An award-winning cloud ERP project, built for global scale

VBC (Volumetric Building Companies), formerly trading as Polcom Modular, is a recognized market leader in the production of high-quality modular buildings and interiors, with hotels and residential buildings as its primary focus. Each hotel room is built to completion inside the factory, including decor, plumbing, electrics, and furniture, then shipped to the construction site and lifted into place by crane. The company operates production facilities in Chojnice, Poland, and in Tracy, California and Berwick, Pennsylvania in the United States.

In 2021, VBC was a finalist in the SAP Quality Awards for the Central and Eastern Europe region, recognizing its cloud-based implementation of SAP Business One and the CompuTec Solution Suite. Computer World magazine also awarded VBC second place in its Best in Cloud competition, and CompuTec was named an MVP by Ingram Micro Cloud for its work on the VBC project.

A CitizenM hotel built with VBC's modular construction

The catalyst for change

VBC was taken over by an investment fund, and its new owners were ambitious about scaling the company's operations globally. That growth required business process improvements and IT solutions to match, and a public cloud deployment was one of VBC's key criteria from the start.

The company was taken over by an investment fund and new owners were and are very ambitious about increasing the scale of the company's operations globally. This required business process improvements and IT solutions to support these goals.
Jan Szary, IT Manager, VBC

VBC began by mapping its key business processes internally, forming an ERP team with representatives from key business areas and subject matter experts, before starting the process of choosing a system. After thorough market research, the company chose SAP Business One running on SAP HANA. Because VBC works with subcontractors across its production process, support for subcontracting was another key requirement for the new system.

It was crucial for us to choose the right solution for our growing organization and to find an integrated solution that would support the planning and measurement of our production processes. We wanted our system to be 100% cloud-based. This was non-negotiable.
Jan Szary, IT Manager, VBC
A Courtyard by Marriott hotel built with VBC's modular constructionThe interior of a CitizenM hotel room built with VBC's modular constructionThe interior of a harbor-view hotel room built with VBC's modular constructionThe CitizenM Bowery hotel in New York City, built with VBC's modular construction

The solution

VBC chose CompuTec as its implementation partner, deploying SAP Business One on CompuTec Cloud, hosted on Microsoft Azure, giving it the infrastructure and hosting benefits of the cloud.

  • CompuTec Cloud, based on Microsoft Azure, gives VBC a 100% cloud-based, scalable SAP Business One environment, accessible from anywhere without the need to centralize operations in one location.
  • SAP Business One, running on SAP HANA, is the ERP platform covering VBC's production, warehouse management, logistics, purchasing, sales, finance, technology, and general business data, including support for subcontracting across VBC's production process.
  • CompuTec ProcessForce supports VBC's production processes.
  • CompuTec PDC kiosks record activity on the production hall floor.
  • CompuTec WMS is used on mobile devices in the warehouse.
  • CompuTec Labels gives VBC a way to manage the labeling of its inventory.
  • CompuTec AppEngine connects the elements that couldn't run on the same server as SAP Business One under a cloud deployment, such as printers and handheld terminals, so they can all communicate with each other.
Because we chose a cloud-based deployment, our printers and handheld terminals had to be hosted on a different server from SAP Business One, but this didn't pose a problem because CompuTec also provided us with CompuTec AppEngine, which allows all the different elements to communicate with each other.
Jan Szary, IT Manager, VBC
The finished lounge and bar area of a hotel built with VBC's modular construction

The results

With SAP Business One and the CompuTec Solution Suite running on CompuTec Cloud, VBC avoided additional infrastructure costs entirely and didn't need to centralize production to a single location. System availability was fast too: VBC's system was ready almost as soon as the contract was signed, letting the team focus on configuring the system around its own business processes rather than managing installation and updates.

Key outcomes:

  • No additional infrastructure costs, with SAP Business One and the CompuTec Solution Suite running entirely on CompuTec Cloud
  • Infrastructure and hosting handled by CompuTec Cloud
  • Fast system availability, ready almost as soon as the contract was signed
  • Recognized as a 2021 SAP Quality Awards finalist, 2nd place in Computer World's Best in Cloud competition, and an Ingram Micro Cloud MVP award for CompuTec
Now, with the benefit of hindsight and many months of production work on Microsoft Azure cloud, we know that we made the right choice. The service is stable, always available, and in no way limits our ambitious plans for the company's development.
Jan Szary, IT Manager, VBC