Success Story: West Florida Distributors Print
 		 

“Using Business Intelligence, we were able to analyze the key metrics that told us two of our branches

were so underperforming that we decided to close them. This decision was made with all the facts to back it up and as a result,

the company’s long-term health is far more secure.”

Virginia Orenstein, CFO/V.P. Finance and Administration

West Florida Distributors operates Design Works, a chain of stores where customers can purchase tile, cabinetry, and a variety of other products for kitchens and bathrooms. The company began in Florida more than 50 years ago and today operates eight locations, including one in Kirkwood, NY and another in Nashville, TN.

In late 2007, the company began looking for a better way to generate financial reports. West Florida Distributors had been using the built-in reporting functionality of the Eclipse system, but the software was not giving the company the quality of branch detail that it needed, says Chief Financial Officer Virginia Orenstein. As the company grew, this information became more and more important. In addition, she says, the custom modifications that had been made to Eclipse made the program export feature very difficult to use. To enhance the company’s financial reporting capabilities and improve speed and ease of use, Orenstein chose Top Dog Solutions General Ledger (GL).

 

Industry: Retail: Kitchen and Bathroom Product

Location: Sarasota, Florida

Platform: Eclipse Systems

Solutions: Top Dog (General Ledger, Supply Analyst, Inventory Control)

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Strategy Followed

Orenstein investigated two business intelligence solutions that retrieved information directly from the Eclipse system. Of the two programs, Orenstein says she found the Top Dog GL was more powerful than the competing system marketed by Eclipse. “I talked with the other people and they just don’t have the kind of reporting for income statements that my company needs.”

To learn more about Top Dog GL, she and other employees of West Florida Distributors participated in a personalized web-cast with Top Dog Solutions CEO Eric Levine in November 2007. They discussed West Florida Distributors’ needs and how Top Dog’s Supply Analyst and GL could meet them, and Levine demonstrated the software’s intuitive Excel-based interface.

Orenstein later contacted several executives who were using the software to get their opinions. Soon afterward, she decided to purchase Top Dog General Ledger as well as Top Dog’s Supply Analyst and Inventory Control modules.

West Florida Distributors purchased an inexpensive server for the software and plugged it into the company’s network. Once the server was online, Top Dog Solutions remotely installed and configured the software. Virginia had only to define the company’s GL report structure and place accounts in the appropriate sections of the report. All the company’s accounts from Eclipse appeared automatically, and the latest balances are automatically updated every night. Top Dog Solutions made setup quick and easy, says Orenstein: “I probably spent no more than two hours on the phone with them.”

 

Benefits Realized

Virginia Orenstein says that before the company began using Top Dog GL, generating month-end reports took days, but now it takes a couple of hours a month. Less complex reports are even faster to produce. “I’m able to give other managers things they’re looking for quickly when they’re doing analysis… I can pull the information they want in five minutes over in an Excel spreadsheet,” she adds.

Top Dog General Ledger also provides her with richer data that has led to better decisions. For example, the software allows her to generate reports for specific branches and generate break-even analyses. “We’ve actually closed a couple branches because we’ve seen that they were just not profitable and it’s unlikely that they would become profitable,” she says. “It’s been very beneficial.”

Other features, such as the ability to export a report to a standalone spreadsheet with the click of a button, have also proven to be very useful. “I love that you can put it into an Excel file that you can add some comments and information,” says Orenstein. She also appreciates the software’s user-friendliness and notes that it took her about a day to get up to speed. “It’s very easy,” she says.

Top Dog’s customer support has been helpful when she has run into problems, says Orenstein. “They’re always ready to take care of us,” she says. “I never get the feeling like, ‘It’s you again’.”

Orenstein recommends that new Eclipse customers look into Top Dog GL. She adds that the software should come standard with Eclipse “because it makes it so much better.”

Orenstein does not know for sure what the future holds for West Florida Distributors, but Top Dog General Ledger helps her keep the company steady in an uncertain economy. “We’re operating in a down market right now… you’re trying to get through day by day. Top Dog General Ledger’s detailed branch data gives you the opportunity to manage your business better.” Using this information to find and close money-losing branches is not about saving money instantly, she adds: “It’s keeping your company healthy in the long run and having your resources focused in the right place.”

 

About Top Dog Solutions

Top Dog Solutions based in Boston, MA, offers powerful, easy-to-use business intelligence software that interfaces with a wide variety of point of sale and enterprise resource planning systems.