Key Services:
- ERP system integration
- Custom workflow automation
- Data centralization and reporting
- Change management and user training
- Strategic business process redesign
The Challenge
Binswanger Glass, with 150+ years in the industry and 40 service centers nationwide, faced a digital inflection point. Their aging, unsupported legacy system (LX) couldn’t support modern reporting, scalability, or consistency across service centers.
Key challenges included:
- Disjointed Operations: Each service center operated like an independent “mom and pop shop,” creating inconsistencies in purchasing, invoicing, and customer service.
- No Real-Time Visibility: “Everybody complained about reporting… the old system didn’t give any reporting. Everything needed to be a custom build.” —Fred, Binswanger. Leaders lacked access to real-time data and relied on month-end reports that often came too late.
- Limited Scalability: Fragmented systems prevented Binswanger from acting as a unified organization or leveraging its full purchasing power.
- Manual Field Service Processes: Paper-based workflows made scheduling inefficient and limited insight into customer history, which hurt field operations and upsell potential.
The company needed a flexible, scalable ERP platform that could unify operations and enable real-time decisions across all 40 locations.
Our Solution
Ladd Partners delivered a Salesforce and Certinia ERP solution built to centralize operations, unlock real-time data, and support rapid adoption across the enterprise.
Core Features and Outcomes:
- Fully Integrated System Across 40 Locations:
Salesforce brought every business process—from sales to service to finance—under one roof. This eliminated silos and standardized the “Binswanger Way” across the organization.
- Real-Time Dashboards and Forecasting:
“Now you know thanks [to] Salesforce, we can do job profitability reports in real time… dashboards in real time on their metrics… it’s right on their homepage.”
Custom dashboards empowered every user to see performance live, which transformed how decisions were made.
- Self-Service Reporting:
“Now most of our people are building their own reports… instead of a bunch of individual reports.”
With training support from Ladd, users no longer needed IT to access data. The shift reduced IT overhead and gave teams faster access to insights.
- Centralized Purchasing and Invoicing:
“We centralized purchasing. We’ve centralized invoicing… I don’t have invoicing issues anymore because they know what they’re doing.”
Binswanger moved from 40 decentralized approaches to one centralized team of specialists. This unlocked cost savings, standardization, and speed.
- Enhanced Field Service:
Certinia ERP integration gave field technicians full visibility into customer history, which improved scheduling, service quality, and revenue opportunities.
- Fast, People-Centered Adoption:
Through weekly workshops, “coffee meetings,” and continuous feedback loops, Ladd Partners ensured the solution met every role’s needs. Change was rolled out thoughtfully so users could “learn faster than they failed.”
Behind the Scenes
The Binswanger and Ladd collaboration was built on transparency, iteration, and speed. Rolling out a nationwide ERP system in under a year required courage and coordination.
Binswanger “bit the bullet” and went live knowing there would be early challenges. With Ladd’s help, those challenges turned into teachable moments. Ladd provided additional training support in the critical first month, sitting in on sessions and answering advanced user questions as they emerged.
Community forums like “coffee meetings” gave employees space to voice feedback and shape their own adoption journey. “Admin leads” were also established to triage smaller support questions and reduce IT strain.
By focusing users on what was meaningful—like how to define “easier” and “faster” in their actual workflows—Ladd helped Binswanger align every department around smarter, more strategic operations.
The Results
The ERP transformation delivered clear, measurable results:
- Real-Time Visibility:
Service centers now monitor job profitability and forecasting metrics daily. This eliminated surprises and enabled better decisions.
- Reporting Autonomy:
“All I’ve got to do is train you… you can build a report.”
Teams across Binswanger now build custom reports themselves without waiting for IT.
- Centralized Operations:
Consolidated purchasing and invoicing led to efficiency gains, expert task ownership, and elimination of bottlenecks.
- Accelerated Cash Flow:
“We don’t wait till the end of every month to do any invoicing like we used to.”
Faster invoicing shortened billing cycles and improved cash management.
- Unified Customer Experience:
The same high-quality service is now delivered across all 40 locations. Field teams work from shared, real-time data.
- Strategic Transformation in 3 Months:
“Three months.” That’s how quickly Binswanger moved from operational firefighting to a focus on strategy and growth.
Real-World Impact
The impact of this ERP transformation extends beyond internal operations. By consolidating 40 independent systems into one powerful platform, Binswanger is now better positioned to serve customers with consistency, speed, and excellence.
From real-time forecasting to centralized purchasing, Binswanger operates like a $500M company. They’ve preserved the personal service culture that made them successful.
This transformation sets a precedent for how legacy, multi-location companies can modernize fast and win.
Looking Ahead
Now that foundational systems are in place, Binswanger is setting its sights on deeper innovation. The ERP system is delivering executive and board-level insights, and the organization is exploring:
- Contract lifecycle management
- A next-generation financial system
- More predictive analytics
Ladd Partners continues to support Binswanger as a trusted strategic advisor in this next phase of growth.
