O’Brien Steel Automates Hundreds of Daily Transactions and Scales Without Adding Staff with Acclimate Technologies

The Challenge

Before working with Acclimate, O’Brien Steel ran a heavily manual operation. The team printed many EDI transactions and manually entered them into their ERP or into customers’ EDI alternative systems. This created slow and inefficient workflows, repetitive manual processes, data entry errors, and high operational cost, along with limited visibility and reporting across the business.

As the company’s transaction volume grew, this manual approach became harder to sustain. O’Brien Steel needed to automate their EDI transactions, integrate cleanly with their ERP, and scale operations without constantly adding administrative headcount.

Why O’Brien Steel Chose Acclimate

O’Brien Steel chose Acclimate for a combination of reasons that pointed to a long-term fit:

• Deep industry expertise
• Responsive and attentive customer support
• Ability to customize solutions to fit their environment
• Product functionality and features
• Competitive pricing
• Strong reputation and trust
• A clear long-term partnership approach

Acclimate’s Solution

Our experts at Acclimate took ownership of automating O’Brien Steel’s EDI transactions and integrating them directly into their ERP. The work included:

• Automating hundreds of EDI transactions per day that were previously entered by hand
• Supporting the company’s Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations implementation in 2022
• Integrating the EDI solution with the new ERP platform, completed with minimal issues

Rather than replacing people, the solution removed the manual data entry burden so the existing team could handle far more volume with confidence. Acclimate’s specialists provided expertise throughout the implementation and stayed responsive well beyond go live.

Results

After implementing Acclimate’s EDI Integration, O’Brien Steel reported improvements across key operational areas:

• Productivity and team efficiency
• Process automation across daily transactions
• Fewer manual data entry errors
• Faster processing times
• Improved customer experience
• Clearer trading partner communication

The measurable impact was significant:

• Transaction entry time dropped from 5 to 10 minutes to just 1 to 2 minutes per sales order, across 50 to 100 transactions per day
• Hundreds of transactions per day are now automated instead of entered by hand
• Transaction volume grew while staffing stayed relatively unchanged, allowing the company to scale operations without adding administrative resources

Today, the team only reviews and confirms what the Acclimate solution enters automatically, rather than keying it in from scratch. This increased efficiency has directly supported O’Brien Steel’s growth.

Customer Feedback at a Glance

Both respondents provided strong satisfaction ratings in the survey:

★★★★½ 4.5 out of 5 — Trading partner implementation

★★★★★ 5/5 — Support and customer service

★★★★★ 5/5 — Likelihood to recommend

In JR O’Brien’s words: They have a customer-focused approach and are great to work with.

Korey Stafford added: Their solution has scaled well as our transaction volumes have grown, allowing us to support increased business activity without increasing staffing. The team has been knowledgeable, responsive, and reliable, and our overall experience has been very positive.

What This Means for Other Steel Manufacturers

For steel manufacturers still printing and re-keying EDI transactions by hand, this story shows how automation can remove a major source of cost and delay. When EDI is automated and integrated directly with your ERP, your team is able to handle much higher volumes without adding new team members.

Contact us today and learn how Acclimate Technologies can help your team scale!