Wagner Machine Co. Grows Business With ECi's M1

Wagner Machine Company in Champaign, Illinois, was founded in 1982 as a precision machine shop. Today, Wagner operates out of a 30,000 square foot plant that houses more than 20 CNC mills and 20 CNC lathes. Over the past 30-plus years, it has seen steady growth, but sometimes, growth can also bring problems. As the company grew, management found the largely home-grown systems that were being used to run the business simply unable to keep up.


“Before we brought in ECi's M1, we were using six different software programs to run the company,” Wagner recalls. “None of them actually spoke to each other and one of our key programs was crashing frequently because the database could not handle the volume and complexity of the business we were processing.”


Fast forward to today—with the company now using M1 to steer the ship—and those six different programs have been replaced by a single system that seamlessly integrates all the company’s critical management and data functions, providing the kind of efficiency and productivity the Wagner team needs to maintain its solid growth pattern.


Wagner points to several features that made M1 the right choice for the company. “I really like the way M1 gives you the ability to have multiple modules open at the same time,” she says. “Switching back and forth from Estimating and Quoting to Purchasing, for example, is seamless with M1. You don’t need to close out one window before switching to another and you certainly don’t need to open up a second instance of the program and use up a second license,” she points out.


M1’s ability to provide quick and easy access to critical business information also earns high marks. “M1’s search functionality is incredibly robust,” says Wagner. “I can modify M1’s search grids however I want and then save my preferences in the system so they’re there when I need them again—that’s a huge plus for just about any aspect of our operations.”


But even with all that growth, the basic philosophy the Wagners put in place continues to drive the company, due, in no small part, to the power and flexibility M1 has provided. That’s good news by any measure. And what’s even better is that regardless of where future growth may take the company, M1 will be more than able to help keep it healthy and profitable.


To learn more, visit the ECi Newsroom.


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