Success Stories

When a distributor manages to grow its adjusted gross margins by 81 percent over five years, it's obvious that the company's doing something right. Ask David McIlwaine, president and founder of HVAC Distributors in Mount Joy, PA, and he'll tell you that one thing he believes the company did right was to switch to Activant Eclipse.

He'll also tell you that over the course of those same five years, the company's gross margins jumped by 70 percent, its sales grew by 59 percent, and its gross profit per employee increased by 12 percent.

Prior to 2001, HVAC, one of the premier HVAC distributors in Pennsylvania, was using a custom solution. "Really, it was a homegrown solution that we'd outgrown," said McIlwaine. So the company made a list of the things it wanted in a new solution. "We listed our wants, needs, and frustrations - and what we thought would be really cool to have," he explains. "Then we asked four providers to show us how they would respond to everything on our list. In the end, Eclipse was simply better than everything else."

Tools for Winning Business and Increasing Efficiency

HVAC went live with their new Eclipse solution in April 2001. "As a small distributor, we have as powerful a solution as any of our competitors. It gives us the tools we need to let our people go out and win business," he says. "The bottom line is that even in 2001 - which was a less-than-terrific year for most businesses, and our very first year with Eclipse - we grew."

McIlwaine credits Eclipse with helping the company streamline its processes and get things done more efficiently. "Over the course of the last four or five years, Eclipse has helped us get to the point where we're picking and shipping less than six pieces of serialized equipment incorrectly an entire year. The solution minimizes picking errors - especially on serialized items. And the errors we do have are a result of human error, which the solution obviously can't prevent," he explains.

And when it comes to saving time, McIlwaine is quick to mention the fact that the company's old solution often kept him in the office until well past midnight for month-end closings. "But with Eclipse, we don't have to worry about month-ends," he says. "And that's a huge benefit for me, personally."

What's more, both Eclipse Remote Data Collection - a fully integrated inventory replenishment solution that allows users to electronically collect and transmit product data from remote customer locations using Palm-powered scanning devices - and Web order entry free up even more time. McIlwaine estimates that 12 percent of HVAC's orders come in over the Internet, allowing the inside sales team to make better use of its time.

Improving Customer Service - with a Money-Back Guarantee

And Eclipse Advanced Technology products have helped improve customer service, too. Eclipse Document Imaging, for example, has helped cut down on the time it takes to find files - from months to just minutes.

That's the kind of efficiency boost that gave HVAC the confidence to institute its unconditional Flawless Service Guarantee in 2004, guaranteeing qualified equipment dealer customers that an order placed via fax or electronically will be shipped correctly. If it's not, HVAC credits those customers for the error. "We believe that we're logistically better than our competitors - and we're willing to put our money behind that belief," says McIlwaine. "It proves to our customers that we're truly focused on serving them."

He adds that offering such a guarantee wouldn't be possible without the assistance of Eclipse RF Warehouse - a fully integrated real-time warehouse management solution that can help improve warehouse productivity and inventory accuracy, from receiving and put-away to picking, replenishment, shipping, and cycle counts. The solution makes use of RF (radio frequency) data collection devices to help eliminate typing errors, verify picking and shipping directions, and speed the entire order fulfillment process.

Poised for a Winning Future

And what about the future? "With Eclipse, we have a solution that can handle virtually any kind of growth - whether it comes from new or existing customers," says McIlwaine, who noted that HVAC had opened a new branch in Allentown, and had acquired a company in Scranton, PA, at the end of 2006. "It's not at all difficult to add new branches with Eclipse," he says.

McIlwaine goes on to explain that the company's Eclipse solution helped improve profitability. "It goes without saying that profit per transaction has to exceed cost per transaction. So when we discovered that about 30 percent of our customers were generating all of our profit, while another 25 to 30 percent were coming in at a break-even level - and the rest were losing us money, we were able to take steps to weed out the unprofitable customers," he said. One way they did that was to establish a $300 minimum order for free shipping.

"We simply wanted to end up in a win-win situation with our customers," he added. And with Activant Eclipse, both HVAC and its customers are definitely winning.

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