Garage Door Companies: Open the Door to Success with Acumatica Cloud ERP

How often do we contemplate our garage doors? As long as they go up and down and add to the appeal of our home or business, probably not too often. Garage doors are one of those invisible everyday essentials that become important when it’s not working, we’re building, or we’re painting/renovating our home or place of business.

Likewise, we often don’t reflect on garage door companies and manufacturers until necessary, but when necessary, we want one that provides a range of design options, offers flexibility, and builds well-made products. Many garage door companies offer all of these things, but can they also offer an efficient and seamless customer experience, as well? Those who have implemented a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution can.

Simply put, a cloud-based ERP system, like Acumatica cloud ERP, allows businesses to connect every department (accounting, sales, manufacturing, field service, etc.), all data, and all processes within one, comprehensive, and highly functioning solution. Synchronized information is available in real-time via an Internet connection, which means it’s accessible at anytime from anywhere with a browser-enabled device. Every employee, whether in the office or out in the field, is on the same page, at the same time. And service management plug-ins, such as ServiceTitan, are not required.

How Acumatica cloud ERP is helping garage door manufacturers and distributors succeed

According to IBIS World, the garage door industry is directly connected to the well-being of residential and nonresidential construction markets. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected growth rates, but the growth outlook in the construction industry is positive as consumer spending is projected to increase as the economy recovers.

This is great news, but an economic recovery is only helpful if a business is able to take advantage of it by efficiently managing and streamlining their business processes. As with all manufacturers, garage door companies’ manufacturing process starts with the sales team and the initial opportunity. The design, manufacturing, and distribution teams take over from there, and eventually, the billing department joins in. If they service their product, the field service team is also part of the process.

There are many employee and customer touchpoints along the way and many challenges accompanying them—especially for companies that are relying on disconnected business management solutions, like QuickBooks. These challenges include:

  • Software providers that don’t understand their industry
  • Duplicate (and error-prone) data entry in multiple systems
  • Lack of scheduling tools
  • Field service apps that do not connect to the back office
  • No real-time vision into inventory
  • Limited controls over purchasing
  • Lack of information between the design team, shop floor, field service, and billing departments
  • Lack of consistent and rational pricing for custom garage doors across the sales team
  • No way to schedule and track production and send job information to the billing system
  • Manual, inefficient, and inaccurate tracking of costs every day or week with spreadsheets
  • Unable to provide customers with visibility and tracking through the manufacturing process

Liberty Door & Awning faced similar challenges prior to COVID-19 and finding Acumatica’s cloud ERP software. President Bob Nosti says the company was using multiple software solutions and that syncing departments was a challenge.

After finding Acumatica, he says, “Everything is under one system. No sync errors and information at your fingertips no matter what device you’re on. During COVID, we were able to work remotely without any problems. However, what we like most is what seems to be endless integration possibilities to grow with our software.”

Working harder is not smarter

Working harder is not smarter. Thus, users can do the following seven things after implementing Acumatica cloud ERP:

  1. Throw away spreadsheets and embrace automation
  2. Enjoy seamless workflows between every integrated module and with any third-party applications
  3. Improve the quoting and configuration process
  4. Efficiently manage inventory across different locations with drill-down capabilities
  5. Centrally manage sales activities (quote entry, order fulfillment, shipment creation, pricing, discounting, and stock status inquires)
  6. Optimize, streamline, and mobilize their field service operations
  7. Provide customers with insight and visibility into the manufacturing and delivery processes

And Acumatica’s manufacturing management softwareinventory management softwareorder management softwaredistribution management softwareconstruction and accounting software, and field service software are all connected within the core cloud-based ERP system. Users, regardless of their department, can access updated, real-time data from anywhere at any time.

Plyler Enterprises, Inc. is a great example of a business that implemented Acumatica and has enjoyed this unlimited access.

“With our previous ERP system, we were so limited as to the information that we could get out of the system along with the access that we had when we were not in the office,” says Justin Plyler, V.P., Finance. “Once we converted our businesses to Acumatica, all of those issues went away instantly. I can pull up information about our business that I could’ve only dreamed of in the past. I can access Acumatica at anytime, anywhere and on any device and everything is at my fingertips.  We are so excited to continue to watch our business grow with the help of Acumatica.”

If you’re interested in learning how you can work smarter, not harder by integrating your back office, CRM, scheduling, and field service management in a single system while also ensuring customer satisfaction, contact our team today. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have about becoming an Insite4Doors customer and/or to schedule a demonstration.