Established in 1946, Standard Supply is the largest HVAC supply company in Texas, with 23 locations covering most of Texas and Oklahoma. The company earned the reputation of having the largest and broadest line of HVAC supplies in the region. It was searching for a way to improve efficiency and customer service while continuing to expand and grow. 

Standard Supply implemented the Epicor Prophet 21 enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution in 2004. “We had a proprietary system that had been modified to the point that it was useless,” explains Will Dunn, regional vice president of Standard Supply. “We looked at all the major software systems. What sold us on Prophet 21 were the people and the support we believed we would get — and we did get.”

Since the implementation of the system, the Texas distributor notes these positive results:

Improved invoicing accuracy across all branch locations;

Automated internal processes to better serve customers and increase sales’

Immediately increased efficiency by 40 percent, followed by an additional 20 percent increase; and

Scaled operations to grow from two branches to 23.

An Improved Customer Experience

The ERP system has changed the way Standard Supply interacts with its customers. Since its products are similar to other companies, the company’s customer service process is what makes it stand out. 

“We use Prophet 21 for every function — every aspect of dealing with the customer one-on-one,” notes Liza Ellis, Standard Supply’s customer service manager. “We use it to check inventory and customer information. It makes everything smooth and seamless. The system is easy to maneuver and to find what I need. Not just for me, but anybody on my team. It is always there for us.” 

Dunn adds: “The accuracy of our customer invoicing is much better. It’s easy to look things up and we can see up-to-the-minute changes in inventory at any branch. It’s great and it’s accurate.”

The time saved with the ERP system allows Standard Supply to spend more time on its customers, resulting in more sales. 

“At Standard Supply, we try to spend more time selling and less time trying to do the paperwork,” explains Chad Rawlings, vice president of sales at Standard Supply. “With Prophet 21, the software allows us to pull up exactly what we want, when we want it, and find the history of a customer from the time we started. Any of our reps can go into a branch and pull up information on a customer in a matter of seconds. It allows us to be faster and better at our job.”

Driving Efficiency 

One of the biggest impacts of implementing the ERP system is the significant efficiency boost. 

“Since 2007, when we started implementing a lot of the tools provided by Prophet 21, we started seeing an immediate increase in efficiency of 40 percent,” says Frank Williams, Standard Supply’s regional distribution center operations manager. “Since then, we’ve tweaked some of those provided processing tools to get an additional 20 percent efficiency increase.”

The skyrocketing efficiency helped Standard Supply obtain new branches and acquire more customers. 

“Standard Supply wants to grow and be as big and as profitable as we can, and we have to have partners such as Prophet 21 to help us get there,” Rawlings adds. “The feedback and the data we can get immediately allows us to be more efficient. To look at different areas and see what we need to buy, how we need to buy it, and how much we’ve used gives us feedback for other areas to move into and grow.”

“We’ve grown from two branches to 23 at this point, covering pretty much all of Texas,” Dunn says. “We have no desire to do anything except continue to grow — add more business, add more branches — and technology is our biggest tool. Our biggest growth years have all been since we implemented Prophet 21.” 

Epicor Software Corporation drives business growth, providing flexible, industry-specific software designed around the needs of our distribution industry customers. For more information please email distributionexperts@epicor.com.