Success Stories

Activant Helps Customer-Focused Distributor Increase Sales, Improve Processes, and Reduce Costs

Customers are not demanding, says Ken Mynes, executive vice president of the Virginia-based Control Corporation of America (CCA); they just have high expectations. "We do our best to meet and exceed those expectations," Mynes says.

For a while, meeting the expectations of some of the country's most prestigious industrial companies - including Eastman Chemicals and Philip Morris - was no easy task, especially when CCA was burdened with an outdated enterprise system. To handle customer challenges more efficiently, CCA discarded its legacy software to become one of Activant's first Prophet 21 customers in the late 1990's.

Since the move, CCA has charged forward, despite a difficult economy. The company's total dollar volume increased by 15 percent, while administrative costs decreased by the same percentage. "Less people now enter orders into the system - even though we're processing more transactions," Mynes says. "It's a huge ROI - return on investment."

Additionally, orders are taken and processed more quickly and efficiently with Prophet 21. "In turn, our customers get their shipments quicker, and that's what they really care about," Mynes says.

Increasing Efficiencies, Supplying Value

CCA, a $60 million, 10-branch company with a workforce of 160, prides itself on the fact that it employs just as many engineers as sales representatives. "Customers are only willing to pay for value and expertise, and that's what we offer," Mynes contends. Prophet 21 helps CCA's engineers and sales force deliver that value efficiently, even while maintaining profit margins.

For example, before moving to Prophet 21, CCA handled all manufacturing processes manually, usually, through one long bill of materials. "Now, we break our manufacturing and assemblies processes into easy-to-handle subassemblies," Mynes says. "Instead of looking at a massive list of things to do, we break things down into smaller jobs. It helps us better schedule projects."

Prophet 21's pricing library has helped CCA hold the line on profit margins. "If you are a month late in implementing a price update for a particular vendor, you could lose 30 percent of all the profits you would have made for that particular vendor for the whole year," Mynes testified. "With Prophet 21, we implement price updates immediately, so we're not selling a product for less than what we paid for it."

Delivering what the Customer Wants through E-Business

CCA invested in B2B Seller, Activant's Web-based storefront offering, to help its smaller customers who might not have full-time, nine-to-five purchasing staff. "It's a 24-hour day," Mynes says. "Customers don't want to hear that you're only at the office until five."

B2B Seller allows customers to place orders, inspect stock availability, and check order status 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "B2B Seller makes it easier for our customers to do business with us, which means more business," Mynes says.

CCA also became a member of Trading Partner Connect after one of its largest suppliers, Siemens Energy and Automation, joined the Internet trading network. Mynes says Trading Partner Connect helps CCA gain efficiencies through streamlined processes, like faster sourcing for customers and automated purchasing processes. "We need to do more things electronically, because the world moves so quickly," Mynes says. "You do your customers a disservice every time you have to hang up and call them back - or walk to the fax machine - because you're taking their time. Trading Partner Connect helps us save time, and save our customers time."

Overall, Mynes says that he would recommend Activant and Prophet 21 to any other distributor searching for a way to cut costs, increase sales, and improve customer service. "The fundamental difference between Activant and the other folks we've dealt with is that Activant takes a look at our processes tells us what we can do better. Other companies sell software, and that's all they know how to do," Mynes says. "At Activant, they know a lot about the distribution business, and what can help us be better at the job we're supposed to do for our customers."

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