Activant Prophet 21 Helps Adel Wholesalers Inc. Improve Inventory Management

An Activant Prophet 21 Success Story

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"If you don't manage your inventory well, your sales, your customer service levels - everything suffers."

Steve Rairdon, IT manager for Adel Wholesalers Inc., a plumbing and HVAC distributor based in Bettendorf, IA, believes inventory management to be the heart of the business. It follows that when executives at the company decided in 2003 to implement a new enterprise software solution, they searched for a robust inventory management system that worked in real time.

Challenge:
  • Help a Bettendorf, IA-based plumbing and HVAC wholesaler improve inventory management
Solutions:
  • Activant Prophet 21
Benefits:
  • Improved navigation with Windows environment
  • Increased forecasting accuracy
  • Improved fill rates
  • Increased inventory turns
  • Increased overall efficiencies by 25 percent

"We looked at all the different brands of software out there, but Prophet 21 was the best fit," explains Rairdon. "Not only did it have the real-time inventory tracking we needed, but it also offered a Windows environment, which our people found easier to navigate."

Built from the ground-up, Activant Prophet 21 combines the familiarity of Windows with the power of SQL Server to provide organizations with a highly customizable solution that helps distributors increase sales, improve customer service, and reduce operating costs.

Managing Fluctuations

At the heart of Adel Wholesalers' inventory improvements is the forecasting functionality within Prophet 21. According to Rairdon, the Up-To method of forecasting has worked well for them, and he also relies on the solution's ability to predict usage for seasonal items, which is important for the HVAC side of their business.

"Air conditioners are seasonal items - you're obviously going to sell more in the summer than in the winter," remarks Rairdon. "Prophet 21 gives our purchasing people the tools necessary to manage the fluctuations in requirements from season to season."

Besides the increased turns and improved fill rates that have resulted from better forecasting and purchasing, Adel Wholesalers has improved overall efficiency within the company. "I would say that we've increased our efficiencies by at least 25 percent with Prophet 21," estimates Rairdon. "And I feel it's a solution that will continue to sustain our growth as we move forward."

He concludes: "Prophet 21 just fits our industry - we haven't found anything we can't do with it."

For more information on Activant's enterprise software solutions, please fill out our Web Contact Form.

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