Keirton

Background

Keirton is a solution engineering company founded in 2006 that has grown from a small product development firm into a globally recognized engineering organization. Operating in the cannabis post-harvest equipment industry, Keirton serves licensed producers worldwide through brands such as Twister Technologies and is trusted by many of the world’s largest cannabis producers for high-quality systems that improve efficiency, consistency, and day-to-day operations.

Challenges Due to Inefficient, Manual Processes 

Keirton was managing purchase order submissions and approvals manually, through emails with their suppliers. This included requesting and approving purchase orders, negotiating revised delivery dates and terms, and identifying alternative suppliers when vendors were unable to deliver. “There were often pricing surprises in the form of costing variances, missed or unknown delivery dates, or missed purchase orders at the vendors altogether. The work to fix and update all this information was more than the one purchaser could handle,” says Thomas Chu, Head of Planning and Purchasing, at Keirton. These processes were handled by a single resource, with manual effort consuming an estimated four to six hours of that person’s workday. They also found that supplier response times had a further impact on overall efficiency.

Automating Purchase Order Management with a Custom Supplier Portal 

To automate the purchase order process, the Kwixand Solutions team designed a supplier portal using Power Automate and Power Pages that was integrated with Keirton’s Dynamics 365 Business Central solution. This new solution eliminated the manual back-and-forth email correspondence with suppliers. Now they receive a purchase order email from Business Central that includes a link to the portal. That link automatically opens the specific purchase order, without requiring supplier login validation. Suppliers can search for their purchase orders, submit confirmations, or make changes directly through a form, and those submissions automatically update key variables and fields within their Business Central solution. 

A rule set was also implemented so that submitted purchase orders are reflected in Business Central with clear statuses, allowing the purchasing team to review filtered reports and drill into changes. Each supplier action triggers notification emails to the Keirton team, with adjusted fields highlighted for quick identification. In addition, automated, time-based email reminders were created to follow up with suppliers at defined stages when confirmations are not received. On the Keirton side, the purchasing team can also use the portal to filter and view all purchase orders by status (such as submitted, submitted with changes, or not submitted), significantly reducing repetitive manual work. 

Greater Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings Through Reduced Manual Effort 

The supplier portal drastically decreased the amount of manual work required by the Keirton team, and the results are clear. “Suppliers now enter their own order confirmations and delivery dates directly in the portal, and we’ve eliminated roughly 80–90% of the manual data entry we used to do,” says Thomas. “Chasing late confirmations or missing delivery dates used to cost me and my team several hours per week. That has practically disappeared.” 

By streamlining and automating the purchasing process, the Keirton team could shift away from redundant, repetitive tasks, and the time savings meant they could focus on more strategic work. “[The supplier portal] had a good ROI that paid it back within six months,” says Evan Jarmol of Jarmol Consulting, who was the program lead for the project. “It resulted in about two and a half thousand a month in savings…as it freed people’s time to do more value-added work.” 

“Less fire-fighting and repetitive manual work means the team is less stressed and can focus on things that actually move the needle,” agrees Thomas. 

From Implementation to Impact: Working with a Dedicated ERP Partner 

Thomas was appreciative of how smoothly the Kwixand Solutions team managed the project and implementation from start to finish, sticking closely to the scope and timelines defined at the outset. 

“Like any customization project, we had a few challenges around specific workflows and integrations with our existing systems. The Kwixand team handled them proactively: they quickly organized workshops to clarify requirements, proposed practical workarounds or enhancements, and kept us informed at every step. Nothing escalated into a real roadblock, which speaks volumes about their problem-solving approach,” says Thomas. 

“The implementation itself was well-organized with proper testing phases and good involvement from our side when needed. We went live on schedule, and the solution has been stable and effective since day one...They didn’t overpromise, they focused on delivering real business value, and they were genuinely pleasant and easy to work with. That combination made the entire project a lot less stressful than these projects usually are.”