Burnsville, 55337, MN,
United States
Northern Tool Technographics
Northern Tool Technographics, Software Purchases, AI and Digital Transformation Initiatives
Discover the latest software purchases and digital transformation initiatives being undertaken by Northern Tool and its business and technology executives. Each quarter our research team identifies on-prem and cloud applications that are being used by the 2400 Northern Tool employees from the public (Press Releases, Customer References, Testimonials, Case Studies and Success Stories) and proprietary sources.
During our research, we have identified that Northern Tool has purchased the following applications: Microsoft Dynamics AX for ERP Financial in 2016, Appcast Xcelerate for Candidate Relationship Management in 2021, Microsoft Power BI for Analytics and BI in 2016 and the related IT decision-makers and key stakeholders.
Our database provides customer insight and contextual information on which enterprise applications and software systems Northern Tool is running and its propensity to invest more and deepen its relationship with Microsoft , Appcast , Jobvite or identify new suppliers as part of their overall Digital and IT transformation projects to stay competitive, fend off threats from disruptive forces, or comply with internal mandates to improve overall enterprise efficiency.
We have been analyzing Northern Tool revenues, which have grown to $600.0 million in 2024, plus its IT budget and roadmap, cloud software purchases, aggregating massive amounts of data points that form the basis of our forecast assumptions for Northern Tool intention to invest in emerging technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, IoT, Blockchain, Autonomous Database or in cloud-based ERP, HCM, CRM, EPM, Procurement or Treasury applications.
Northern Tool Tech Stack and Enterprise Applications
Northern Tool ERP
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | Oracle JD Edwards World | Microsoft Dynamics AX | ERP Financial | ERP | n/a | 2016 | 2018 |
In 2016 Northern Tool initiated a multi-year program to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX as its ERP Financial platform, transitioning from Oracle JD Edwards World 7.0. The program spanned 2016 through 2018 and was scoped to align finance, transportation, and manufacturing operations under a single enterprise resource planning instance.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 was configured to deliver core financial management alongside manufacturing and transportation capabilities consistent with ERP Financial deployments. Implemented functional areas included general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, cost accounting, manufacturing execution workflows, and transportation process support, with configuration to reflect Northern Tool business rules and inventory costing practices.
Integrations executed during the project included the outbound sales system, warehouse management shipping interfaces, and invoicing audit systems, and the team supported selection and integration of FedEx as the primary outbound parcel carrier during a September to November 2018 implementation window. Northern Tool also leveraged SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS Visual Analytics for reporting and inbound freight forecasting inputs, and maintained NavEgate container monitoring as an enterprise supply chain feed during and after the ERP transition.
Project governance combined corporate and operations stakeholders with external partners organized into phased deployments, with finance and transportation groups going live in January 2018 and manufacturing following in June 2018. Governance activities included power user testing via the Northern Business Intelligence team and controlled user profile administration for systems tied to C-TPAT requirements, enabling the phased rollouts to reach planned production milestones.
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Northern Tool HCM
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appcast | Legacy | Appcast Xcelerate | Candidate Relationship Management | HCM | n/a | 2021 | 2021 |
In 2021, Northern Tool implemented Appcast Xcelerate. Appcast Xcelerate is a Candidate Relationship Management solution Northern Tool deployed to centralize recruiting and talent acquisition workflows and maintain a persistent candidate engagement repository.
The deployment focused on core Candidate Relationship Management capabilities, including a centralized candidate database, pipelining and talent pools, campaign-driven sourcing and automated nurturing sequences, and analytics dashboards for hiring funnel visibility. Configuration emphasized segmentation, campaign templates, and workflow orchestration to support repeatable sourcing and engagement processes.
Operational ownership sits with talent acquisition and HR teams, with governance defined around candidate segmentation rules, campaign approval workflows, and consistent outreach practices to ensure compliant candidate communications. The implementation positioned Appcast Xcelerate as the primary system for candidate engagement, pipeline management, and recruiting workflow orchestration within Northern Tool.
