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ACCTivate! results
Company Snapshot
Reliable Distribution is doing-business-as Serson Supply and is in the industry of maintenance and industrial supply (MRO products).
Key Benefits
Reduce the number of employees without losing revenue or orders
Product consignment management through the multiple warehouse feature
Better maintenance of customer records and improved customer service
Improved purchasing and vendor relations
Product consignment management through the multiple warehouse feature
Better maintenance of customer records and improved customer service
Improved purchasing and vendor relations
Reliable Distribution dba Serson Supply of Chicago (www.serson.com) has transformed their maintenance and industrial supply (MRO products) business with the help of technology and ACCTivate!.
N'Gai Merrill, co-owner of Reliable, bought an existing business called Serson Supply in 2004. At that time, Merrill, who holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, knew that the entire operation could be streamlined and made more profitable with a better managed business system.
"When we bought it, each employee had his own fiefdom. Everyone had their own set of information that centered on them being the point of contact. If someone was sick, no one else knew the information," said Merrill about life in their business after purchasing.
Customer and inventory information were stored on an old mainframe system and the company had very poorly defined business processes overall. Things were to the point where business was lost or was in jeopardy due to the inefficiency. They needed to move in another direction.
Merrill began looking for a technological solution to the problems they saw. They looked at the market, decided to use QuickBooks to control their financial information and ACCTivate! to control their operations. They purchased ACCTivate! in April 2004 and were up and running by July.
"Everyone in the company uses the system. It's 20 times better than what we had before. It's given us very defined processes within our organization and helps us share information because it's all in the system," added Merrill.
The company was purchased with 17 employees and sales ranging between $3 and $5 million annually. Since implementing ACCTivate!, they have been able to trim down to 10 employees without experiencing a loss in revenue or the number of orders.
"We actually have the capacity to be a much larger company with the same staff," Merrill added about the efficiency they gained in their company.
Reliable distributes full product lines for several vendors and often stores products at their customer's location. This product consignment is done through the ACCTivate! multiple warehouse feature.
Merrill spoke of this type of business model, "It's our inventory and we own it, but it's not onsite here, it's at our customer's location. We use multiple inventory locations, so we know what is where. The customer takes possession of the products when they open the packaging."
Other major gains have been seen as well, including the ability to keep better customer records and improve customer service because that information is kept in ACCTivate!.
"We've also been able to improve customer and supplier relationship because of our new system. Before, if someone got sick, no one else knew the information. Now, anyone else can figure out how to help the customer. ACCTivate! is a knowledge repository that has allowed us to vastly improve our customer service," said Merrill.
In addition to this, purchasing and vendor relations were improved greatly as well.
"We've also centralized information about purchasing. Previously, there was a guy who would make a written list and would handwrite purchase lists. You never knew what was on his list, or how many lists he was holding. No tracking information, no history, nothing. Now, all that information is sitting in ACCTivate! and we can find it at any time."
The team at Reliable Distribution Group has improved their business with hard work and the proper implementation of technology. We're proud that ACCTivate! has played an important part in this process and we look forward to many more years working with them.
N'Gai Merrill, co-owner of Reliable, bought an existing business called Serson Supply in 2004. At that time, Merrill, who holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, knew that the entire operation could be streamlined and made more profitable with a better managed business system.
"When we bought it, each employee had his own fiefdom. Everyone had their own set of information that centered on them being the point of contact. If someone was sick, no one else knew the information," said Merrill about life in their business after purchasing.
Customer and inventory information were stored on an old mainframe system and the company had very poorly defined business processes overall. Things were to the point where business was lost or was in jeopardy due to the inefficiency. They needed to move in another direction.
Merrill began looking for a technological solution to the problems they saw. They looked at the market, decided to use QuickBooks to control their financial information and ACCTivate! to control their operations. They purchased ACCTivate! in April 2004 and were up and running by July.
"Everyone in the company uses the system. It's 20 times better than what we had before. It's given us very defined processes within our organization and helps us share information because it's all in the system," added Merrill.
The company was purchased with 17 employees and sales ranging between $3 and $5 million annually. Since implementing ACCTivate!, they have been able to trim down to 10 employees without experiencing a loss in revenue or the number of orders.
"We actually have the capacity to be a much larger company with the same staff," Merrill added about the efficiency they gained in their company.
Reliable distributes full product lines for several vendors and often stores products at their customer's location. This product consignment is done through the ACCTivate! multiple warehouse feature.
Merrill spoke of this type of business model, "It's our inventory and we own it, but it's not onsite here, it's at our customer's location. We use multiple inventory locations, so we know what is where. The customer takes possession of the products when they open the packaging."
Other major gains have been seen as well, including the ability to keep better customer records and improve customer service because that information is kept in ACCTivate!.
"We've also been able to improve customer and supplier relationship because of our new system. Before, if someone got sick, no one else knew the information. Now, anyone else can figure out how to help the customer. ACCTivate! is a knowledge repository that has allowed us to vastly improve our customer service," said Merrill.
In addition to this, purchasing and vendor relations were improved greatly as well.
"We've also centralized information about purchasing. Previously, there was a guy who would make a written list and would handwrite purchase lists. You never knew what was on his list, or how many lists he was holding. No tracking information, no history, nothing. Now, all that information is sitting in ACCTivate! and we can find it at any time."
The team at Reliable Distribution Group has improved their business with hard work and the proper implementation of technology. We're proud that ACCTivate! has played an important part in this process and we look forward to many more years working with them.
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