All American Home Center (AAHC) relies on Activant Falcon™ to process more than one million transactions per year on 25 point-ofsale stations. Falcon helps 275 salespeople better meet customer needs through efficient product look-up capabilities and inventory management. AAHC uses Falcon's AP to PO interface and inventory reporting to reduce inventory shrinkage. Activant Professional Services helped deliver a smooth transition from CSD to Falcon in the fall of 2003.
Large, single-store home center effectively competes against big box retailers Located in Downey, California outside Los Angeles, AAHC is a family owned business in operation for 45 years. Considered to be one of the largest independent home centers in the United States, AAHC has more than 90,000 SKUS in a 175,000 square foot retail facility, with 275 sales associates generating at least one million transactions per year. AAHC faces intense competition from the big boxes. There is a Home Depot in the AAHC parking lot. Within a four-mile radius there are several more Home Depots, several Lowe's, a Target and a Wal-Mart. AAHC competes with service, selection and a unique shopping environment. The store is set up like a department store with distinct shopping areas. AAHC employees make a difference to customers with their product knowledge and helpful attitudes. Sales associates, with an average tenure of more than eight years, understand this business and their customers' needs.
Smooth conversion from CSD
AAHC timed their conversion to be live before their busiest selling season–the Christmas Holiday of 2003. A significant part of the conversion process is completely automated and conducted by Activant Professional Services. Activant made the process smooth by implementing a server that housed three distinct systems: one running CSD, one running converted Falcon data and one true Falcon system. An AAHC conference room was set up as a training center so that key employees and an AAHC in-house trainer were instructed by Activant well in advance of the actual conversion. The first conversion occurred for general ledger and accounts payable. One month later sales and customer data was converted, and the point-of-sale and remaining modules were converted and AAHC was completely operational on Falcon.
"It was clear that Activant spent a lot of time planning the CSD conversion process. Our conversion was extremely smooth and we processed a record number of transactions within weeks after conversion," according to Ray Brown, chief financial officer, All American Home Center.
Dramatically improved point-of-sale
"Our main motivation for moving to a new system was to improve our point-of-sale and reduce our check-out time. In December 2003, we rang more than 762 customers in one hour. That would not have been possible with our old system," said Rob Morck, chief operating officer, All American Home Center. "The Falcon system gives our front-end staff the ability to help customers faster, and our salespeople are more effective. Falcon's GUI interface reduces our training time for new and existing employees."
Activant Falcon provides new technology and processing capabilities that make point-of-sale transactions faster and more accurate. With high-speed printers and signature capture devices, cashiers at 25 point-of-sale stations are able to get customers out of the store in record time. Sales associates use Falcon's GUI interface to quickly and easily check stock, research product information and place special orders. Cashier and sales associate training time has been reduced due to Falcon's easy-to-use GUI interface. Screens are easy to navigate and information is found via logical steps. The end result is a more efficient operation that improves customers' experiences at AAHC by making it faster and easier for them to find what they need and make their purchase.
Improved inventory management and shrinkage control With 90,000 SKUs and a high number of transactions, shrinkage is a big concern. AAHC relies on Falcon to improve the accuracy of physical inventories and highlight shrinkage causes. The Accounts Payable to Purchase Order interface automatically matches invoices to purchase orders. This function will speed the process, reduce data entry errors and result in more accurate inventory records. Reports generated from General Ledger data provide summary, class and item level information that aids AAHC in pinpointing opportunities for shrinkage reduction.
"With Falcon's AP to PO interface and the ability to drill from summary reports to line item detail, we will have specific knowledge of our inventory that we didn't have before," stated Brown.
