Leatherman Tool Group

• High-volume throughput to support a growing trading community and increased transaction exchanges, including burgeoning demand for B2C distribution

Leatherman Tool Group is a leading manufacturer of handheld knives, tool products and accessories. The Leatherman name is synonymous with rugged, expertly engineered multi-tools—a market the company pioneered with its Pocket Survival Tool in 1983. Today Leatherman sells its products online and through major retailers worldwide. Leatherman proudly assembles all of their tools, about 17,000 per week, at their manufacturing facility in Portland, Oregon.

Eliminate chargebacks and expensive consulting overhead by replacing a legacy EDI system with a robust, scalable and easy-to-use EDI solution that integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics AX

Implement a fully embedded EDI solution for Microsoft Dynamics AX that meets Leatherman Tools’ evolving EDI requirements as well as those of their diverse retail customers in today’s more complex omni-channel retail environment

We Can Handle It

No more expensive consulting fees thanks to TrueCommerce’s robust and embedded turnkey solution.

Just two months after go-live with the new Dynamics AX ERP platform and TrueCommerce EDI solution, Mr. Pierce reports: “Already our customer service reps are handling all of our inbound EDI orders. They can go into Dynamics AX, check the EDI inbox through a nice graphical interface, and process any new orders.” A business user will also take care of processing outbound documents.

If an EDI document contains an error, such as a missing ship-to address, users can almost always take care of the problem on their own. Everyday issues like these used to require expensive and time-consuming consulting services.

“With TrueCommerce EDI everything is graphical and no programming is required,” offers Mr. Pierce. “If we run into a problem or need mappings for a new trading partner, TrueCommerce support takes care of that for us—no more having to pay expensive independent consultants.”

Rapid ROI

Leatherman conservatively expects to recoup its EDI investment in twelve to eighteen months based on direct cost savings alone.

With Leatherman’s old EDI system, third-party consultants had to handle any orders that may have had problems and this resulted in significant time and expense. Responsiveness to trading partners was also hampered by frequent system downtime. Besides paying consulting fees in excess of $100,000 annually, the company also faced frequent chargebacks for issues such as late or inaccurate ASNs.

Based on their experience, Leatherman expects that the new system will virtually eliminate these costs. “Since going live with TrueCommerce EDI, we’ve already experienced a 75% reduction in EDI spend compared to the same period last year,” Mr. Pierce figures. “If that trend continues our ROI will be very, very good.”

Mr. Pierce conservatively estimates a return on investment within twelve to eighteen months. This estimate doesn’t include “soft” cost benefits like greater overall productivity, lower training costs, reduced IT effort and the ability to shift one full-time employee from EDI to other activities.

Leatherman’s EDI/ERP integration also delivers greater value from its investment in Dynamics AX. “We really wanted to get all of our information into one system, instead of scattered around in different spreadsheets and databases,” says Mr. Pierce. “TrueCommerce EDI is well aligned with that goal because of its seamless integration with Dynamics AX.”