Building Supply Firm Sees Profits with SX.enterprise™

"There's No Comparison"

When Expertek suggested looking at SX.enterprise in December of 2003, Contractor’s agreed to do so largely out of loyalty to Expertek. “We had confidence in Expertek and wanted to stay with them for the long term. SX.enterprise was the direction they were committed to and we wanted to be a part of that.” When asked how the results were a year later, Dave commented, “There’s no comparison.” What are the specific benefits the company realized? Dave cites many. “The system prices and taxes much better and does so without modification. Our financial control improved immediately. Event tracking permitted us to identify problem receivables quickly and address them before they got out of hand. Furthermore, the system automatically tracks the last price we’ve paid on purchased goods. We now have the system alerting management when we sell anything below designated margins. These features allow us to react to price changes much faster than we ever could in the past.”

Unexpected Benefits

Like many companies that service contractors, equipment rental is a large part of the business. Having an equipment rental module that could track rentals was a huge plus. Buyer’s Control Center has been a big help with improving purchasing, saving both time and helping to tighten inventories. Getting automatic alerts from the system when material needs to be ordered also helps to expedite ordering and handling specials.

Measuring the Payback

So, has the system had an impact on the bottom line? “Unquestionably,” says Dave. “Since we’ve been live on SX.enterprise, our gross profit has improved by more than 1.3%.” For Contractor’s that savings alone represents less than a one year payback on their investment in the new system. Moreover, it doesn’t factor in the cash flow benefits from the improved financial control and inventory reductions from smarter purchasing. “We’re seeing about 5-10% reduction in inventories,” says Dave. He also mentions that the reporting in the system is much better, and the ability to create his own reports on demand gives him much better control over what’s going on in the business.

Dave added these concluding comments. “We’re improving everyday.  We're now emailing and faxing invoices and other documents directly out of the system to customers and vendors.  That's something we couldn't do before SX.enterprise.  We are now looking forward to implementing advanced inventory management.  Based our past experience, we expected far more trouble putting the system in, but the process was really pretty smooth overall."