PGT Trucking

PGT Trucking delivers 15 production applications in 3 months with 1 full-time developer using Vinyl

Background

Since 1981, PGT Trucking has been a leader in flatbed transportation. Operating with a fleet of over 1,000 power units and 1,500+ trailers, they serve the steel, building materials, machinery, oil and gas, raw materials, aluminum, and automotive industries. Their service area includes the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Challenge

PGT Trucking faced the challenge of extending the life of their legacy AS/400 ERP system. They did this by buying off-the-shelf solutions that ultimately caused disconnected processes and limited their ability to effectively customize the critical areas of their business that required differentiation to succeed.

These disparate systems ultimately created or exposed critical business process gaps, forcing PGT to explore several technical and non-technical solutions in hopes of resolving the need for manual interventions to complete business processes.

A new off-the-shelf ERP technology would have been too costly and cumbersome to implement. Committing to continual customization of their outdated legacy systems would have further complicated their systems landscape. Hiring expensive, highly-skilled resources or up-skilling their current team on a number of additional technical tools was not going to scale, and they would continue falling short of meeting the demand for modern streamlined digital processes they were experiencing throughout the business.

Solution

After researching several low-code / no-code application development platforms, PGT chose us to pilot an initial core application built using the platform Vinyl™. Using Vinyl’s powerful Lite Integration™, they easily connected to their primary AS/400 legacy system. Within minutes their business-critical data was being read in a relational format for the very first time.

Weeks later, we assisted PGT Trucking in deploying their first no-code solution – a cost and revenue accrual application, increasing visibility to the bottom line and eliminating manual efforts. Over the next several months with coaching from our expert Vinyl Developers and with online and in-person training, PGT Trucking’s lone developer was empowered to build, manage, and maintain all their Vinyl applications – whatever the implementation or use case. Today PGT has over 20 applications that span the enterprise, including a companywide intranet built entirely by PGT’s developer.

These custom-built applications have realized hundreds of hours in time savings and have allowed PGT to unlock crucial insights from data leading to meaningful increases in margin and productivity.

Solution Technologies

• Connected to AS/400 and six other core systems using Lite Integration–with no-code
• Custom-built intranet accessible on any device, leveraging Vinyl’s responsive design
• Seamless user authentication and provisioning with Active Directory
• Automated workflow and approvals using Vinyl Bridges
• Complex financial reporting from multiple disparate systems all on one screen

“Vinyl has enabled PGT to extend the life and enhance the value of our existing legacy systems while allowing us to take advantage of modern technology. We are now solving problems and accessing our data in ways that we previously didn’t think were possible…”
Gerry Hickly | Chief Administration Officer | PGT Trucking