Ransomware Recovery to Cloud ERP: CKS Packaging’s SaaS Move

When ERP systems go down, the impact extends far beyond IT. Sales, shipping, invoicing, and cash flow can all be affected, making business continuity an immediate priority—especially for manufacturers managing high-volume operations.

In this client testimonial, CKS Packaging shares how a ransomware event accelerated its move from on-premises Business Central to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central SaaS, and how ArcherPoint helped the team restore critical operations and move forward in just days.

Manufacturing operations disrupted by ransomware

CKS Packaging, a manufacturer of plastic containers, experienced a ransomware attack that impacted a large portion of the business, including its on-premises Dynamics 365 Business Central system. The disruption affected several critical functions, including:

• Sales order processing
• Shipping operations
• Accounts payable and receivable
• Customer communication and tracking

While production could continue, the inability to access core systems created immediate business pressure. As the testimonial makes clear, shipping products is only part of the equation—processing transactions, tracking customer information, and getting paid are just as critical.

Accelerating a cloud ERP strategy

Before the ransomware event, CKS Packaging had already planned to migrate to Business Central SaaS over 12 to 18 months. That timeline changed dramatically when the business needed to restore access to critical systems as quickly as possible.

With ArcherPoint’s support, what had been a long-term cloud roadmap became an accelerated recovery effort. The team helped:

• Stand up a temporary SaaS environment
• Configure permissions and access
• Restore the most important business functions first
• Support the transition back into the primary tenant after recovery

That combination of speed and prioritization allowed CKS Packaging to move from a long-range SaaS plan to an urgent deployment in a matter of days.

Why cloud ERP matters for business continuity

One of the clearest lessons from the experience was the value of cloud-based ERP. For CKS Packaging, moving critical systems off-premises created greater separation between the internal IT network and the business systems needed to keep operations running.

The move to SaaS was no longer just about modernization. It became a practical business continuity decision—one that improved resilience and reinforced the importance of protecting the systems that support orders, customer service, and revenue flow.

The value of a responsive manufacturing partner

Throughout the event, ArcherPoint’s responsiveness and familiarity with the business were critical. The team was able to:

• Identify which systems and processes need to be restored first
• Mobilize the right resources quickly
• Provide real-time support during a high-pressure situation

CKS Packaging also emphasized ArcherPoint’s understanding of manufacturing operations. Rather than acting as a generalist partner, the team brought process awareness, business context, and proactive recommendations shaped by years of working together. That combination of technical expertise and manufacturing knowledge helped drive better decisions when timing mattered most.

A partnership built on responsiveness and trust

Over time, the relationship between CKS Packaging and ArcherPoint has grown beyond a typical vendor engagement. Across support, consulting, and strategic guidance, ArcherPoint has remained:

• Responsive across teams
• Collaborative in solving problems
• Invested in the business’s long-term success

That level of partnership was especially important during a disruptive event, but it also reflects something broader: when a partner understands your business, your priorities, and your processes, they are better equipped to help when the stakes are highest.

Watch the client testimonial

If your manufacturing organization is evaluating cloud ERP or preparing for unexpected disruptions, learning from real-world recovery and migration experiences can help you plan more effectively. Reach out to ArcherPoint by Cherry Bekaert to explore how a responsive, experienced partner can support your ERP strategy.

Video transcript

My name is Charles Massey. I’m the Vice President of Information Technology at CKS Packaging.

I’ve been here about five years now. It’ll be five years in March.

CKS Packaging produces plastic containers—everything from dairy bottles to industrial gallons, and anything in between in the plastic packaging space.

For us, I think it’s the fact that you guys have people on your team who have been with you for a long time. All the customizations and different things we’ve developed in partnership with ArcherPoint have really driven that relationship.

I think, for us, it’s the interest in understanding the end result—the end goal of what we’re trying to get to. It’s not just developing something and passing it off, but trying to understand the business process involved and really digging into what the need is before starting down a path to resolution.

We did have a ransomware event in December of 2023. It hit a large portion of the enterprise, including our on-prem version of Business Central. Obviously, it affected every part of the business that runs through there—from sales orders to shipping, AP and AR processes as well.

It was a very stressful event. For our business, we can continue to make plastic bottles, but actually getting paid when we ship those plastic bottles is just as important.

There was a lot of tracking—getting customer information out of the system when the system wasn’t available—and keeping customers happy was critical to us.

Again, back to the relationships that have been built with some of the guys at ArcherPoint internally who knew what we needed and what was critical to the business.

As soon as we called Quentin, we were on the phone with the right people within the team, figuring out what we needed to do and the best path forward to get back into the systems.

It’s an interesting thing. We had a roadmap to do SaaS over 12 to 18 months, and then we decided we’d do it in five days.

ArcherPoint and Quentin helped get the right resources on the phone, stand up the SaaS environment, configure it, set up permissions in a temporary tenant, and then migrate everything back into the primary tenant once ransomware recovery was complete. That was a big help.

The cloud-based approach is critical. It’s the air-gapped piece of it. You want separation between what we call your IT network and those critical business functions.

That was one of our lessons learned from the ransomware event—to take everything we can off-prem and push it into the cloud.

Again, it comes back to having the right partner—understanding what’s critical to the business. It all comes down to having a feel within that partner so they understand what the important parts are.

Do we need to get everything back up? Yes. But did ArcherPoint instantly know what the most important pieces were to restore first? Yes. That partner relationship really helped drive that.

I think it’s really important for a partner to understand what you do. There are a lot of partners out there that are generalists, but it’s very evident from my experience with ArcherPoint that they have resources who have been involved in the manufacturing process before.

I think that’s a critical piece—to find partners and create relationships with people who have done what you do.

Absolutely. Anytime I’ve ever reached out to anybody at ArcherPoint—whether on the sales side, the support side, or whatever it may be—I’ve gotten an instant response. That’s critical in business these days.

I think ArcherPoint is a great partner to work with around Microsoft technologies. They’ve come to the table with things we didn’t even think of, which is important too.

They make suggestions based on the relationship they’ve built with us over the last several years.

Trending Posts