James Steel & Tube Company (JST), has completed the implementation of Rootstock ERP across the organisation. JST is a manufacturer of high-quality structural (HSS) steel tubing. The project was part of a wider transformation project that brought together operations, sales and compliance onto a single platform.
James Steel & Tube manufactures structural steel tubing for construction, transportation, and other industrial uses. The company was founded in 1961, and it is part of Avis Industrial Corporation, a diversified global manufacturer. Whose operating companies serve industrial markets including automotive, aerospace, material handling, construction, and recycling.
This project is part of a wider transformation across Avis Industrial Corporation. With Johnny Smith, Director of Operational Excellence, Avis Industrial Corporation, stating, “We have several companies in the US and Canada. And three of them will be rolling out the ComplianceQuest EQMS, Salesforce as their CRM, and the Rootstock ERP.”
The Rootstock Professional services team carried out the deployment of Rootstock Cloud ERP. The firm has better visibility across its operations, including manufacturing, commercial and quality.
Dan Barton, Chief Transformation Officer at Avis Industrial Corporation, stated, “With Rootstock ERP now live, the commercial process flows naturally into manufacturing — from sales and quoting through MRP, purchase orders, work orders, and ultimately shipping — all in one connected environment.
“Rootstock’s real-time reporting and dashboard capabilities on the Salesforce Platform are highly accessible and easily configurable by our users. In a high-volume operation like ours, the ability to gain meaningful, live insights on what’s happening in the business is genuinely transformative.”
An integrated approach
The combination of Agentforce Sales (Salesforce’s new AI agent layer), ComplianceQuest and Rootstock ERP has created a platform for success and growth.
Key capabilities and benefits of the company’s platform approach include:
- Agentforce Sales gives the commercial team full visibility into order status and production timelines. Keeping sales and operations aligned on a single source of truth using an integration to Rootstock.
- A custom purchasing workflow, built by Rootstock, supports the company’s unique raw material acquisition model.
- Integration with the mill’s programmable logic controllers (PLCs) enables work orders to be updated automatically from machine data. Therefore, eliminating manual data entry on the shop floor.
- ComplianceQuest, the company’s quality management system, streamlines receiving inspection and ensures materials are properly reviewed prior to production use.
- A customer-facing Agentforce Experience portal allows James Steel & Tube’s clients to view order status and rolling production schedules.
- The company now has the data foundation and option to develop AI-powered planning tools, including a rolling schedule recommendation engine to optimize mill sequencing.
Barton added, “I have been part of many ERP implementations over the course of my career. And the Rootstock team’s ability to understand our business and execute with precision is unlike anything I have experienced before.
“This has been a tremendous asset to our company, and this experience gave us the confidence in expanding our relationship with Rootstock through their Managed Services offering.”
Looking forward
JST will continue to leverage Rootstock’s Managed Services as it plans to continuously improve and update the platform. The intent is to improve and enhance the platform, taking advantage of each release.
While Rootstock indicated that the project at JST is the template for at least two other sites, no firm dates for those projects were given.
Caroline Marty, SVP of Global Professional Services & Enablement at Rootstock Software, said, “James Steel & Tube’s implementation is an outstanding example of what is possible when a customer strategically leverages a platform approach, a clear operational vision, and a commitment to building something truly differentiated.
“From the PLC mill integration to the elimination of manual shop floor data entry, this team has built an operation that is highly automated and highly scalable. We are proud of what was accomplished at James Steel & Tube and look forward to continuing to support the team as they build on this strong foundation.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
For James Steel & Tube, this implementation delivers more than a systems refresh. By linking sales, manufacturing, purchasing, quality and customer visibility on a single Salesforce-based platform, JST gains a clearer operational picture and the ability to remove manual handoffs from high-volume production processes. The PLC integration and ComplianceQuest workflows should also help strengthen quality control while giving the business a platform it can continue to improve through Rootstock Managed Services.
For Rootstock, JST provides a strong customer proof point. It demonstrates both the depth of its manufacturing ERP capabilities and the value of its services team in delivering complex, operationally specific projects. For ComplianceQuest, the deployment shows how quality management can become part of the operational flow rather than a separate compliance activity.
For Salesforce, the project reinforces the value of its platform strategy, bringing CRM, ERP, quality, customer portals and future AI opportunities into one connected environment. It also demonstrates the value of Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud and how the firm can start to compete effectively against some of the ERP giants, such as SAP and Oracle.
This project validates the ‘Composable ERP’ strategy. By leveraging Salesforce’s platform, JST achieves the agility of a modern SaaS stack while retaining the depth of a traditional ERP. The combination directly challenges the ‘monolithic’ advantage of SAP and Oracle, proving that mid-market manufacturers can now access enterprise-grade automation without the associated complexity.
The bigger question is how quickly Avis Industrial can replicate the model across other operating companies. Aand whether the template can deliver comparable benefits in different manufacturing contexts.
