HVAC wholesalers face a unique set of business challenges and undergo a wide variety of tasks every single day. From complex inventories, changing trends, and balancing large orders from contractors, they need an ERP software that can help them manage all these processes from a single, powerful, platform. From sales and order management to purchasing and inventory management to dynamic price and equipment effectiveness analytics, your business needs HVAC distribution ERP that’s a one-stop-shop system and can juggle everything.
Datix has almost 20 years of experience with Epicor® solutions, making us experts in the leading enterprise resource planning software. Epicor® designed Prophet 21 to help distributors increase sales, improve customer service and reduce operating costs by creating a single nexus for process management and streamlining all operations. Prophet 21 is dedicated to meeting the needs of the distribution industry and HVAC wholesalers. The team at Epicor® consistently consults with leading distribution associations and seeks the input of its current HVAC customers to further develop its solution for the market. As a result, Prophet 21 contains functionality designed to meet the industry’s distinctive needs.
Prophet 21 functionality for HVAC distribution includes:
Businesses in the HVAC wholesale distribution must juggle a lot of moving parts, stakeholders and processes. From handling wholesale items like pumps, coils and fittings to organizing a showroom and a warehouse, plumbing wholesalers need ERP software that can keep up. For example, with Prophet 21 you’ll have the ability to instantly link related items so that a sales team is always ready to offer fittings with their related parts: say an A/C unit with the right mountain brackets and ventilation units. A sophisticated quoting module is capable of quoting prices for the 50-line item orders that contractors so often ask for. The system can then turn those quotes into orders seamlessly, adjusting pricing based on customer identity and order history. You’ll be able to automatically retain relationships with your most loyal clients, all while saving time in both your sales and accounting departments.
Another big plus for HVAC distribution is Prophet 21’s strong inventory management capabilities. Proactive work queues, carton packing, and advanced cycle counting cut back on time spent organizing your inventory by hand, and give your employees greater confidence in stock levels. It can also save your sales team time! Because you might operate both in parts and finished products (i.e. fans or valves or a finished heating unit) you’ll be able to store assemblies under a single item code in the software. The ERP can then pull all the separate SKUs that go into that heating unit from your inventory and determine stock levels and pricing. Your sales rep doesn’t have to walk to the warehouse to figure it all out anymore!
When it comes to translating the often large, and complex, inventory of an HVAC wholesaler to the customer, Prophet 21 also excels. Lot billing allows you to deal with contracts submitting large quotes for projects (i.e. the ventilation and heating system for an entire apartment building). Usually, contractors order all the parts necessary for a project once but expect the material to be shipped, and billed for, in stages. Prophet 21 enables your business to give prices on the entire lot or the individual prices for rough-in or finished goods. That prevents your customers from shopping around and pricing items individually so that you can increase your profit margins. After you’ve closed the deal, your ERP can handle the release schedule for each group of items on the customer’s job. Both sides of your business-client relationship benefit! What’s more, Prophet 21 can allow business leaders to manage customer’s inventory, an increasingly expected feature that will allow HVAC wholesale distribution business to stand out from the competition.
Prophet 21 can truly make your life as an HVAC wholesaler easier, but it won’t be able to do that straight out of the box. Yes, Epicor® does specialize in manufacturing and distribution solutions, but by nature it is not built to specialize in verticals right away—it needs to be able to cater to its wide range of customers after all. That’s why you need a specialist with in-depth knowledge both of Prophet 21 and of your industry needs to implement an ERP solution that has the capabilities to support the HVAC wholesale business. That includes dealing with discerning customers and properly implementing ERP that can store and handle thousands of part numbers and product details.
Datix has almost 20 years of experience with Epicor®. Our expert consultants have helped many businesses from all industries—across manufacturing and distribution—implement ERP that works for them. We can help design the right dashboards and implement the perfect modules for HVAC wholesale ERP. Get in contact with us today to learn how we can get started on your solution.