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Whether your business is retail, wholesale, distribution, mail order, or e-commerce, Everest is the only management solution you need to run, improve, and grow your business.
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With Everest’s eCommerce Solution, Kansas City Audio-Visual was able to
increase its profit margins through reduced inventory costs and improved productivity.
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| Key features & functionality
used by Kansas City Audio-Visual: |
Accounting |
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Financial statements |
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Sale |
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Sales orders |
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Multiple shipping/contact |
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addresses |
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Store/validate credit
card |
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information |
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Verification software/ |
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service |
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Service |
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Generate efficiency |
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reports |
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Inventory
control |
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Serial number tracking |
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Lot tracking |
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Purchasing |
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Purchase orders/Back |
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orders |
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Drop shipping |
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Management |
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Force profit margins |
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 Company
Background |
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A solution for all
communications
Kansas City Audio-Visual (KCAV) has
provided products and services to the
commercial, education, religious, and
government sectors since 1953. Initially
selling overhead projectors and dictation
equipment, KCAV migrated to wholesale
and retail distribution multi-media
equipment and integrated systems to
a variety of vertical markets throughout
the Midwest.
Today selling nationwide, KCAV serves
the business, education, government,
and religious markets with the latest
in presentation and audio-visual resources.
Kansas City Audio-Visual runs on Everest
Software. |
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| The
Challenge |
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Kansas
City Audio-Visual
initially purchased
SBT ACCPAC and
customized the
program. "I
was never on
the current
version of the
program and
I had to change
the code to
the most current
version of the
SBT program,"
recalled KCAV's
systems manager,
Randy Adler.
Working on a
software version
that lagged
three years
behind the most
current version
of the manufacturer,
it was impossible
for Adler to
support operations
under those
circumstances.
Adler eventually
upgraded SBT
to the Windows
version. "I
could see all
the flaws in
the product
and they had
no way to correct
them,"
said Adler.
"I made
a $40,000 mistake
when I went
to the Windows
package."
Unable to keep
up with order
entry, hundreds
of suppliers
and thousands
of SKUs, Adler
started looking
for a combination
of e-commerce
solutions and
accounting capabilities
in one package.
Before purchasing
Everest E-Commerce
Standard Edition,
Adler evaluated
24 different
software packages.
"The only
integrated packages
that were even
remotely competitive
to Everest at
that time were
Great Plains
and Navision,"
noted Adler.
But when Adler
weighed the
costs of Navision
and Great Plains
and then factored-in
the cost of
support, his
choice was clear.
"The support
fees were going
to bury us,"
said Adler.
"Compared
to Great Plains,
Everest was
an easier program
to use."
With two-dozen
software packages
evaluated and
ruled out, including
Great Plains
and Navision,
Adler's clear
choice was Everest
E-Commerce Standard
Edition.
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| The
Solution |
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With eight employees working
on Everest, the greatest benefit for KCAV
is the actual interface for the user regardless
of their level – it is just very easy
and user-friendly to work with. "The
ability to bring in a new employee and get
him or her up and running on the software
is much easier with Everest than with the
other products I evaluated," Adler said.
Everest facilitates the ease of change to
the new system from an employee-training standpoint.
With a $2,500 average daily transaction and
a lot of credit card transactions, the company
follows a step-by-step method to get the order
processed. If a customer's address on file
does not match with the credit card company,
the system prompts an AVS failure. "The
ICVERIFY functionality allows us to divide
the responsibility in terms of allowing staff
to deal with credit card based transactions,
spreading that authority over more people
helps us save up to 3 weeks," Adler said.
With the ability to select items to be drop-shipped
while creating a sales order in Everest, KCAV
reduces inventory costs by getting the vendors
to ship items directly to customers. "Being
able to copy a sales order into a purchase
order – that's a great feature. It's
so helpful it has saved us to from
re-keying information across various departments,"
Adler said.
Everest has also helped improve staff efficiencies
and productivity. "It allows us to share
information across our whole business,"
observed Adler. "If a customer is buying
a product at a certain price, everybody can
see that." Prior to Everest, KCAV had
three people in the accounting department.
Now the company has cut the head count to
two, while maintaining the same operations.
"It has allowed us to do more business
with fewer people," Adler said. "I've
recouped the cost of Everest, and our accountant
gives Everest an A+."
From a business-processing standpoint, KCAV
deals with tremendous amount of serialized
inventory. The accuracy level of inputting
the correct numbers while maintaining security
is critical.
KCAV uses functionalities in Everest that
prompt the sales representatives about stock
availability before making out an invoice
to a customer. The real-time backend functionality
helps them track back orders.
Since implementing Everest, Adler has been
able to spend more of his own time to grow
the business. "For the first time since
2001, I have more time to sell, which is encouraging,"
Adler reflected. "My old software program
took 45 minutes to reconcile data at the end
of each day. With Everest, I am out the door
in less than three minutes at the end of the
day. It's beautiful."
According to Adler, working on Everest now
helps in the performance analysis of sales
personnel and it has also assisted them in
increasing their profit margins. "Everest
allows me to mine and display real-time information
in various ways for people to improve their
productivity," Adler concluded.
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| The
Result |
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100% year one return on investment |
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Facilitated better credit card transactions,
saving up to three weeks |
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Increased efficiency in the accounting
department, while reducing administrative
overhead |
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Enabled just-in-time inventory and
drop-shipping |
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Saved two hours weekly with elimination
of repetitive tasks |
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Eliminated up to five positions in
customer service |
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