Success Stories

Activant Prophet 21 Provides Invaluable Improvements to Customer Service

With competition in their industry increasing, G & C Supply Company, Inc. plans to maintain leadership with hard work.

Founded in 1974 by Bill and Kay Greenway and based in Atwood, TN, G & C Supply is a distributor of waterworks, sewer, and gas supplies to municipalities and utilities across parts of seven states. They also have a sign and safety division, which does some light manufacturing, and they recently added a firefighting division, which services volunteer and municipal fire departments. "We'll continue to work with our business partners, like Activant, to provide the value-added services that keep our customers supplied with the parts that they need at a competitive price," says David Sweeney, systems administrator for G & C Supply Company.

Before investing in Activant Prophet 21, G & C Supply spoke with existing users who were extremely knowledgeable and positive about their Activant enterprise software solution. They told them what to expect from Activant in terms of support and product development. During this exploratory stage, G & C Supply learned about the local users' group. "To know we would have access to other users on such a large scale was encouraging," Sweeney recalls.

The Right Solution

Two years after their purchase, G & C Supply knows that they made the right decision investing in Prophet 21 and working with Activant as their technology partner. They enjoy better reporting capabilities with Prophet 21's Windows 2000 platform and SQL Server database, and the customer service capacity is unparalleled. "Prophet 21 offers us extra customer service advantages that other distribution software cannot match," says Shannon Butler, purchasing manager/ assistant manager for G & C Supply. "Recently, we started building our B2B Seller Web site. This will provide our current customers with up-to-date account information and the ability to order online and to check the status of open orders. In addition to better serving our existing customers, we hope to increase our customer base through online marketing."

According to Sweeney, the additional reports available in Prophet 21 9 for inventory counting are beneficial. Specifically, the "Items Not Counted" report ensures that G & C Supply does not miss any items in a full physical inventory. "Inventory counts are more accurate," explains Sweeney. "Our old system didn't allocate material. It was first come-first served. If we told a customer we had an item and a big order got pulled ahead of ours, that customer may not get his or her material. Now, if we show having an item in Prophet 21, it gets allocated to that customer."

G & C Supply now has a better idea of the material they have in stock that is available to sell. For items not in stock, they have a better idea of when it will arrive. "Backorders are definitely shipped quicker with Prophet 21," Sweeney says. "Many times, backorders are shipped the same day the material is received."

The company also plans to utilize Prophet 21 automated cycle-counting functionality.

With it, G & C Supply will be able to specify, by location, the type of count that they wish to perform; the number of cycles per year (the number of times per year each item needs to be counted); the number of days per year that a count takes place; and whether they want to count the on-hand quantity (available + allocated) or just the available quantity (on-hand -- allocated). Using these specifications, Prophet 21 will print a report that will recommend which items/bins G & C Supply should count. Through the automation of this process, the time spent to perform cycle counts is reduced.

Prophet 21's item history tab in Order Entry allows G & C Supply to view the purchase history of specific items and enables them to adjust pricing to meet their customers' requirements. "We expect to gain a return on our investment and increase profits by being better able to pass on price increases to our customers quicker. The different replenishment methods available will allow us to decrease inventory levels while improving our customer service levels," explains Sweeney.

Sweeney and Butler see Prophet 21 and Activant as a scalable solution and a solid company, respectively. "Activant views their customers as partners. If we don't help each other succeed, neither company will prosper," Sweeney concludes.

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