Don Blackburn & Company: Part One - Selecting a Solution

An Activant Prophet 21 Success Story

Features

Activant Prophet 21 Positions Distributor for Long-Term Success

This is the first case study in a series on Don Blackburn and Company's transition from Activant Acclaim to Prophet 21.

It's no secret that distributors are under tremendous pressure from their customers to provide increased services at lower prices. Meeting these customer demands requires wise investment of precious capital in strategic enterprise solutions.

Challenge:

Help a Livonia, MI-based distributor of industrial automation products position itself for future success

Solution:

Activant Prophet 21

Benefit:

Increased efficiencies

The leadership of Don Blackburn & Company, based in Livonia, MI, knows this. The company, a provider of industrial automation products and services in southeastern and mid-Michigan for more than 60 years, chose to move from Activant Acclaim to Activant Prophet 21 despite a slowing of the economy in the region.

"We view the move to Activant Prophet 21 as an opportunity in a down market to add a business tool that will help make up for some staff reductions and expedite our processes," says Kevin Murphy, vice president of finance for Blackburn. "We're constantly challenged by our customers to reprove ourselves with increased value-added services. Prophet 21 can help us do that."

An Activant customer since 1990, Blackburn maintained a steady migration path on Activant Acclaim through 2001, but when economic conditions forced the company to function with less staff - 45 employees as opposed to 62 - Blackburn's leadership knew it had to increase efficiencies or face further struggle.

"We weren't looking for a new enterprise software solution," recalls Murphy. "But after a half-day meeting with Activant, we saw how Prophet 21 could solve a lot of our problems and signed the contract.

"We're looking forward to Prophet 21 helping us do more with less and realize increased efficiencies," continues Murphy. "Just Prophet 21's ease of use and maintenance will make a huge difference. We also like how Prophet 21 dovetails with other applications, such as Knowledge Management Center for increased data mining capabilities.

"We push our solution hard, and we expect that Prophet 21 - with all of its capabilities - will allow us to further streamline our processes and grow our business," concludes Murphy. "We look forward to a win for both of our organizations."

Part Two

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