Success Stories

From 1875 to today: a span of time that connects three centuries and contains countless moments that shaped the world. It is also precisely how long Bosworth Industrial Supply has been in business. For the Ohio-based industrial supplies distributor, who grew from humble roots as a small hardware store in downtown Cleveland, sustaining their position as one of the oldest distributors in the nation means increasing productivity in the face of change.

"Given the changes to manufacturing and the automotive industry in the Midwest, we're forced to operate in a shrinking marketplace," explains Dwight Weatherhead, Bosworth Industrial's owner and president. "This means we have to work faster and smarter to drive business with the same headcount and cost structure."

Bosworth has relied on an Activant� solution to keep them competitive for more than ten years, so when it became time to move from their UNIX-based solution three years ago, Weatherhead did not have to look far for an upgrade - he found his answer in Activant Prophet 21™. "What really attracted me to Prophet 21 was the solution's open architecture, and since it's a Window's environment, the learning curve is short, which makes training new employees very simple," Weatherhead says.

This open architecture made an immediate improvement in how Bosworth's employees go about their daily routines. With improved access to critical information and fully automated process, employees were able to focus on building sales and increasing Bosworth's presence within the marketplace, which led to a 12 percent jump in sales within their first year after going live.

Proof of Purchase

Although Prophet 21 paid dividends in less than one year of use, Weatherhead shows no intention of resting on such early laurels. Nearly three years after implementing Prophet 21, he continues to search for the newest trick or area of functionality that will help Bosworth Industrial continue to streamline operations without adding staff or incurring new expenses.

With the addition of Prophet 21's front counter signature capture module, Weatherhead has found a tool that helps his employees to achieve this goal, while simultaneously improving their external communications and customer relationships. Front counter signature capture allows Bosworth's employees to electronically capture customer signatures and link them to invoices, quotes, and proof of delivery slips, which eliminates disputes about the status of an order, facilitates the progress of an order, and reduces paper costs.

"Before signature capture, we manually filed more than 12,000 signed pick tickets a year, just in case a customer made a proof of delivery request," recalls Weatherhead. "Adding signature capture has reduced the number of pick tickets we file to zero, and since there's no question about whether or not something was signed for, we no longer receive proof of delivery requests."

When combined with the powerful functionality of Prophet 21's integrated faxing solution, front counter signature capture allows Bosworth's employees to transmit signed documents from their workstations to external sources, improving customer service and the speed at which an order is processed. "Since we can fax signed invoices and statements right from Prophet 21, we've been able to reduce our annual postage bill from $8,000 to $1,000," Weatherhead says.

Time Well Saved

Results can be measured in a variety of ways, but for Bosworth Industrial, results are the measure of how well the company can realize Weatherhead's vision of maintaining efficient, cost-effective operations. With Prophet 21, Weatherhead has seen his vision achieved in measurable results. "Prophet 21 has given us the freedom to cut administrative and back-office time in half, which has made a big impact for the people who used to store and send signed documents," he says.

By reducing office labor, Prophet 21 has given Weatherhead the ability to reallocate his employees' time toward much more productive duties, including the development of Bosworth's Web site, www.bosworthinstrument.com. "Not only has Prophet 21 saved us time and money, it's also given us the ability to have a nationwide presence," explains Weatherhead. "So it's not just time saved for the sake of saving time, it's time saved and well spent toward a marketing tool that helps us generate revenue."

After ten years with an Activant solution, Weatherhead understands the role a reliable technology partner plays in the evolution and ongoing success of a business. "Activant has offered me consistent service and support, whether it was the data migration for our move to Prophet 21 or a support call, their commitment has been outstanding," concludes Weatherhead. "Recently, I've been thinking about adding a branch or acquisition, and they are standing by ready and willing to help when that time arrives."

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