Zinpro

It’s been nearly 50 years since Zinpro Corporation began pioneering the research and development of organic trace minerals with the aim of improving animal wellness and performance. A family-owned, privately-held company, Zinpro’s steady growth has come as a result of quality products, quality people, and a sole focus on trace mineral nutrition. Today, it has regional sales offices in 11 countries and markets its products in more than 70 countries worldwide.

Pioneering the Research & Development of Organic Trace Minerals

It’s been nearly 50 years since Zinpro Corporation began pioneering the research and development of organic trace minerals with the aim of improving animal wellness and performance. A family-owned, privately-held company, Zinpro’s steady growth has come as a result of quality products, quality people, and a sole focus on trace mineral nutrition. Today, it has regional sales offices in 11 countries and markets its products in more than 70 countries worldwide.

With an emphasis on animal health and wellbeing, Zinpro produces zinc, copper, cobalt, manganese, iron, selenium, and chromium for the poultry, swine, beef, dairy, and aquaculture industries. Operating in a niche business occupied by 8-10 major players, Zinpro developed a molecule that can effectively deliver trace minerals to animals in a way that other trace minerals cannot.

“Some of our trace minerals are used for the elite horses that run in the Kentucky Derby,” said Mark Thome, Director of IT. “In most of the recent races we’ve been directly involved with, we’ve provided trace minerals to the winning horses.”

“We Worked Well Together”

Up until 2016, Zinpro was running its business on Microsoft Great Plains. Wanting an ERP that would grow as its own operations expanded, the company knew that its current platform wasn’t robust enough to provide that infrastructure. “The idea was that SAP was going to be a strategic play to position us for growth,” said Thome, who met with NTT DATA Business Solutions’ CEO Steve Niesman to get the wheels in motion for a move to SAP.

For Zinpro, SAP Platinum Partner NTT DATA Business Solutions delivered integration services, hosting, and software reselling (of SAP). It also set up the manufacturer’s data analytics and provided strategic guidance for its migration to S/4HANA. “It was clear that NTT DATA Business Solutions was committed to this market, and that it had a good track record,” said Thome. “We worked well together.”

When Zinpro implemented SAP, the manufacturer was on the smaller size of the software provider’s typical client base. “We were right at the threshold,” said Thome. “But given how we wanted to grow, SAP made sense.” Working with NTT DATA Business Solutions, the company was able to manage implementation costs so that they fell within their budget guidelines for investing in its new global, long-term strategic capabilities.

Complete Inventory Visibility

Michele Determan, Office Manager at Zinpro, says SAP provides real-time visibility, allowing her department to see where product is at all times along with current inventory levels and replenishment needs. “Before SAP, visibility was limited, both within our facility and in terms of cross-department functionality,” she said. “SAP brings complete visibility without any restrictions.”

Challenged by this lack of inventory visibility, the company wanted a better view of its raw material needs—a metric that typically wasn’t available until after an order was processed and the transaction was closed out. “We were constantly having to go out to the warehouse to do physical inventory counts,” said Determan, “and to make sure our raw materials got here in a timely manner.”

Zinpro’s new ERP also helps bring its employees together as a team—a benefit supported by the technology’s cross-department functionality. Where organizational silos may have hampered enterprise collaboration in the past, for example, Zinpro’s customer service department can see the current order pipeline and address any potential issues early.

No-Stress Go-Live

Posting zero planned downtime during the last four years, Zinpro relies on SAP to run its end-to-end business—from the point where it takes an order to the raw material procurement to the production process. “We’re able to manufacture, warehouse, distribute, invoice, and collect cash in 19 different currencies and across 80 different countries,” Thome explained. “That’s the value that we get out of SAP.”

Anju Bhatia, Business Analyst, SAP FI/CO at Zinpro, says the company’s partnership with NTT DATA Business Solutions resulted in a “no-stress go-live” for the company’s SAP implementation. She credits good planning, weekly status meetings, and open lines of communication throughout the process with helping Zinpro benefit from a smooth implementation process.

“I thought this was the smoothest go-live ever,” says Bhatia. “We were a very well-prepared project management team across every phase in the SAP implementation—from start to finish.”