Success Stories

Activant System Audit Helps Distributor Fine-Tune Company Processes

Jeff Futrelle admits that he hasn't always tried to maximize his Activant solution. "Business was so good for so long," says the president of Meco, Inc. of Augusta, GA. "We were all fat and happy."

That changed after 9-11. "Business came to a screeching halt for the first time in our 45-year history," Futrelle says. "I realized that I needed to fine-tune the company and get as much as possible out of our Activant solution."

Futrelle didn't have time to work alone to apply five years' worth of new functionality to his business. He wanted an expert to show him which features were relevant to Meco's day-to-day processes. That is why he invited a Activant Consultant onsite to perform a System Audit.

"You've got to know where you are before you can plan where to go," Futrelle says. "The System Audit definitely helped us realize where we were -- and where we needed to take corrective actions."

From Idea to Practice

During a System Audit, an Activant consultant visits a distributor to analyze processes, then makes recommendations on how to maximize solution usage. Futrelle and the consultant discussed improving everything from inventory management practices to cash collection routines.

Futrelle was most surprised by an eye-opening inventory analysis. The consultant revealed that Meco had more than $200,000 worth of obsolete inventory after he assigned a class to SKUs more than one year old and printed a report on that class.

"We were shocked. Our cash flow is tight," Futrelle says. "Recognizing I had that much money sitting in my warehouse and not in the bank was disturbing."

The consultant taught Futrelle how to print stock reports by item classification so inventory managers do not purchase SKUs that never move. "We can't buy things just to sit on the shelf," he says. "The days of buying something just in case someone wants it are over."

Plus, Futrelle provided each of his sales representatives with a list of the dead inventory. "They're working on unloading every last bit of it," he says.

Everything Accounted for

The consultant also showed Futrelle how to automate all accounting processes, and how to split the sales and service divisions into separate profit centers. Prior to the engagement, Meco's accountant figured the profits for each of the company's two divisions by hand. "I needed a quick snapshot of what was profitable and what wasn't, and this was the only way we knew how to do it," Futrelle says.

Since Futrelle pays his accountant by the hour, automatically generating the divisions' profit and loss statements will save Meco about $1,200 per month. "Paying someone to do something the computer can do for you doesn't make sense," he says. "All of that extra work was costing me a lot of extra money."

Futrelle says that he would "absolutely recommend" a System Audit to another distributor looking for ways to cut costs and make the most of his Activant solution. "Business is getting more competitive. It's harder to make that extra profit percentage," Futrelle says. "You've got to find every nickel you can in your business. Our Activant solution is our ticket to saving money, and the System Audit helped us punch that ticket."

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