Activant Prophet 21 helps HVAC distributor
better track inventory
What do I have on hand in my warehouse? How much am I selling of this product, and how much am I making on each sale? How are my expenses stacking up against what we budgeted for the year? For the answers to these and thousands of other questions, distributors rely on computer technology to give them the facts.
Activant Prophet 21 took on the challenge of helping a Royston, Ga.-based hvac distributor keep better track of its inventory and books. Among the benefits Tri-State Distributors realized after implementing Activant Prophet 21 were:
- Cut month-end close time 50%
- Improved ability to track performance against budgets
- Improved ability to track gross margins and forecast sales
- Increased inventory turns by 2 per year
What had Steve Williams, chairman and ceo of Tri-State Distributors all hot and bothered was that his previous solution couldn’t give them to him fast enough or in enough detail. With eight locations, the distributor of heating, cooling and ventilation equipment needed a solution that would allow the company to stay on top of business in a territory that spanned four states.
“We were looking at better ways of controlling inventory,” Williams said.
The second time’s the charm
Williams had looked at Activant Prophet 21 and another software provider’s package several years ago. At the time, he was sold on the other software because they were going to allow downloading of data via the internet overnight. But according to Williams, the program did not work the way he expected.
“Instead, it turned out the way the Prophet 21 sales rep said it would -- I had to set up land lines to connect my branches and transfer data among them,” he said. “If I had to make that decision again, I probably would have gone with Prophet 21 to begin with.”
In 2005, when Tri-State’s existing vendor told the company they were going to a Windows-based interface and that Tri-State would have to absorb the costs, Williams “figured that if we were going to have to pay that much for an upgrade, we might as well go with a new solution instead. I knew about Prophet 21 already, and I guess you could say I was pre-sold on it.”
This time around, things have gone much better. Since Tri-State went live with Prophet 21 in 2006, Williams said, he has noticed improvements across the board thanks to Prophet 21’s superior functionality.
“Prophet 21 is real-time -- when we sell something, it comes out of the inventory immediately and all our records are updated,” he said. “If I had to make the decision again, I probably would have gone with Prophet 21 to begin with.”
Fast facts at your fingertips
“I can now look at our inventory, receivables and payables daily and get a good idea of where we are,” Williams noted. “I can also have our cfo run a financial report every day that lets me know where we stand against our budget. The ability to check these things quickly gives me a good feeling.”
Chief financial officer Janet Jordan feels just as good about the solution. “We looked at several systems, and we liked this one the best,” she said. “Of course, when you implement a new system, you find that there are things the old system had that you wish the new one did, but Prophet 21 is so much better than [our previous system]. Prophet 21 got all the big things right.
“I like the drill-down ability; I never had that before. Our payables person can come in and ask me when something was paid, and I can go back down into the history and see it right there as opposed for having to wait for our system to run a report.”
An out at five organization at last
Both Williams and Jordan appreciate the power Prophet 21 gives them to know more and do more. Or less.
“Month end now takes half the time it used to,” said Jordan. “I can now leave at 5. I used to have to stay here and get all the statements, run everything right then, and wait for five or six hours while the statements ran. Now I can leave on Friday, and everything I need is sitting here waiting for me when I get here Monday morning to do the same processes.”
And because looking up facts in Prophet 21 is so much faster and easier, Williams checks them more often, to the benefit of his operation.
“We track gross margins a lot more than we used to,” he said. “Inventory and inventory turns are the two biggest things we track, and we get more information on these with Prophet 21 than we did before. We have probably added a couple of inventory turns a year simply by watching our inventory turns reports.
“I can go into each of my eight locations and look at what they’re selling in each product line. I can adjust inventory on the fly. I can check inventory by product group, by item, or by sku. And I can get sales forecast figures from the data.”
Williams is also aware that, with a little effort, his company could probably get even more out of Prophet 21. “Overall, it has performed in line with my expectations,” he said. “It has a few quirks, but some of those exist because we should probably have someone come in and go over the system with us. I’d say that like most users, we’re probably using about 30% to 40% of what the system can do.”
To learn more, visit www.activant.com.