Regional Automation Controls

An Activant Professional Services Success Story

Features

Activant Hardware Hosting Helps Distributor Go From "Zero to 100 Percent Live" in Less than Two Weeks and Boost Employee Productivity

According to Allan Coleman, keeping operating expenses "in check" is key to survival in today's marketplace. "Three of us run the show here," says the owner of Regional Automation Controls, a Mississippi-based electrical supplies distributor. "And we want to grow - without investing all of our capital in technology and human resources."

Challenge:

Help a start-up, Mississippi-based electrical supply distributor implement a software solution quickly and easily and defray overhead expenses

Solutions:

Activant
Hardware Hosting

Benefits:

Decreased implementation time by 80 percent
Increased employee productivity
Reduced overhead expenses
Time and money savings

Activant's Hardware Hosting option helps Coleman control costs by maintaining a fully functional enterprise software solution without administrative or IT staff. Plus, it transfers the burden of hardware and software upgrades and expansions to Activant. "I need to dedicate each one of my resources to selling," Coleman says. "Hardware Hosting eliminates the need to have a system expert on hand. When I have a question or an issue with my solution, I call the experts at Activant and it's addressed almost immediately."

Starting from Scratch

One of the major reasons Coleman chose to ask Activant to host his solution was because he started his business from scratch - and needed to go live in a limited time period. Hardware Hosting drastically reduces implementation time, because the hardware is already configured.

"Activant handled the setup and created our system in a few days," he testifies. "All we had to do was enter data and set parameters." Coleman estimates that choosing hardware hosting reduced normal go-live and setup time by about 80 percent: "We went from zero to 100 percent live in less than two weeks," he says.

Coleman also says that Hardware Hosting is a cost-effective way to boost employee productivity. Because his employees can easily - and securely - access Regional Automation's solution via the Internet, they can work from home, customer sites, and hotel rooms. "It's easy for my guys to log in and create quotes and enter orders," Coleman says. "And anything that simplifies things and makes it easier for them to sell definitely helps business."

Overall, Coleman says that Hardware Hosting definitely offers a direct positive benefit to his bottom line: "We're handling roughly four times the revenue-per-employee of the average distributor," he concludes. "I'm not sure we would be in business without Activant."

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