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Recruiting, Applicant Tracking System | HCM |
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2014 | 2014 |
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Workforce Management | HCM |
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2016 | 2016 |
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Northern Tool Analytics and BI
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | Legacy | Microsoft Power BI | Analytics and BI | Analytics and BI | n/a | 2016 | 2018 |
In 2016, Northern Tool deployed Microsoft Power BI to support multi department analyst activities and centralized business intelligence. The Microsoft Power BI deployment functions as the primary Analytics and BI platform for descriptive and diagnostic analytics, reporting, marketing campaign analysis, and ad hoc requests for business leaders and business groups.
Implementation work emphasized building interactive dashboards, standardized reporting, and data models within Microsoft Power BI, enabling analysts to surface trends and diagnostics. Configuration included data modeling, calculated measures, scheduled report refresh, and parameterized reports aligned to marketing and merchandising use cases, while ETL and data preparation relied on SAS and SQL coding to shape source data prior to visualization.
Integrations explicitly included SAS SQL scripts and SAS Marketing Automation feeding cleansed and campaign level data into the Power BI reporting layer, used to extract transform and load various elements of Northern Tool's data. SAS Marketing Automation provided campaign metadata and performance metrics and SQL extracts delivered transactional and dimensional data for modeling in Microsoft Power BI, supporting reporting needs across marketing and operations.
Governance centered on a centralized analyst providing BI delivery, with standardized reporting processes and ad hoc request workflows to manage access and maintain consistency. Rollout emphasized analyst driven provisioning rather than broad self service initially, aligning report cataloging and refresh schedules with marketing campaign timelines.
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Northern Tool Collaboration
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Collaboration | Collaboration |
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2016 | 2016 |
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Northern Tool Content Management
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
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Contract Lifecycle Management | Content Management |
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2023 | 2023 |
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Northern Tool eCommerce
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
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eCommerce Fraud Protection | eCommerce |
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2020 | 2020 |
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eCommerce | eCommerce |
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2015 | 2015 |
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Product Information Management | eCommerce |
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2019 | 2019 |
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Northern Tool CRM
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
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Customer Engagement | CRM |
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2019 | 2019 |
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Customer Support | CRM |
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2015 | 2015 |
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Digital Advertising Platform | CRM |
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2013 | 2013 |
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Marketing Analytics | CRM |
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2017 | 2017 |
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Marketing Analytics | CRM |
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2017 | 2017 |
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Marketing Automation | CRM |
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2018 | 2018 |
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Marketing Automation | CRM |
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2015 | 2015 |
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Marketing Automation | CRM |
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2019 | 2019 |
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Tag Management | CRM |
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2016 | 2016 |
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Northern Tool ITSM
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
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Remote Monitoring and Management | ITSM |
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2021 | 2021 |
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Northern Tool PPM
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
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Project Portfolio Management | PPM |
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2020 | 2020 |
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Northern Tool Procurement
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Sourcing | Procurement |
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2005 | 2005 |
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Northern Tool IaaS
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
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Application Hosting and Computing Services | IaaS |
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2012 | 2012 |
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Application Hosting and Computing Services | IaaS |
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2016 | 2016 |
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Content Delivery Network | IaaS |
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2020 | 2020 |
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Content Delivery Network | IaaS |
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2018 | 2018 |
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Content Delivery Network | IaaS |
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2012 | 2012 |
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Northern Tool CyberSecurity
Vendor |
Previous System |
Application |
Category |
Market |
VAR/SI |
When |
Live |
Insight |
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Secure Email Gateways (SEGs) | CyberSecurity |
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2020 | 2020 |
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IT Decision Makers and Key Stakeholders at Northern Tool
Apps Being Evaluated by Northern Tool Executives
| Date | Company | Status | Vendor | Product | Category | Market |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-17 | Northern Tool | Evaluated | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Retail POS | Point Of Sale | ERP Services and Operations |
| 2024-07-19 | Northern Tool | Evaluated | Microsoft | Microsoft Azure Cloud Services | Application Hosting and Computing Services | IaaS |