Epicor Software Corporation, providers of business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organizations, announced that Affiliated Steam & Hot Water of Alsip, IL, has selected the Epicor Prophet 21® wholesale distribution enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution as the IT backbone to advance its business to the next level.
Affiliated Steam & Hot Water’s sales coverage encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin, as well as several Kentucky and Michigan counties. Providing quality products for the steam, condensate, humidification, hot water, heat transfer, and pressure and temperature control markets, the company is the largest stocking rep/distributor in the country for many of its represented product lines.
The Prophet 21 software solution will provide Affiliated Steam & Hot Water with a scalable business management system, utilizing a Microsoft Windows-based platform and SQL Server database to improve warehouse, order and inventory management; purchasing automation; financial management; and reporting and analysis.
“Prophet 21 is the leader in the industrial distribution marketplace. We needed to get beyond our current limited, accounting-based software system, and when we started looking around, Prophet 21 became the obvious choice,” said Rick Lee, president of Affiliated Steam & Hot Water. “Epicor’s team also took the time to interview every department in the company and understand all aspects of our business.”
Affiliated Steam & Hot Water expects to take advantage of various aspects of Prophet 21 including Wireless Warehouse Management Solution, B2B Seller and Strategic Pricing, gradually adding modules in stages. The company will also use Epicor’s Learning Management System (LMS) for Web-based training on Prophet 21 as well as related products, to help manage its workforce, especially its remote sales team.
According to product manager Ricky Lee, “The key selling point for us was that Prophet 21 will integrate all of our needed ERP functionality into one overall system. We will be giving our salespeople tools that they never had before, and access to information directly from the business software. For example, they’ll be able to check inventory levels, orders and quotes before calling on a customer, so they can be more knowledgeable and proactive. The built-in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality will allow them to change from a quote to an order with one mouse click—a tremendous time savings.”
Affiliated Steam & Hot Water looks forward to a projected go-live in spring 2012, with thirty Prophet 21 users in four locations. Commented Kevin Roach, executive vice president and general manager, ERP Americas for Epicor, “We are pleased to help this third-generation, family-owned distributorship move into the future and built upon its 50+ years of providing steam and hot water system equipment in the Midwest.”
