Palm Spin-Off Advances Portable Data and Games Using Navision

When Mobile Digital Media (MDM) opened its doors in October 2002, this spin off of Palm, the well-known maker of handheld devices, smartphones and their operating software, knew that there was tremendous opportunity for growth.

MDM is a publisher of content for secure digital and multi-media cards for handheld devices, such as Palm’s Zire, Tungsten and Treo. MDM’s products include dictionaries, encyclopedias and games such as Atari Retro – featuring the nostalgic favorites Asteroids and Centipede – that have been put on cards for use with today’s modern high-tech devices. MDM also produces an audio translation card where users can type in words and have the translation spoken back to them with the proper pronunciation. 

During its first year of operation, MDM grew by more than 50%. Now it has nearly tripled in size and revenue with an additional 60% growth just in this past year alone. The 8-person founding team in less than two years has turned into a staff of 30. Realizing the need for a system that would be flexible for this growing company, as well as feature rich in inventory tracking and reporting capabilities, MDM underwent a huge search for the best ERP solution to meet their needs. 

According to Ted Bojorquez, Corporate Controller at MDM, “We used an independent consultant who was not affiliated with any software to present us with a number of options like Oracle, Epicor and some vertical solutions. They worked with us to narrow it down to a short list of three: ACCPAC, J.D. Edwards and Microsoft Navision. I had seen Navision before at a manufacturing company where I worked and liked the flexibility of the system.”

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As far as MDM’s reasons for selecting Navision amongst such tough competition, Ted put it this way, “Being that the company was new, we didn’t want to be tied to any one set of processes or procedures that we might decide later needed to be changed. Navision gave us this freedom.” Additionally, Ted cites the ease of use seen in SCS’s Navision demo as a selling point. 

Having been through several ERP implementations, Ted also understood that good software alone was not going to be enough for a successful implementation. “SCS made the difference in our implementation,” he added. “They committed to us and backed it by adding the necessary resources to ensure our success.”

Now MDM boasts a flexible system with strong inventory and manufacturing functionality, and a very effective forecasting tool built by SCS. The close process is much quicker with Navision which allows them to gather data on true gross margins and create reports without impacting GAP reporting, a feature MDM values highly. 

Next up: additional reporting capabilities and, since they will be going direct soon with many of their major retailers like Circuit City, SCS will be creating the EDI interface for MDM.