said Bosveld. "After speaking with a few of Catalyst's references and clients, we knew their knowledge and experience was exactly what we were looking for."

The project began in August 2006, with a go-live target of February 2007. All goals were achieved on time and within budget. Bosveld continued, "We were delighted with the project efficiency and Catalyst's overall contribution. There were a number of key benefits we wanted to achieve and all goals were successfully met. The increased accuracy and speed of put-away and picking has allowed us to improve the rate of inventory turnaround, ensuring products do not remain in the warehouse beyond a certain time. In addition, the improved accuracy of shipments to stores has been such a dramatic change, that the director of operations is now considering eliminating delivery check-ins. This will result in time savings of at least 1.5 hours per day at each location."

Brian Thorn, vice president of sales and operations for Catalyst, commented, "The implementation at Dunn-Edwards is another excellent example of Catalyst's ability to work with its customers to deliver the appropriate solutions. We provide the specific skills in warehouse management and supply chain execution needed to ensure SAP Warehouse Management and SAP console implementations are fully-optimized to customer requirements."

Bosveld concluded, "Catalyst's contribution to this project has been key. We felt they really understood our business and requirements. Quite simply, we could not have achieved this as quickly or comprehensively without Catalyst."

About Catalyst

Catalyst, Inc. is an SAP® services company specializing in building and implementing business solutions for enterprise requirements in supply chain execution, planning, and management. Catalyst excels at helping organizations with complex distribution networks in the retail, manufacturing, life sciences, process, and consumer packaged good sectors; as well as parts distribution for the automotive, aerospace, and electronics industries. Catalyst serves hundreds of customers around the world from its headquarters in Newtown, PA, USA and its European headquarters in London, England. Catalyst is a business unit of CDC Global Services for more information, please visit www.catalystinternational.com/sap.

About DUNN-EDWARDS

Dunn-Edwards, is the largest employee-owned paint manufacturer in the U.S., founded in 1925, Dunn Edwards now has more than 1,800 employees and over 95 stores. The company provides a complete range of premium architectural paint, painting supplies and equipment for both the professional painter and consumer markets, for more information please visit www.dunnedwards.com

About CDC Global Services

CDC Global Services provides a full-range of IT consulting services including platform-specific services for Microsoft and SAP applications, as well as general services for project management, staff augmentation, managed services and offshore/ off-site application development. For SAP, CDC Global Services provides expert consulting services for high-volume logistics and warehouse management environments. For Microsoft, CDC Global Services specializes in BizTalk, SharePoint, desktop deployments, as well as Microsoft Dynamics (Axapta). The fullrange of outsource and technology consulting services spans the lifecycle of technology investments and extends beyond software applications to address infrastructure, processes, and people. Customers rely on CDC Global Services as a trusted advisor that understands their specific challenges and is committed to ontime and on-budget completion of their most challenging IT projects. For more information, please visit www.cdcglobalservices.com.

For More Information

Mariangela Miglioranza
Global Marketing Manager
Phone: +44 (0) 1628 601 109
Email: mmiglioranza@cdcsoftware.com