Quick answers boost profits
“With BisTrack software, I have both more control and more flexibility in inventory management,” Ryan explains. “I can do analysis broken down by group to see the bottom line for each product group, how long products take to sell, and which ones haven't moved. We can see more, forecast more intelligently, and we have made changes because of that. We have reduced inventory dollar value while still stocking the products our customers want.”
Better, faster customer service
“BisTrack software allows me to spend less time on the administrative side and more time in front of customers, which is key in my business. The company has my name on the door, and now I have more time to spend with the people who helped me build the company,” says Ryan.
“With BisTrack software, I can find items in seconds. Nobody at the counter is asking for a product code. It's quicker to write invoices,” says Ryan.
Andy Reda, Ryan Building Products' sales manager, adds, “The search capabilities in BisTrack software are phenomenal. Whether it's customers or products or sales history, it's so quick and easy to find what you're looking for. We're all about service, service, service. We want to get a customer in, fulfill his order, and get him back out to his job. We went with BisTrack software because it is efficient and makes our jobs easier. It's fantastic!”
Building and strengthening customer trust
Reda says he wants to make every contractor that walks through the door feel like Norm from Cheers. “If that contractor knows that you know him, he gives you a little trust-so you can tell him to spend $25 more because it's a better product. But we have over 6,000 contractors in our database."
He explains how BisTrack software helps them maintain a personal rapport with their contractors, “Now, we can put notes in BisTrack software to say Paul's son Joe works with him, or that his birthday is coming up. We can tell him what color gutter he bought a year ago. It gives you an advantage.”
BisTrack software also helps Ryan promote to their contractors. “It helps us do our marketing. It's easy to extract customer information to do an e-mail blast,” says Frank.
Andy Reda adds: “We'll track their sales to see where we can do better to support them, and to know which products we offer that our customers may benefit from learning about.”
Price list management is easier
BisTrack software has made it easier for Ryan to manage pricing, with flexible pricing structures and units of measure. “We have contractor pricing, plus what we call machine operator pricing for the contractors who buy gutter flat stock in full rolls and make their own gutters,” says Reda. “And we can add additional discounts at the time of purchase for certain customers. It's simple to do within BisTrack software.”
“We can also sell in a wide range of volumes,” Reda continues. “If a customer needs one end cap, no problem. Done. In the other distribution management systems we looked at, it took too many steps to do the small purchases, so BisTrack software stood out to us there.”
“It's certainly easy to generate price lists. It's simple to create a price list for a new customer by duplicating one from a similar customer,” Ryan adds. “You can price by product group to make it faster and easier to keep track of pricing for certain product lines.”
Delivery trucks double as mobile sales
Andy Reda explains how Ryan Building Products also uses their delivery trucks for faster response to customer orders. “We set up each truck as an inventory location in BisTrack software. They go out on their morning deliveries, but they always have a full truck. So if I get a call during the day from a town where we have a truck, I can check on BisTrack software if the truck has enough stock in the truck, and give our driver the address to go take care of that customer. Our drivers are like salesmen. As long as they have Internet capabilities, they're live on BisTrack software. They can sell the entire inventory of the truck, and the invoice is done automatically. The other software packages couldn't do that!”
Numerous features save time
“BisTrack software had so many features that make it faster for us to do business the way we want to,” says Ryan. Reda gives an example of how Ryan Building Products saves time allocating freight charges to inventory costs. “Before, we would have to wait for a supplier's invoice to come in showing freight charges, figure out how much to apply to each item, and go line-by-line to add in the freight,” Reda explains. “With BisTrack software, you create a freight charge line item, and BisTrack pro-rates it over all the items in one step.”
“Our year-end inventory count is so much simpler too,” Reda continues. “We did it during business hours. With the BisTrack scanning capabilities, it's so simple and flawless.”
Frank Ryan agrees. “It was much easier to execute. We cut in half our cost of counting inventory because we spent zero dollars on overtime.”
More time for priorities
On a personal level, Frank Ryan says he has more time to spend on his true priorities: “Before BisTrack software, I felt like an absentee owner. I was too busy to have much of a rapport with my customers. Now the BisTrack solution makes it much easier to access the information I need to make decisions, so I can take time to have conversations with customers and I know that it won't prolong my day.”
He laments, “I just sent my last child off to college in September, and I'm thinking I should have bought this software years ago so I could have spent more time at home.”
“Also, we decided to have Epicor host BisTrack software, and I wouldn't do it any other way,” Ryan comments. “Before, the stress of a server failure went home with me every night-not knowing if I'd be able to do business in the morning. And IT costs could vary dramatically from month to month. Now, I have peace of mind. It runs faster now than it did with the server in the next room. I have a set monthly IT cost. And IT support doesn't call in sick.”
Ryan says BisTrack software and its Secure Hosting will also make it easier for the company to grow. “If we decide to open another branch, the computing environment isn't something I'll worry about.”