Success Stories

Dale Fawkes, CFO of Beaver Tile and Stone, knows just how hard it is to find a consultant who truly understands his business. "A lot of consultants claim they can help you no matter what business you're in, but unfortunately, that's not true," he says.

As a ceramic tile distributor, the issue is exacerbated because Fawkes must cope with difficulties few outsiders understand. "We're concerned with things like breakage problems," he says. "That leaves some consultants scratching their heads."

Luckily, Fawkes partners with Activant. Activant offers its customers a host of Professional Services - including consulting - designed to help distributors in any market maximize the return on their technology investments.

"Working with the Activant consultant was excellent, and well worth our investment," Fawkes says. "The consultant spoke our language - ceramic tile - and, because he understood the solution incredibly well, taught us how everything fit together."

Increasing Overall Profitability

Activant Consulting helps you streamline daily operations and maximize the use of your technology solution. In addition to assisting with day-to-day business processes, Activant consultants can provide insight into how to best utilize your solution, hardware, and the Internet.

Fawkes invited the consultant to his business after struggling with inventory costing issues for months. "We weren't using the solution appropriately. Instead of using our solution's purchase order (PO) cross-check functionality, we added a lot of manual steps to the process," he says.

As a result, average costs were distorted, and management thought Beaver Tile was more profitable than it actually was. "Things really caught up with us at the end of the year," remembers Fawkes.

After examining Beaver Tile's processes, the Activant consultant taught employees how to use the solution to cross check POs. "He told us how - and why - we needed to handle this process through our solution," he says. Fawkes also contends that the consulting engagement helped make his company healthier financially. "Because we know how many dollars we're really bringing in, we can adjust prices accordingly," he says. "We're already increasing our overall profitability."

For more information on Activant's enterprise software solutions, please fill out our Web Contact Form.

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For more information on Activant's enterprise software solutions, please fill out our Web Contact Form.

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