With a passion for design and a love for color and textures, Rudy Mayer founded Innovations in Wallcoverings 50 years ago.
The New-York based company offers much more than wallpaper. Working with designers for luxury hotels and homes, they specialize in creating wallcoverings using a variety of materials and techniques.
Looking for an accent wall lined with corks for that hotel bar? Want to embellish a back wall with silk or metallic foils? Innovations has the right solution to fit those niche needs.
“We do produce some basic papers, but we work with any sort of material that you could think of,” said President Alex Mayer, Rudy’s son and current leader of the company. “It’s all about how we create a timeless product that has that mystique, material-wise, that makes it stand out.”
Disparate systems lacked precise data
With an ever-increasing inventory of wallcoverings, Mayer knew they needed to modernize their internal systems to manage the growing business more efficiently.
He said the company relied on three separate systems to manage operations. Each system did its own job adequately, but they didn’t integrate well.
“When you start running three different systems that all speak a different language, you start losing some level of preciseness in your information. Then you’re also paying a lot more because you’re paying for all these systems,” Mayer said.
After carefully considering several business management software systems, Innovations had it narrowed down to two: NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Mayer gravitated toward a solution that would integrate seamlessly with their existing Microsoft suite of applications, especially Outlook.
After talking with Boyer, Mayer determined the Microsoft partner had a good understanding of what Innovations needed and could work well with his team. Boyer also provided a free trial environment so his team could explore the software’s capabilities themselves.
Collaborative effort leads to success
After months of deliberation, Innovations decided to go with Boyer and Microsoft. They implemented Business Central on the ERP/financials side. They also implemented a simplified core version of Dynamics 365 Sales for CRM, with the goal of expanding to advanced functionality once the foundation is established.
Mayer, a car lover, used the analogy that the platform “has the horsepower of a high-performing car. We’ll unlock more of that power as our team grows into it.”
Mayer said Boyer consistently showed their expertise, providing outside-the-box thinking and collaborating with the Innovations team every step of the way.
“I am indebted to the Boyer team for helping us see this through,” Mayer said.
“We’re not just trying to replace our old system. We’re expanding our capabilities and preparing the company to scale.”
Alex Mayer, President, Innovations
One consultant in particular, he said, excelled at understanding what Innovations needed and how the Microsoft solutions could be tailored to meet those needs.
“I really give him a tremendous amount of credit because he clearly understands the Microsoft world so well and how it can be leveraged,” Mayer said.
The Business Central project took 13 months to complete due to its complexities. The first two months post-go-live had the normal hiccups expected with such a big change, Mayer said, but they are now running much more smoothly.
Along with a major system change, the Innovations team changed several processes to align with their modern ERP and CRM systems. Mayer said it was important for his team to recognize the larger goal of scaling the business. That meant some internal changes as well.
“We’re not just trying to replace our old system. We’re expanding our capabilities and preparing the company to scale,” he said. “You have to be able to put in the sweat equity to learn these things and to change the way your company runs.”
He said moving systems was not the easy option for Innovations. However, he firmly believes it was the right one to help them get the data they needed to make better-informed decisions and operate more efficiently.
Data-rich Business Central for the win
“We’re able to now dissect our business in a million different ways that we couldn’t before,” Mayer said. “I can see why modern ERP systems really change the game.”
With data-backed decisions, Innovations can tell what items are trending and better forecast inventory. They were also able to improve the buying experience for website customers by using data to recognize patterns and suggest more relevant items.
“The biggest thing is really data because it’s giving us so much deeper of a look at how we run our business,” Mayer said. Having data integrated in real time between systems gives them the full panoramic view.
Access to real-time data was particularly crucial when it came to adapting to tariffs and instituting necessary price changes. Mayer said the finance team was able to analyze price changes and their impact on orders daily to make smart decisions quickly.
He’s also enjoying the built-in AI capabilities, such as item card summaries. He looks forward to seeing more of those features in the future.
Mayer said the Boyer team continues to support Innovations and stays on top of any planned new features or updates. He’s glad to have a partner — and a solution — that can scale as Innovations grows.
“I’m very much a tech-nerd and data-driven person so (I like) being able to now have a system that is a modern system that will take us forward,” he said.
