Ziegler Companies powers efficiency, productivity, growth, and cost savings with Dynamics 365

Ziegler Companies, based in Minnesota, sells and services the full line of Cat(R) construction equipment, and represents the full line of AGCO machinery. With a workforce of over 2,000 employees across seven divisions, Ziegler serves various industries such as construction, agriculture, power systems, and rentals. The company is renowned for its commitment to quality, innovation, and customer service.

To increase efficiency and productivity, prepare for future growth, and drive toward continuous innovation, Ziegler implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the NAXT365 dealer management solution, with help from XAPT as the implementation partner. The new solution features Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and Dynamics 365 Field Service. With this solution, Ziegler consolidated data and processes, accelerated invoice processing, improved service delivery for its field technicians, and gained greater agility in responding to customer needs. 

In search of better tools to maximize customer uptime

Ziegler is one of the largest Cat dealers in the US, selling, servicing and renting Cat construction equipment, and AGCO machinery including combines, bulldozers, excavators, and engines across Minnesota, Iowa, and Northwest Missouri. With more than 30 locations and a diverse range of divisions including construction, agriculture, rental, power systems, and mining, Ziegler offers equipment, services, and technology solutions. Ziegler’s mission statement is to “Maximize uptime for our customers in the communities we serve.” Everything it does is focused on making sure its customers can be productive in the field or on their jobsite. The company also prioritizes customer experience, digital innovation, and employee experience and development, guided by its core values known as the “Ziegler Way.”

Ziegler's reputation is built on technical expertise and customer commitment: it says what it does and does what it says. The company’s business model features independent but integrated divisions that allow for specialization while maintaining unified customer support. For years, these divisions operated on a legacy AS400 system that became increasingly inefficient and fragmented across the company’s diverse business lines. The system lacked real-time data visibility and Ziegler lacked standardized business process and training documentation. 

Additionally, the legacy AS400 system could not support modern integrations or automation, and it lacked the flexibility and scalability needed to support Ziegler’s growth and innovation goals. Ziegler knew that to attract top talent in the future, they needed to have a platform that was more intuitive to use and would adapt to whatever the future might bring.

Ultimately, Ziegler needed to find a unified, scalable platform to streamline operations, improve visibility and data access, and support a culture of continuous innovation.

Dynamics 365: An enabler for transformation 

To address its challenges, Ziegler launched a transformative initiative leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the NAXT365 for Equipment Dealers solution. NAXT365 integrates seamlessly with Dynamics 365 to provide unified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities. The new Ziegler solution, used across their core businesses, includes Finance, Supply Chain Management, and Field Service functionality. The solution integrates with ISVs including Lasernet Essentials for document management CENPOS to process payments, and CCH SureTax. 

Adoption of the Dynamics 365 solution was governed by a comprehensive change management strategy, led by a full-time, dedicated Ziegler change management lead and supported by internal marketing, training, and self-serve resources. Employees were empowered with detailed process guides and robust training resources, fostering a sense of ownership and engagement. “We viewed this project as a culture project. We wanted to become a more agile organization, able to consume more change, grow at scale, and live our value of continuous innovation,” says William Hoeft, President at Ziegler Companies. “The process of going through this massive project built the infrastructure we needed to continue to move our organization forward while creating resilience to change. Dynamics 365 was the catalyst for that evolution of our culture."

One good example of that evolution is how Ziegler was able to digitize their packing slip process. In the past, customers would sign a paper copy of the packing slip when they picked up their parts from a branch. If there was ever a dispute on an invoice or a question for the customer, the credit team would have to call the branch and ask them to find the document in their filing cabinet. With Dynamics 365 and NAXT working together, Ziegler digitized the process by having the customer sign digitally and associating that signed packing slip with the sales order being picked up. This means anyone, anywhere in the company can quickly look up the packing slip and see who picked it up when, eliminating many dispute processes. 

These same features also allow Ziegler to communicate to customers the status of their orders, sending emails and texts to keep them informed. “Without the infrastructure and muscle memory for change created through the implementation project, we would not be able to continue to make improvements like this. Change has become an expectation,” says Isaac Berling, Vice President of Information Technology, Ziegler Companies.

