Meritide helps Nystrom map its technology plan to the business strategy for ROI

Nystrom, Inc. is a global supplier of complementary building products and services that include miscellaneous and specialty construction items. They partner with clients to simplify the specification and procurement of required commercial building products; minmizing cost and time associated with the construction project workflow.

Nystrom recognized that 1.) the state of its technology and systems would be a barrier to achieving growth goals, and 2.) the company did not have the in-house expertise to develop the roadmap required to address those barriers and execute a plan that would scale for Sales, Marketing, Engineering and Distributor elements in the business.

Nystrom’s CEO heard of Meritide and asked for help in assessing IT vendors that may be useful in addressing the barriers in their systems. Meritide provided CIO-level guidance to vendor management, contract negotiations, and vendor performance that were critical for initial projects to improve systems capability.

One example: Meritide led the effort to address a major ERP upgrade that was failing. Meritide met the ERP vendor, addressed the problems, and negotiated significant concessions that resulted in heavily discounted software, professional services, and software maintenance. Over the subsequent year, the relationship and trust was rebuilt with the vendor, resulting in significant capability improvements in IT systems at a reduced cost.

Over the course of its relationship Nystrom realized numerous benefits with Meritide, including:

• $250,000+ in software, services and maintenance in negotiated agreements with IT vendors
• Creation and management of a 5-year IT strategy and plan – reviewed and approved by the Board
• Integration between its CRM and Engineering systems to deliver custom quotes for complex products using the engineering configurator and drawings – resulting in significant ROI
• Organization and people development – where internal skills have grown with each initiative
• External portals allowing customer and reseller self-serve for quotes, configurations and orders

Pat and the Meritide team have become trusted advisors to Nystrom. Pat is our CIO, a member of our leadership team and manages the IT steering committee – and has provided consistent, thoughtful counsel and advice. The Meritide team knows manufacturing and distribution, and knows how to work with non-IT employees in a practical way to overcome the fear of change.

– Sue Thomas, CEO

Nystrom manufactures and offers a broad line of specialty building products to better serve construction professionals and architects.

Meritide’s mission is to help our clients apply business process and technology to their business – appropriately.