Success Stories

Activant Application Consultant Helps Distributor Further Streamline Processes

Bill Klein runs a tight ship. As director of sales at ACS, a Business of Invacare Supply Group, he constantly searches for ways to improve business processes. "Our number one goal is to grow revenue," he says. "But if we grow revenue without finding efficiencies, rising costs will eat all of our profits."

Finding efficiencies through better use of ACS's Activant solution is one of Klein's key duties. He recently realized the solution could help perform many tasks his employees handled manually. To learn which features would best replace labor-intensive processes, Klein invited an Activant Application Consultant to his office. "Automating tasks lets us focus on driving sales," Klein says. "Plus, there's always room for improvement."

Someone Who Understands

Prior to contacting Activant, Klein utilized other non-Activant consultants. He ended up spending hours teaching him about the nature of distribution. "It was awful," he says.

Activant consultants are different, he says. "They understand distribution. I don't need to tell them why I do things. Their experience is directly related to the business we do on a daily basis." Klein recommends Activant consulting to any growth-minded distributor: "The value of working with someone with a good business sense -- someone who understands your business and knows the system and what can help you do better -- is immeasurable," he concludes. "It was definitely worth the time and money we invested."

A Measurable Difference

After a few hours with the Activant consultant, warehouse and purchasing managers had a better understanding of the solution's inventory management capabilities. "We spent too much time running and reading reports instead of letting the system handle things," Klein says. "As a result, we bought too much product, and it sat on our shelves for too long."

Three months after the company worked with the consultant to fully employ the solution's inventory management and purchasing functionality, turns increased by 56 percent. "We don't have to wait as long for dollars to come back," Klein says. "It's a huge help to our cash flow."

Best of all, service levels weren't affected. "When you reduce inventory, service levels often start to drop," Klein says. "Since the consultant taught us how to use the solution properly, that hasn't been the case."

Better Prices

Since ACS works with 6,000 customers and a "truckload" of contracts, implementing one price adjustment could take dozens of hours. "We needed to learn how to do mass updates to the pricing matrices," Klein says. "We were wasting too much time."

Thanks to a lesson in data imports and exports, price updates take a fraction of the time they used to. "We save a couple of days each month -- probably at least 20 hours," Klein says. "Accounting staff can use the time to focus on more productive things -- like cash collections."

Looking Ahead

After realizing the bottom line effect of the initial engagement's results, Klein wanted more. "I wanted to reduce my AR days, eliminate errors, and ship quicker. I wanted to increase my turns even more to reduce overhead."

To accomplish his goals, Klein invited the consultant back for a System Audit. During a System Audit, an Activant consultant visits a distributor to analyze processes, then makes recommendations on how to maximize system usage. "We learned a lot from the System Audit," Klein says. "We're working on reducing AR days through better cash collections processes. We learned how to generate more reports automatically, and how to replace a lot of our routine phone calls with workflow e-mails."

Looking forward to many more positive improvements, Klein says he will focus on implementing as many of the consultant's recommendations as possible. "It's just a matter of moving on suggestions, and keeping on top of things," he says. "We know we'll see results."

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