Entrepot Marketing - Pragmatism in Transformation

Business Ambitions and Challenges

Entrepot Marketing (EM) aimed to modernize its business systems to support growth, enhance sales productivity, and strengthen distributor enablement. However, the company faced key challenges and decisions:

End-of-Life Risks: Legacy on premise ERP >10 years old, hosted on Windows 10, which reaches end-of-life in 2025.
Sales Productivity Gaps: Sales teams relied on offline catalogs, HQ-admin for quotes, and lacked mobile access to inventory/quotations, slowing response times.
Operational Inefficiencies: Product/customer data spread across disconnected systems; risk of knowledge loss as senior staff near retirement.
Distributor Dependency: Distributors lacked direct visibility into pricing, specs, and stock, creating back-and-forth bottlenecks.
Technology Choices: New “shiny” platforms (AI-enabled, global ERPs like NetSuite) looked attractive, but required heavy reinvestment, retraining, and posed adoption risks.

Activities

With 8C8 - EM undertook a structured strategy process:

Mapped business requirements to identify bottlenecks in sales, operations, and distributor enablement and consolidate into a Roadmap RFP.
Running comparative demos with shortlisted vendors across core modules & functions (Procurement, Sales, Inventory, etc).
Evaluated at least 4 vendors of different Platforms through demos and workshops, comparing differing AI/cloud solutions against created Roadmap.
- This was compared to migrating to their incumbent’s Cloud ERP platform.
Assessed projected ROI, risks and costs around migration, adoption, and long-term scalability.
Evaluated migration risks around data integrity, downtime, and staff readiness.
Designing a continuity-first roadmap that balanced digital uplift with pragmatic execution.

After thorough due diligence, its opted to migrate with its current ERP vendor to a cloud version, supported by professional services:

ERP & MS SQL commissioning, system/process mapping, DB migration, user workflows, InvoiceNow enablement, enablement & training, and live-run support.

Outcomes

Enterprise Transformation
- Continuity Preserved: Familiar workflows retained, minimizing disruption.
- Productivity Boost: Mobile/tablet access enables on-the-spot quoting; less reliance on HQ.
- Operational Efficiency: Consolidated product/customer data reduces knowledge risks and streamlines onboarding.
- Distributor Enablement: Shared access to inventory, pricing, and product data shortens enquiry-to-order cycles.
- Future-Proofing: Cloud APIs and as a Service support gradual adoption of new tools and compliance standards and platform continuity.

Workforce Transformation
- Rapid Adoption: Staff build on existing familiarity; minimal retraining needed.
- Upskilling with Purpose: Training focused on cloud features and digital workflows, not full re-learning.
- Confidence in Change: Staff see transformation as pragmatic and supportive, not disruptive

Key Takeaways

Entrepot Marketing’s decision demonstrates that digital transformation is not about chasing the newest or flashiest platform.
By prioritizing continuity, adoption, and measured future-proofing, the company avoided costly disruption while still modernizing its foundation.
The result: a future-ready cloud ERP that delivers business value today and flexibility for tomorrow.

Not every “new and shiny” platform is the right answer – Business Results with Risk mitigation may matter more.