The Founder Story of Centerprism
How one distribution expert built the ERP the industry had been waiting for.
A visionary who built the ERP the distribution industry deserved
Thirty years inside distribution — not above it
For more than 30 years Michael Hollingsworth worked inside the wholesale distribution world — not from a distance, but shoulder-to-shoulder with the people who keep America's supply chain moving. His career spanned hands-on operational roles, enterprise software leadership, and major ERP implementations across the industry's largest platforms, including Oracle, SAP and Epicor.
Across thousands of hours in warehouses, counter sales departments, purchasing offices and finance teams, he watched the same pattern repeat: small and mid-sized distributors were being forced into oversized, overpriced ERP systems that were never built for them. The big tech firms offered power — but not practicality. Distributors were left juggling fragmented systems, expensive add-ons and endless customizations.
- 30+ years in wholesale distribution — operations, enterprise software leadership and ERP delivery
- Major implementations on Oracle, SAP and Epicor — the industry's largest platforms, up close
- Warehouse floor to finance office — thousands of hours where distribution actually happens
- One conclusion: this market needed depth, not just breadth
No major ERP vendor offered an affordable, single-source, all-in-one solution built specifically for small to mid-sized distributors. This underserved market needed depth, not just breadth — a system built around their workflows, not a generic platform stretched across 38 industries.
Microsoft called him
In 2008 the call that seeded Centerprism arrived — not as a sales pitch, but as a request for help.
Learning the industry from the inside
Operational roles, enterprise software leadership and major ERP implementations on Oracle, SAP and Epicor. Michael saw first-hand what distributors actually needed — and what the largest platforms kept missing.
Microsoft makes the call
Microsoft contacted Michael directly, asking him to help "rescue" the Dynamics GP user community from long-standing gaps in usability and distribution-specific functionality, and to help strengthen and modernize the Dynamics GP ecosystem — a platform trusted by more than 100,000 companies worldwide but lacking the distribution functionality its users needed.
Build on a proven foundation, don't reinvent it
Dynamics GP had something no other ERP platform could claim: a 30-year-old, proven, stable foundation. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Michael chose to build the industry's first full-spectrum distribution ERP on top of GP — adding the missing modules, modernizing the user experience, and eliminating the need for dozens of third-party add-ons.
The Full Spectrum ERP
Centerprism runs the distribution loop — sell, order, price, stock, buy — on one database, with CRM, pricing, inventory, warehouse and mobile work on the same records rather than in a system alongside it.
Why Centerprism is different
Four decisions, each one traceable to something Michael watched distributors live through.
Centerprism doesn't bolt onto Microsoft Dynamics GP — it extends it, filling the gaps Microsoft never addressed and removing the need for dozens of add-ons. Distributors get the stability of GP with the modern functionality of a next-generation ERP across CRM, pricing, inventory, WMS, mobility, BI and more.
Support is U.S.-based and a person picks up. Email is a fine channel and Centerprism uses it, but a ticket queue is not the whole offer. That comes directly from Michael’s decades of hands-on work with distributors who cannot afford downtime.
Michael spent years watching distributors get trapped in open-ended ERP projects where costs ballooned unpredictably. Every Centerprism implementation is fixed-fee, giving distributors cost certainty and eliminating the fear of runaway invoices.
Centerprism's most celebrated breakthrough is PrismView, the "Excel-on-steroids" interface that eliminates the need for SmartLists and Excel exports entirely — live GP data, interrogated in seconds.
PrismView™ — Excel on steroids, without the export
PrismView is the piece Michael wanted most during his years on Oracle, SAP and Epicor: live ERP data you can actually interrogate, without ever leaving the system. Customers consistently describe it as faster, deeper and more powerful than Excel.
- Drill down into live Dynamics GP data
- Group, sort and filter instantly
- Drag and drop fields into place
- Build custom views in seconds
- View results in real time
- Skip the export to Excel altogether
The ERP he wished he'd had
Centerprism became exactly what Michael looked for during decades on Oracle, SAP and Epicor — and never found.
One system, not ten
A single integrated platform instead of the six to ten bolt-on add-ons distributors were stitching together.
Built for wholesale distribution
Purpose-built around distributor workflows — not a generic platform stretched across 38 industries.
Priced for the companies the big vendors skipped
Scoped for small and mid-sized distributors rather than the enterprise buyers Oracle, SAP and Epicor chase.
The mission hasn't changed
Make GP Great Again — and give distributors the complete ERP they've always deserved.
Founder story FAQs
Good to KnowSee the ERP Michael built for distributors
Take a live look at PrismView and the rest of the system — sell, order, price, stock, buy.
