A Schulman is a leading international supplier of high performance plastic compounds and resins, which are used as raw materials in a variety of markets. The Company’s principal product lines consist of proprietary and custom-formulated engineered plastic compounds, color concentrates and additives that improve the appearance and performance of plastics in a number of specialized applications. A Schulman’s expertise helps their customers develop some of the most widely used products on earth.
A Schulman work hand in hand with their customers to help them realize their product/service expectations. The Company’s customers span a wide range of markets such as packaging, mobility, building & construction, electronics & electrical, agriculture, personal care & hygiene, sports, leisure & home, and custom services. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, A. Schulman employs approximately 5,000 people and has over 58 manufacturing and support facilities globally.
Prior to the Cashbook implementation, A. Schulman were struggling with:
The union of Cashbook and A. Schulman began in 1999 with Cash Application and Payments modules. These were implemented on the iSeries and integrate directly with their BPCS 6.04 ERP system. These modules allow users to apply Cash to customers and using selection criteria create batches of vendors to be paid. Cashbook works in real time for both data retrieval and application of cash.
Cashbooks iSeries application was embraced and adopted by A. Schulman. It’s reliability, accessibility, ease of installation and setup allowed A. Schulman to look after further installations throughout the world. Over the years banks have been changed, added and banking formats have changed. Cashbook rose to each challenge by listening to A. Schulman’s requirements for each bank and providing solutions.
As software and hardware technology advanced, Cashbook embraced these changes and moved the application into the Client/Server era. VPN’s and Remote Desktop Server (RDS) became the norm. With a central installation on the RDS, this allows for a quicker roll-out to A. Schulman’s users across the globe for access and more manageable for IT to maintain over time. A. Schulman upgraded to the Client/Server application and gained further benefits and enhancements.
Statement imports are now run through Cashbook hot folder processes. These allow statements to be automatically imported into Cashbook. The imported statement data is analysed during the import process, customers are identified and invoice details are picked up. This allows for auto allocation of cash to invoices. In addition, during the analysis of imported statement data miscellaneous transactions (e.g. bank charges or bank interest) are identified and auto coded to appropriate ledger codes.
In 2015 A. Schulman moved to a Shared Service Centre in Poland for their European sites, and are continuing to add other sites from other continents. Cashbook’s Support and Implementation’s team were on hand to facilitate and assist, in order to ensure a smooth deployment of the global solution. See the full detailed results of the transformation below: