How Marmon Foodservice Technologies Curbed Overspending and Built a Unified Future
What We Did
Marmon Foodservice Technologies partnered with Vervint to regain control of an over-budget ERP launch that had become entangled in a larger digital transformation project. With a tailored approach and expert guidance, Vervint helped Marmon overcome the ERP hurdle and standardize analytics processes.
Fragmented approach and processes
The Marmon team had undergone a series of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), resulting in the operation of 10 separate brands rather than a cohesive organization.
Digital transformation and new ERP implementation
By completing the stalled project close to the intended budget, Marmon was able to get the company back on track.
Standardized analytics dashboards and reporting
The entire Marmon organization now benefits from enhanced visualizations, clarified internal processes, and aligned teams.
We’re human-centered collaborators
See our work with Marmon in action.
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The Vervint Approach
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Understanding Needs
Deep, prescriptive conversations revealed what Marmon needed from their digital transformation.
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Creating a Strong Framework
A wealth of real-world expertise helped Marmon implement the best approach to launch their new ERP and establish guidelines for business analytics.
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Organizing and Standardizing Systems
With a more cohesive approach and enhanced visualizations, Marmon can better support their customers.
About Marmon Foodservice Technologies
Marmon Foodservice Technologies is an industry-leading global manufacturer of premium commercial food and beverage equipment and supplies. Their portfolio of brands boasts a combined history of over 300 years in the foodservice industry, offering innovative equipment and full life-cycle service solutions.
Mergers and Acquisitions: A Marker of Success
Marmon Foodservice Technologies has grown through various mergers and acquisitions, eventually consisting of 10 brands—each with different systems and philosophies. While M&As can be a marker of great success, allowing a company to expand and enter new markets swiftly, it can also introduce unforeseen challenges and complexity. For Marmon, this complexity prevented them from delivering the seamless experience customers demanded.
Silos Stood in the Way of Service
Marmon’s biggest challenge was standardizing their approach and processes. Each brand under their umbrella operated separately, affecting customer relationships. For example, sales reps from different brands would meet the same customer at different times, which was inefficient and disruptive. This realization sparked an internal conversation about becoming a cohesive company rather than a collection of brands trying to work as a unit.
Vervint: A Solution for a Stalled Project
Marmon’s first step to address these challenges was to launch a digital transformation project that included standardizing their ERP, BI, and data analytics tools. They adopted a new ERP platform to streamline operations, but the project lost momentum and was almost 30% over budget. In response, Marmon hired Senior Director Jason Thompson to re-architect the ERP implementation, and he immediately reached out to Vervint for help.
“We struggled with finding a group of consultants that could support us from understanding our business and having real-world experience,” Thompson explained. “That was a differentiator for Vervint, and partnering with them was a turning point.”
Thompson valued Vervint’s expertise and real-world experience with digital transformations in the manufacturing space. It was a partnership that would bring the project back from the brink.
Vervint Took Action and Moved Marmon Forward
Vervint was part of Marmon’s recipe for success from day one, guiding the team’s choices and taking a hands-on, prescriptive approach tailored to their requirements.
“I didn’t have to micromanage them. They came in, they would talk with us, and they got a good understanding of what our needs were,” Thompson said. “I knew I could trust and depend on them to help me out with the situation that we were in.”
Vervint took a two-pronged approach to project management:
- Flexibility: Vervint understood the dynamic nature of Marmon’s business.
- Structure: Vervint provided the team with a new framework to revive the project.
Marmon had started the project without a comprehensive understanding of what they needed to successfully roll out an ERP. Vervint showed the Marmon team where to invest their time and money, recommending the best approach suited to Marmon’s operations.
“We actually started gaining traction when we started having those types of conversations that were more prescriptive in nature,” Thompson explained. “Not, ‘Hey, here’s what you can do,’ but more of, ‘here’s what we recommend.’ That was the big difference.”
With Vervint’s help, Marmon revived the ERP project. By right-sizing the ERP refresh, implementing cost-saving measures, and streamlining the project, the cost overrun went from a projected 30% to coming much closer to budget.
Transformative Wins Steered the Team on the Right Course
These initial successes led to a big win: creating the Executive Stakeholder Dashboard in Power BI. Marmon’s leadership provided requirements for the dashboard, but no design guidance. So Vervint helped Thompson with basic business analytics guidelines, shared best practices, and collaborated on the dashboard’s layout and reporting features.
The dashboard marked a cultural shift within the company. Leaders came to recognize data visualization as a powerful tool that can set the stage for action.
“What [Vervint] developed actually became a catalyst for subsequent projects to standardize our dashboards and reporting. That was probably one of my favorite things—what came out of that first dashboard was a better approach to visualization and the dashboards that we’re using internally to drive decision making,” Thompson said.
As the ERP and Power BI rollouts wound down, the benefits of the Vervint partnership became clearer. In addition to reduced spend, Marmon clarified internal processes and aligned teams around a single vision.
When I think about Vervint, I think about a partner—a partner that helps us do more to support our customers, specifically around digital transformations in the ERP and BI and data analytics spaces.
Vervint Uncovered the Possibilities
Vervint showed Marmon what was possible. Vervint’s human-centered design approach supported the Marmon team during a time of great organizational change. Instead of being overwhelmed by a seemingly impossible digital transformation, Vervint found ways to organize the company’s disparate systems and made steady progress toward collaborative success.
“When I think about Vervint, I think about a partner—a partner that helps us do more to support our customers, specifically around digital transformations in the ERP and BI and data analytics spaces,” Thompson said.
Collaborating with Vervint went beyond reining in costs or deploying new systems and tools. Vervint helped Marmon achieve significant milestones, propel their business forward, and establish a solid foundation for future growth. Vervint’s strategic guidance and innovative solutions not only resolved immediate challenges but also positioned Marmon for sustained success in their industry.
