Skip to content
Smart Data
Services
All services
Modern data platforms
Data strategy consultingData engineeringData governance and qualityPower BI and analytics on Fabric

Platforms we build on

Microsoft FabricDatabricksSnowflake
AI
AI-assisted modernizationAI on your dataAI developmentAI readiness workshop

Start here

AI Enablement GuideReadiness self-check
Applications
Application developmentLegacy modernizationERP and enterprise integrationAPIs and API security

ERP integration

SAP S/4HANA and ECC, NetSuite, Dynamics, Oracle, Epicor and others
How we work
Managed servicesScoped projectsStaff augmentationDirect placement

Where the work happens

Dayton, OhioSmart Data Global Center
Work
All case studiesNational distributor620+ known vulnerabilities eliminated across the customer portalsManaged servicesNuvei: Managed services for payments-to-ERP integrationsGoogleGoogle: A custom LMS for the internal sales team
Industries
HealthcareFinancial servicesInsuranceManufacturing and industrialRetail and distributionAll industries
Insights
BlogAI Enablement GuideEvents
Company
AboutCareersSmart Data Global CenterPartners
Talk to us about scope
info@smartdata.net(937) 886-9166

Embedded ERP managed services for DuBois Chemicals' custom workspace platform

Smart Data took over operational ownership of DuBois Chemicals' "Workspace" custom-built ERP and customer portal, with tiered SLA support across four priority levels. Embedded managed services engagement since November 2023, with hybrid onshore and offshore coverage.

Industry
Specialty industrial chemicals
Engagement
Managed Services
Industrial chemical storage tanks beside a river

DuBois Chemicals runs day-to-day order entry, pricing, customer self-service and eCommerce through a custom-built application called Workspace. The platform handles the operational connective tissue between customer-facing portals and the internal pricing and order management that runs the business. It was developed in-house by the DuBois IT team and grew over years into a system the business depends on.

Smart Data is the embedded managed services team that took over operational ownership of Workspace from DuBois’ internal IT in November 2023. The engagement covers development, test and production environment management; code and configuration changes; deployment workflows; and tiered incident response across all four SLA priority levels. The work runs on hybrid onshore and Smart Data Global Center coverage, with extended-hours offshore availability for P1 issues.

The challenge

Custom ERP platforms carry institutional knowledge that doesn’t transfer in a runbook. Four operational realities shaped the transfer:

  • Workspace was developed in-house and depended on a small internal team that needed to be relieved of day-to-day operational ownership without losing platform knowledge
  • The application spans multiple subsystems (Order Entry, Pricing, Customer Portal, eCommerce) where issues can surface in any of them but root cause often crosses two or more
  • SLA-bound response required tiered incident handling rather than generic break-fix, with measurable response and resolution targets
  • Workspace is the system DuBois’ customers and internal teams rely on to transact, which puts the response window for a P1 incident under one business day, not several

The transfer needed to feel transparent to the DuBois business. Customers placing orders shouldn’t see any difference. Internal teams should know who to escalate to. The new operational model had to land without any visible service disruption during cut-over.

A lab technician in blue gloves pipetting liquid into a row of sample tubes

The solution

Smart Data took over operational ownership of Workspace through a phased transfer from DuBois’ internal IT team. The engagement is embedded managed services rather than vendor support: the team operates inside DuBois’ operational structure with direct access to systems, defined contact persons and a defined SLA. The model uses hybrid onshore and Smart Data Global Center coverage.

Engagement delivery elements

  • Tiered SLA across four priority levels, from P1 (failure of a main feature, 1-business-day first response, 3-business-day temporary resolution) through P4 (functional extensions, 1-week first response, 1-month qualified response)
  • Multi-environment management across development, test and production
  • Code and configuration changes against the working Workspace platform, with deployment workflows defined for each change
  • Tiered incident response scaled to issue severity rather than treated uniformly
  • Workspace ecosystem coverage spanning Order Entry, Customer Portal, Pricing, customer-facing eCommerce and the supporting subsystems
  • Hybrid onshore and offshore coverage with extended Smart Data Global Center hours (2:30 AM to 11:30 AM EST) covering P1 emergencies that arrive outside US business hours
  • Designated contact persons on both sides, keeping issue routing fast and predictable

ERP managed services done well isn’t about ticket volume. It’s about whether the team genuinely owns the application: the codebase, the deployments, the data flows, the failure patterns, the customer impact. The DuBois engagement was scoped from day one for operational ownership, not transactional support.

The results

The transfer landed cleanly, and the embedded managed services model has been running for the DuBois Workspace platform since November 2023:

  • DuBois’ internal IT team is relieved of day-to-day Workspace operational ownership

  • Tiered SLA response runs across all four priority levels, with P1 issues resolved against a one-business-day first response and three-business-day temporary resolution window

  • Multi-environment changes ship through a defined deployment workflow against dev, test and production

  • P1 emergencies arriving outside US business hours are covered by Smart Data Global Center availability, removing the gap a US-hours-only model would leave

  • The engagement runs through its second year as an embedded managed services line, not a project that ended

The DuBois engagement is the second flagship example of specialized managed services at Smart Data, alongside the Nuvei payments-to-ERP managed services line. Different ERP, different industry, same operational pattern: deep specialization, embedded ownership, tiered response across priority levels.

Client

Industry

Manufacturing and industrial

Platform and technology

  • MySQL

Related services

Managed servicesManufacturing

Working on something like this?

Talk to us about scope

Related case studies

All case studies

Working on something similar?

Tell us what you are building and what it has to connect to. Here is what happens after you reach out.

  1. A short call about the work

    What runs today, what needs to change and the date you are working toward.

  2. An engineer looks at what’s running

    Scope comes from your systems as they are, before anything is priced.

  3. You get a written proposal

    Covering scope, team, approach and price.

info@smartdata.net(937) 886-9166

Tell us what you are working on

We use your details only to reply.

Your privacy choices

Choose what this browser shares with us. The site works the same either way. Privacy policy