Since 1936, Revere Supply Company has manufactured and imported the finest survival equipment available in America. Their manufacturing subsidiary, Revere Survival Products, offers a full line of survival equipment for the aviation, boating and general recreation industries. Throughout the years Revere has continued to maintain superior products at competitive prices on a timely basis with the highest standards for customer service.
The Crew is Drowning
After a move from New York to New Jersey in the early 1990’s, Revere automated their accounting systems. As they continued to grow, they eventually outgrew that system and ultimately moved to Sage MAS 90 (Sage 100) at the beginning of the millennium. In a subsequent move to Jacksonville, Florida in 2004 most of the New Jersey team and their Sage 100 knowledge was left behind. The remaining crew only knew the very basics of the system including: Inventory Management, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Sales Orders and Purchase Orders. Their utilization was primarily based on trial and error. During this transition the company also went through several Sage 100 resellers which only caused more problems. Senior management started to question if they were on the right system.
In 2009, a new Information Systems Manager was brought on board. He had Sage 100 knowledge and experience in various wholesale industries. “My first objective was to guide and help clean up the data that had accumulated,” recalled Kerry Brannen, IS Manager for Revere. “I wanted to show Revere how Sage 100 could help the company with features that they were unaware even existed. The officers of the company were so impressed with the abilities of Sage 100 they made the decision to remain on it instead of seeking another solution.”
Bailed Out by ASI
The quest for a new reseller began. Revere needed a company with the resources, product and industry knowledge to help the company’s accounting system get back on track and up to speed. When Revere found Accounting Systems, Inc. (ASI), they were impressed with ASI’s experience and expertise. However, Revere was equally impressed with ASI’s philosophy of putting the customers’ needs first, not just to sell customers more products. This was a philosophy that matched Revere’s, but seemed lost in the other resellers they talked to. “It was a great match from the start,” stated Brian Kelly, Principal at ASI. “We knew we could help Revere get to where they needed to be and help their company continue to grow.”
“With ASI’s help, we have advanced quickly from the 1990s to the 21st century,” proclaimed Kerry. ASI initially provided support to help get Revere’s system current and get their team educated on how to effectively use it. As the company continued to grow, ASI provided additional resources to keep up with their needs including additional Sage 100 modules, like Visual Integrator, and additional user licenses.
Revived with Sage 100 Advanced
Revere ultimately transitioned from Sage 100 Standard to Sage 100 Advanced to keep up with their tremendous growth. With the upgrade, ASI also wrote a custom modification to check for duplicate purchase order numbers in sales order history files and added five additional users to the system. They also implemented Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), a bar coding solution to streamline shipping and receiving, ASI Service Center to help track product warranties and service history and a multi-bin add-on solution. Revere now has 45 users on the Sage 100 system.
According to Kerry, “We are now receiving some of our orders via EDI and expect EDI to help us grow substantially. Our warehouses are bar coded, and our inventory is now being tracked in lots and serial numbers as well as kept in multiple bin locations. Our service department is capturing critical information using the ASI Service Center module, and our shipping department is using the Shipping Data Entry features available in the Sage 100 Sales Order module. Thanks to support and education from ASI, our biggest hold back to progressing faster is not resistance to change from the employees but our continued rapid growth. We owe a lot to ASI for being so customer oriented, understanding our business needs and being so very helpful.”
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