Davis Controls attributes much of a decade’s 200-percent growth to comprehensive enterprise computing approach

With year 2005 revenues of about $15 million, Oakville, Ontario-based Davis Controls is a distributor and licensed assembler of instrumentation and control products.

Neil Montgomery, president and CEO, says the company’s growth—from 1996 revenues of about $5 million—was fueled by its commitment to an integrated environment for information management.

“When prospective suppliers tour our site to evaluate our strengths,” says Montgomery, “we demonstrate how we can access and report on information. When they see the opportunities made possible by the level of communication we offer, they often decide to partner with us over the incumbent.”

Based on an initial commitment to a Microsoft technology-based solution, Davis Controls implemented a comprehensive ERP package with tools for manufacturing, distribution, and financials.

As importantly, in the years that followed, Davis Controls was able to add capabilities that ensured continuing command of the information needed to grow the business, including:

• A business management solution that ensures all corporate data, including email communications with customers, is in a single database, and that supports portals for employee, customer, supplier, and product information;
• A business activity monitoring application that enables management by exception; and
• A business analytics and reporting tool that generates as many as 30 daily and 300 monthly reports.

“We just couldn’t grow the business using our old mix of proprietary software,” says Montgomery. “The 200 percent growth we’ve seen is undeniable, and we’re doing it with the same number of people.”

Tune into this Manufacturing Business Technology podcast to hear Neil Montgomery outline how Davis Controls worked with infrastructure and application providers, consultants and integrators, as well as its own employees, to forge a comprehensive solution to its information needs.

Neil Montgomery
President and CEO
Davis Controls Ltd