Rapid Growth Drives Reliable Parts to Upgrade to Iptor

When Reliable Parts of Tukwila, Washington acquired Appliance Parts Depot (APD) of Dallas, Texas in July of 2015, the first major expansion of a new era had begun. As a distributor of appliance and BBQ parts and accessories, Reliable Parts had been operating 30 locations and 3 distribution centers in the U.S., along with 30 locations and 4 distribution centers in Canada. The APD acquisition pushed their number of total U.S. locations to 45, and the new owners were now faced with merging their acquired ERP system into the legacy system Reliable Parts had been using to anchor their business since 1999.

In order to ensure smooth integration of future acquisitions and manage the growing transaction volume that would undoubtedly come with continued expansion, it was time for a major system refresh. After reviewing several products, Reliable elected to upgrade their existing Iptor system to the latest version, partly because the new release proved superior, but also because the overall cost of the upgrade would be considerably less.

The onboarding process was projected to take about nine months. Key tasks during this phase included converting APD’s customer and historical data to the Iptor platform, merging the websites to share information and training APD’s personnel on Reliable’s existing version of the system. Reliable added two key modules to their system, these included PlannerView, a powerful, adaptable, PC- based, graphical planning and information management tool that provides real- time supply chain visibility, and Integrator, a powerful tool to manage systems integration and data management, replication and synchronization. The move to include these modules immediately shortened Reliable’s overall learning curve once the new system was launched.

Says Lowell Millard, Reliable's CTO, “Iptor represents a tremendous upside for us, as we move into new territories. The scalability of the solution is exactly what we need long-term, and the ability to use the system out-of-the-box, without paying programmers to reinvent our solution, gives us excellent flexibility in pursuing new business.”

To learn more, visit the Iptor Newsroom.

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Pittman Supply, Inc. Sees Growth With Epicor Eclipse

Pittman Supply is a leading supplier of plumbing products to wholesalers, retailers, and contractors throughout the Dallas, Texas area. With two locations and an onsite showroom, the company offers everything from pipe, fittings, tubs, showers, sinks, and toilets to custom, in-house design services. Focused on a future that includes more branches and employees, the company’s owner and president, Scott Pittman, needed a solution that would support operations ranging from purchasing and accounting to warehousing, order processing, and shipping.

Because it was designed specifically to expand product lines and grow business in today’s global economy, the Epicor Eclipse enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution was an ideal fit for the company’s needs—with add-ons such as the Solar graphical user interface for ease-of-use, multi-tasking, and signature capturing.

Another Eclipse benefit is the ability to answer inquiries quickly and accurately. This includes instantly coordinating between both locations to identify the requested item and arrange for delivery or pick-up, while the customer still on the phone. The system’s signature capture feature has also added additional layers of efficiency by eliminating “questions about who signed for what product and when.” Nearly everyone at Pittman can now instantaneously access the date and time of the delivery as well as the signature itself. Positioned for ongoing growth Pittman believes the Epicor Eclipse system will help the company “triple business over the next 10 years.”

Read more on Epicor's News and Success Stories.

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Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, our 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.

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Decor Transforms Data Into Valuable Information with QAD BI

Headquartered in the Melbourne, Australia area, Decor is an award-winning manufacturer of kitchenware, picnic-ware, garden-ware, brush-ware and baby-care products for over 55 years. The company distributes over 450 products to major retail outlets globally, the majority having earned Australian Design Awards.

Decor, while highly successful, was lacking a robust business intelligence (BI) solution necessary to support their sales strategy. Their plan was to deliver more effective sales tools to the field and raise productivity while reducing costs. In order to accomplish this, they were going to need better ways to get accurate sales data to improve their planning analysis.

After reviewing their current ERP solution, QAD Enterprise Applications, Decor realized that enhancing the analytics with additional business intelligence capabilities would allow them to effectively implement their sales strategy. Said David Mathie, MIS Manager at Décor, “with just a few clicks using QAD BI, the percentage increase on brush-ware was on screen. It allowed us to identify the increase by brand.”

To learn more about how QAD can take your business intelligence data to the next level, visit: www.qad.com/solutions/analytics

New Software Research Guides Available Finding that you cannot keep up with all the changes in the latest software? Want to know how the software's features and functions can assist you? Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.

For 2016 Distribution Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/2016_BSW_Distribution_Interactive_Website_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadInteractive&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2016DSG

For 2016 Manufacturing Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/2016_BSW_Manufacturing_Interactive_Website_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadInteractive&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2016MFG

Coming Soon:

Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, our 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.

Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.