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Maple Mountain Industries

PFW Dealership Management System's scalability is the right fit with growing John Deere/New Holland Dealership

PFW Password - Spring 2002 Maple Mountain Industries joined the PFW family in January 2001 with six locations throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia. By April 2002, Maple Mountain Industries more than doubled in size to 17 stores. The PFW Dealership Management System has been accommodating the dealership's growth and multiple branches with ease.

Operating since 1991 and based in New Florence, Pennsylvania, Maple Mountain Industries is a multi-faceted company. Their operations include: building supplies, upholstered furniture, custom cabinetry, liabilities management, equipment dealerships, metal building and residential construction. Maple Mountain Industries' major manufacturing lines are John Deere AG, John Deere C & CE and New Holland.

Prior to January 2001, Maple Mountain Industries was searching for a computer system that would allow them to consolidate their multiple computer networks into a single system across all of their retail operations. John McDowell, Staff Engineer, said, "Before PFW, each retail location was running its own stand-alone computer system. To troubleshoot system problems, we were using dial-up modems or we had to drive to each location if the system was not working, which most of the time, it wasn't. Accounting was struggling to get reports from each location. Inventories were high because no location could view any other location's inventory. Our employees had to learn different systems and configurations depending on where they were working. If they relocated, they needed additional training. We were to the point where we could not expand our business without doubling our IT accounting staff just to keep up with the information gathering and consolidating efforts. We had to do something."

Maple Mountain Industries looked at many computer systems including JDIS, HBS, Charter and DIS before finding the right fit with the PFW Dealership Management System. In their evaluation process, they considered other systems to be the wrong fit for many reasons, including poor John Deere interfaces, no multi-site options, too expensive and inability to handle enterprise accounting functions well. The PFW Dealership Management System provided the solutions needed to address these and other areas of concern.

Factors that played a key role into selecting PFW were:

"Since choosing the PFW Dealership Management System, the IBM eServer iSeries has performed beyond our expectations." John McDowell stated. "We were able to use lower-speed frame relay circuits without sacrificing speed and reliability. The consolidation supported by our iSeries has enabled Maple Mountain Industries to expand our services not only to our customers, but our employees as well. The iSeries has an upgrade path well beyond that of a PC-based system. The reliability of the iSeries is such that if it has power, it is working."

Maple Mountain Industries believes it has benefited by adopting advanced PFW technologies, including its latest module, Management Central. Maple Mountain Industries had plans to develop an internal web site that would publish vital information for their managers. They wanted to include such information as Parts Analysis, Outstanding A/R, Equipment Inventory, Days in Inventory, Financial Reports, Average Margin on Sales, etc. "I am glad we waited for PFW's Management Central package. It delivers real-time data from our database to every PC in our network by using a program everyone has - a web browser." said John McDowell.

Maple Mountain Industries made Management Central available to everyone within their organization (they have over 290 employees). John McDowell said, "It has increased awareness of outstanding service work, customer A/R and revealed our entire equipment inventory to each person. It has totally revolutionized the way we do business. Our marketing group will even use Management Central to check prices and monthly fliers. It saves time in finding details on pieces that need to turn."

We elected to take the monthly payment option so our ROI is demonstrated in every used piece we find and turn into cash, every open work order we catch and bill through, and every A/R account we find past due and make a call on. The benefits of Management Central are quite simple to point out. It has a very simple interface. It reports our live data and is easy to use."

John concludes, ''We value our relationship with PFW and the solutions the PFW Dealership Management System has provided Maple Mountain Industries."

We value our relationship with PFW and the solutions the PFW Dealership Management System has provided.