Why Implement Enterprise Resource Planning Systems?

Finding the right Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a huge commitment to undertake. That’s why it’s important to get buy-in from everyone, bottom to top in any company in order to facilitate a successful implementation. Also, it’s imperative to understand that while the integration of a new ERP system is a disrupter, ultimately that disruption is positive as long as it leads to increased customer service and the ability to dazzle our customers.  Based on our upcoming ERP system integration, we believe we have accomplished just that.  

First of all, what is ERP? For most of us, it’s how we run all aspects of our businesses. From buying, selling and accounting for inventory, to financial reporting and distributing goods and services, ERP encompasses all of these processes and more. In essence, ERP systems are supposed to cover most of what every employee in the company uses to perform their job responsibilities (with the exception of payroll, fixed asset management and possibly business intelligence). For the most part, B2B and e-commerce are included in modern ERP systems.

ERP systems are expensive and take up to 6-12 months to integrate. Undoubtedly, the new ERP software will add work and stress to your already stretched personnel. So, why in the world should anyone buy a more sophisticated ERP software for their company?

It boils down to what we at Rocky Mountain Air Solutions believe we provide – flawless dependability to our customers. We exist as a business for one reason and one reason alone, we are here to serve our customers, end of story.  Our goal is to provide the most up-to-date functionality we can in our actions, our equipment and our software. We refer to it as flawless performance. The goal is to dazzle our customers, so that their experience is so exceptional that not partnering with Rocky Mountain Air Solutions seems ridiculous.

This is essential to what we provide, and how we service each product leads to our belief in what is important. We are not part of the every day thought process of the biologist freezing biological samples, or the beverage seller selling drinks or the hospital caring for the sick. Yet the moment they no longer have the key ingredient to their process: Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide and Medical Oxygen, suddenly our role in the overall scheme becomes the essential nature of their business. Because failure is not an option, upgrades like a new ERP system are part of our continued growth.

The ERP system becomes the medium for attaining the partnership role with our customers. It is the way we communicate what, how and when we will get them their essential industrial, medical, food and beverage or specialty gas and equipment at the right price, at the right quantity and delivered in the way the customer has instructed. It is the IT portion of our partnering. We can have the most well-intentioned, friendliest sales personnel, but without an ERP system to make the intention a reality, there is little we can do to reach our exceptional customer service goal of being faster, better and different.

RMA began searching for a new ERP solution after a few painful years working with an ERP software that was not a representation of what was sold to us. We needed to find an honest solution that met the expectations of the medical and gas distribution industry with seamless and fully functioning integration for asset tracking.

Rocky Mountain Air Solutions chose the award winning Epicor® Prophet 21® software as its new ERP solution. It clearly met the expectations and needs of the medical and gas distribution industry, as well as the growing number of interesting and creative usage of gases and products we sell in food and beverage, medical, specialty, industrial, greenhouse growth enhancement, scientific, weather and biological use. The need for atmospheric gas usage is restricted only by one’s imagination, and new ideas are cropping up everyday, such as traveling nitrogen ice cream trucks and nitrous oxide use in natural child birth.

Added complexity is part of any atmospheric gas company, and we are no exception. In addition to the delivery of normal distribution items, we also have to control for the delivery of cylinders of many differing sizes and product types to our customers within Department of Transportation guidelines. We partner with TrackAbout asset tracking in order to accomplish this. Our decision to marry TrackAbout with P21 in a complex integration strategy will make the customer experience seamless and easy. With the integration of P21 with TrackAbout, our customers can count on knowing what cylinder products they have in their possession and that their rental invoices and cylinder statements match perfectly with what they have in their soon-to-be cylinder population.

We believe we’ve found the distribution software that ties all of the pieces of distribution together to make our customer interaction effortless for them. We mean to dazzle our customers with our efficiency, and we chose Prophet 21 as our partner to make this a reality.