Success Stories

Activant Prophet 21 Gives Big Distributor Flexibility and a Competitive Advantage

Sunderland Brothers, of Omaha, NE, is one of the oldest and largest distributors of tile, cabinetry, and laminates in the United States. Founded in 1883, they now have more than 95 employees in four offices, generating approximately $20 million in annual revenues.

When John Sunderland, vice president of Sunderland Brothers, set out to find a complete distribution software package that he could run his business on for the next 10 years, he saw the operating system of the future as Microsoft Windows NT.

After looking at more than 20 vendors including Great Plains, Solomon, and Peoplesoft, Sunderland chose Activant Prophet 21 a complete distribution solution based on Windows NT.

"We wanted a rigorous solution that would leverage Windows, and run our business today and tomorrow providing us with a true competitive advantage," said Sunderland. "Prophet 21 goes well beyond accounting to give us the information and powerful functionality to run our business more efficiently and profitably."

A Flexible Solution

Sunderland Brothers' distribution business demands a flexible computer system. The company distributes three completely different product lines of tile, each with varying lot numbers, shapes and weights; custom cabinets; and laminates, which are long, flat sheets that Sunderland must cut to size. This means that the company needs to deal with more than 13 million potential order combinations. "All of our customers want something different," said Sunderland. "We found that we needed to be able to please everybody, all of the time. And a flexible software system was the solution."

The Information Payoff

In the past, Sunderland Brothers had relied on a Hewlett-Packard 9000 proprietary system to run their business. But because each office had its own system, there was no central database for all the company's information. As a result, voluminous printed reports were combined by hand. The company couldn't easily get the information they needed to make good business decisions. Prophet 21 offers Sunderland Brothers the ability to see where their inventory is daily and transfer it to the location that needs it. "In the past, we were never able to take advantage of information in our computer system to transfer inventory," said Sunderland. "Now, one person can spread the inventory where it needs to be using information from Prophet 21."

A Tool for the Future

Today, Sunderland Brothers has more than 60 people using Prophet 21 from the president to the staff in the warehouse. "We are just beginning to be able to exploit this tool," said Sunderland. "Prophet 21 will allow us to turn information into a real competitive advantage."

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