Success Stories

Impact Industrial Supplies (IIS) president John Diaz knew he ran a strong business back in 2006, and his Tampa, FL-based company's steady growth as an industrial materials and supplies distributor confirmed what he knew. But neither he nor his customers were completely satisfied with the operation, because something was missing.

"My customers expected to be able to trade with me electronically," he said. "They expected to be able to access their accounts electronically, receive notification of orders placed and shipped, to be able to receive their invoices via e-mail or fax-a whole bunch of simple things."

Diaz wanted to meet his customers' expectations. But even though he tried repeatedly, he couldn't with his Infor TakeStock solution. "There were some things the system probably could do, but it was difficult to get any kind of support. And when we did get solutions, they were usually custom ones, and usually expensive."

All this led Diaz to take stock of his options going forward. He began to ask his trading partners and others in the industry for advice, and they all gave him the same answer: Activant Prophet 21™.

A Company That Knows the Industry

"Activant was very involved in the trade associations I'm active in, where the other software provider was not, so that led me to conclude that they would have software solutions that were more tailored to the business I 'm in.

"And in talking to other distributors and finding out what they use, I noticed that many of the ones who I felt were better at what they were doing were Prophet 21 users."

The fact that IIS' two biggest suppliers - 3M and Henkel Loctite - also participated in Activant's online electronic data interface network, Trading Partner Connect, sealed the decision for Diaz.

Since going live in the winter of 2007, Prophet 21 has lived up to his expectations and then some.

Better Warehouse Management Means Less Dead Stock

"Our inventory accuracy has never been better, and we have never been more confident about the information we get from our warehouse," he said. "Prophet 21 is impressive in taking information about our usage and lead times and coming up with the stocking requirements. In the past, our old system would give us this information in report format, and it would have us scratching our heads and trying to figure out how it came up with the numbers.

"Since we went on Prophet 21 and we were able to validate that the numbers we were getting were good, we don't have to do that any more. That cuts down on our dead stock and slow-moving inventory. We can also focus on how to move slow-moving items before they become dead stock."

Prophet 21's built-in quote generation and order processing have also helped IIS keep its customers satisfied. "We can now e-mail quotes - they get to our customers more quickly and efficiently, and we can turn those quotes into orders in a timely fashion. With our old system, we had to use an Excel quote template we created outside it, and while we could enter the quote automatically, the part numbers, descriptions, units and pricing had to be entered manually into each quote. Now we do it like we would a sales order. It's cut our data entry time in half."

Customers and Employees Get The Tools They Need to Succeed

Prophet 21 also helps IIS customers make better buying decisions thanks to its more sophisticated report capabilities. "We've partnered with a company that's adept at taking Crystal Reports and getting useful reporting information to us," Diaz said. "We can produce very nice reports for ourselves and our customers that show activity at each location and track our customers' consumables spending, and we track customers' consignment programs more efficiently."

And there were even more pleasant surprises. "What turned out to be a big feature for us was providing point-of-sale data to our suppliers so we can obtain discounts from the manufacturers," Diaz said. "We had to make a lot of modifications to our old system to make that happen. Because Activant works closely with our suppliers, that proved to be a seamless transition. We had to put in a lot of work to make this happen in the past; now, it's just a click of the button and it's gone."

Prophet 21 has even saved Diaz valuable time he used to spend doubling as his company's IT help desk. "Everyone in my company knows if they have any questions, they can log into the online help, enter a case, and get an answer back in a timely fashion that solves the issue. Because I don't have an IT department, it's been a relief to give them the ability to resolve issues without me getting involved."

Diaz also chose Prophet 21 because of its robust online storefront, B2B Seller. Here, he realizes he hasn't yet tapped its full potential: "We're not using it as effectively as we could." Diaz plans to identify someone within his organization who can partner with Activant's support team to improve the ways IIS sells online.

All of this adds up to better customer service, increased staff efficiency, and improved revenue and profits for IIS. "We had a 20 percent increase in business with no increase in staff last year, and we feel we can grow another 20 percent this year. Our gross margins are also up 10 percent over 2006, and Prophet 21 contributed to that growth. I think from the bottom line perspective, it's made us stronger all around."

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