The Company
Founded in 1933, C.C. Dickson is an HVAC and refrigeration wholesaler-distributor based in Rock Hill, SC. It has 108 stores and 500 employees in nine Southeast states. It was founded in 1933. The company sells more than 207,000 items.

Until November 2002, C.C. Dickson still ran its operations manually. A primitive system, employees handwrote invoices and looked up products in books. "We were late to automation, to say the least," says company President Jack DeMao.

The company lacked the speed it needed to draw large customers and vendors. As product lines increased and customers demands went up, it was harder to keep up using just a manual system.

Customers would complain because they would receive invoices they couldn't ...