Ziegler takes advantage of Invoice capture and automation in Finance to streamline and centralize invoicing and accounts payable (AP) processes, which helps lower operational costs. “We knew we were going to gain some efficiencies right out of the gate after implementing Dynamics 365, and that’s what happened. We saw higher transaction volumes right away. In addition, our cost per invoice has gone down from $3.82 to $3.06, saving us approximately $87,400 annually,” says Syverson. Additionally, Ziegler implemented Dynamics 365 while growing top line sales by $300-500 million, which is a testament to good change management and the intuitive nature of the platform. 

Improving this process also benefits Ziegler’s mission to maximize customer uptime. “To ensure strong customer relationships, it’s important that we pay our vendors on time,” Syverson says. “With Dynamics 365, we’re benefiting from improved vendor relationships, which in turn allows us to better serve our customers by ensuring timely repairs. That’s a win-win.”

Becoming a data-driven company

Implementing Dynamics 365 was also the catalyst for building out Ziegler’s data and BI infrastructure. Building out this infrastructure upskilled the company’s IT department by creating new technical experts, as well as bringing a Power BI discipline into the department. 

The result has been better visibility into operations and real-time access to consolidated financial and operational data. Ziegler also improved its forecasting and strategic planning. “We work in different industries with different business units and customers, and we can manage it all with a single source of truth for data,” says Berling. “We can view transactions and tie them to all the financial entries and get business insights that weren’t available to us before. Going on this journey created new opportunities for many employees throughout the organization. We became more connected as an organization; it gave many talented people a chance to step up and show they were ready to take on more. I don’t think that visibility to talent across our organization would have happened without going through this.”

Higher efficiency and productivity for technicians in the field 

The previous system’s inefficiencies and lack of centralized data also created scheduling and dispatching issues for field service staff, who often travel long distances to service customer equipment. “We wanted to see if we could dispatch and communicate more efficiently and effectively,” says Berling.

Ziegler Field Service Technicians are now more efficient and productive because they can use Field Service to automate scheduling and dispatching. Ziegler technicians can view their schedules in advance and order machine parts to be delivered to their location before going to work, eliminating time wasted in the shop waiting for a schedule to be assigned or parts to arrive. “Our technicians used to come into the office each morning and wait around to be dispatched for jobs,” says Tanner Jorgenson, Field Service Supervisor, Ziegler Companies. “With our new solution, the technicians can view their schedules the night before and then go to the customer site that next morning, which saves them time. With automated scheduling and dispatching in Dynamics 365 Field Service, we saw a 30% improvement in technician productivity by reducing manual tasks and optimizing technician routes.”

By being more productive, field technicians can take on more service calls each day. “Technicians can work more efficiently and take on more jobs because they can start their day earlier,” Jorgenson says. “That also means more time interfacing with customers, which increases customer satisfaction.” Higher efficiency also contributes to cost savings for Ziegler by reducing the amount of travel required. “Our technicians can schedule multiple jobs for the same day, which leads to reduced travel and related costs,” says Jorgenson.

Field technician efficiency is especially important because of weather-related concerns in the Midwest. “In Minnesota, for example, we really only have seven or eight production months a year because it's winter the rest of the time. That means customers need their machines up and running in those warmer months,” says Berling. “This solution makes it easier for us to schedule more customer bookings and also allow technicians to quickly move to a different job if the first customer can’t have their machine down for service at a certain time.”

Enhancing onboarding and exploring AI and automation 

The new solution also enhanced team member onboarding and retention for Ziegler. “We have all our training and process materials available and searchable by role and function on our internal site, so onboarding is completely self-service now,” says Berling. “Onboarding and training is much faster and easier now, and we expect to increase retention because we have modern digital tools for our employees.”

Looking ahead, Ziegler plans to expand its use of AI and automation. The company is exploring AI-driven tools to summarize warranty claims and service reports, and it’s considering embedding support agents directly into Microsoft Teams. Future efforts will focus on enhancing field service capabilities and deepening customer insights through advanced analytics. “We wanted to live out our value of continuous innovation and prepare for a rapidly changing future, and we believe Dynamics 365 helps us get on that road while giving us efficiency gains and transformed business processes,” Berling says. “We also like being on a platform where in the future, tooling like AI should come built natively in our tools, creating new opportunities to improve and maximize our customer uptime.”