Success Stories

Anyone who has ever worked in accounts receivable can probably relate, says Mitzi McCann, a manager at Beerman Precision: The longer a customer goes without paying, the harder it is to collect.

"You have to catch customers as soon as they hit 60 or 90 days past due," McCann contends. "If you don't tackle them immediately, you might as well write them off."

Until implementing Activant Prophet 21 and Knowledge Management Center, it was almost impossible for Beerman to quickly and effectively figure out which customers owed the most money for the longest periods of time. "It was a lot of guesswork," McCann says. "We'd run a report, but the information was usually stale. Some accounts had already paid, and others moved into the 90-day category because we didn't catch them at 60 days."

Today, using Knowledge Management Center, Beerman employees obtain up-to-date reports - complete with fresh information - in seconds. "We're not wasting time calling the people whose checks we received yesterday, which helps improve our relationships with those customers," McCann contends. "And we can focus on getting the folks who owe us several thousands dollars."

Using Knowledge Management Center to target the right customers on time has helped Beerman reduce outstanding accounts receivables by at least 20 percent: "Our cash is coming in more quickly, and we're sending fewer accounts to third-party agencies," McCann says. Most notably, the company has dramatically reduced accounts aged over 90 days: "That's where we're really seeing a return on investment."

Determining Profitability

Knowledge Management Center, an executive information solution, quickly summarizes sales, inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and open orders, calculates turns, and allows you to set alerts whenever an activity falls outside a range you predetermine. Executives can respond to changes in the marketplace in real time, and make accurate forecasts when planning for the future. Managers can better meet business objectives with access to key performance indicators.

All information defined through Knowledge Management Center is pulled from your Activant solution and displayed in an attractive, intuitive front end. Navigation and usage is easy and efficient. Financial measures and inventory levels are user-defined too. By using Knowledge Management Center, you can view critical information according to a particular company, supplier, product group, etc. Most importantly, your screens and reports always have the same look and feel you're accustomed to throughout Knowledge Management Center.

Beerman management has used the solution to determine which products and product lines are most profitable - and which ones they should keep off their shelves. "If we make 30 percent profits on most SKUs but only pull in 5 or 10 percent - or lose money - on a product we hardly ever sell, it's just not worth keeping in stock," McCann says.

Knowledge Management Center enables Beerman executives to view high- and low-level detail about any product or product line on a company-wide, location, customer, or sales representative basis. Because Knowledge Management Center offers a clearer understanding of which items make the most money and which are loss leaders, Beerman has dropped two product lines. "We're putting money into stuff that makes money for us," McCann says. "And we've exchanged dead stock for products that move."

Knowledge Management Center has changed the way Beerman executives view business reporting, McCann says. Because information is so easily retrievable, McCann and co-workers better use the time they spend generating reports. "The only difference is, we're pulling eight or 10 reports in the same amount of time we used to need to get one," she says. "It's really given us a better understanding of our business."

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