The Collins Cos. has chosen Epicor Prophet 21 as its new enterprise resource planning solution to streamline operations, enable collaboration among staff from recent acquisitions, and ease training for new users and future employees.

With nine locations in the northeast, The Collins Cos. is one of the largest industrial distributors of pipe, valves, and fittings in North America.

Headquartered in East Windsor, Ct., the company operates nine locations in the Northeast.

“Before choosing Prophet 21, we relied on enterprise asset management software, and we were the only distributor using that system,” said Toni Wall, business development manager, The Collins Cos. “We knew we wanted our next solution to offer features and insights specific to the distribution industry. The Prophet 21 customer profit analyzer, for example, will make it easier for us to see how profitable our customers are and adjust our strategy accordingly.”

The Collins Cos. is in the midst of an aggressive growth period; the company acquired Burns Cascade Company in 2012, Apex Remington Pipe & Supply Company in 2013, and Power House Supply in 2015. Though these acquisitions increased the company’s geographic footprint, Collins executives recognized the importance of enabling communication among new employees at different locations. They also wanted to streamline multiple software applications into one solution.

“It’s difficult to run an efficient business when the tools you’re using aren’t talking to each other. We knew we needed to get all of our information into one centralized location, and that’s what we’re hoping Prophet 21 will do for us,” said Mary Fahy, assistant to the president, The Collins Cos. “Prophet 21 will also enable our sales staff from recent acquisitions to easily and quickly access account data no matter their location, allowing the entire Collins team to serve our customers better.”

The Collins Cos. will also take advantage of the Prophet 21 Learning Management System, a robust education tool that offers preexisting user guides and the ability to create custom tests, message notifications, user groups for restricting and assigning courses, and more.

“With so many different branches, we knew it would be difficult to train our employees on a new system, but the LMS tool will help make the transition a smooth one. It will also make it easier and less expensive for us to train new employees in the future,” Fahy added.