BLOGS

Headquartered in Nokomis, Florida, Kimal Lumber opened its doors in 1981 and has since expanded into six locations that include a design center and showroom, an engineered wood and truss manufacturing location, three full-service lumberyards—one that includes pocket frame manufacturing and an exterior window and door facility. In 2018 Kimal was acquired by Gulfeagle, a family-owned and managed Roofing Distribution company. Kimal is now part of the fourth largest roofing materials business in the nation, with 112 locations all across the US.

A Technological Boost for Business Efficiency

To operate more efficiently and provide an enhanced customer experience, Kimal Lumber upgraded from Epicor Falcon software to the powerful Epicor BisTrack solution. "When we decided to replace our aging software system, we wanted to give our company a technological boost that we didn't have previously," said Allen Bavry, Jr., Information Technologies-Corporate, Kimal Lumber.

"Additionally, we wanted to change our company systematically and procedurally. We used this new software installation as a way of convincing our entire team to embrace industry best practices. With the technology that BisTrack software affords us, we can already do tasks faster, more efficiently, and provide our customers with that extra level of service."

"We selected the BisTrack solution to enhance and streamline our best-in-class lumber, truss, and manufacturing operations," said Robert Hinman, general manager of Kimal Lumber. "We knew we wanted to fix, adjust, and improve many of our operational processes—raise our level of efficiency. We took the opportunity with the BisTrack implementation to improve our business overall, do things differently, and take advantage of the tools and resources that BisTrack software offers—such as business purchasing, processing orders, dispatch, and delivery. Those are all the areas we're certainly trying to automate as much as possible to create cost savings."

Simplified and Optimized Deliveries

With an average of 25 different trucks making 185 deliveries daily, Kimal Lumber understands the importance of getting deliveries right. The easy-to-use, built-in dispatch and delivery capabilities of the BisTrack Journey Planner and BisTrack Delivery applications will simplify the critical tasks involved in the delivery.

"We currently have the stereotypical dispatch office—clipboards up on the wall representing each day, for every truck," said Hinman. "One of the great advantages we see with BisTrack software is it will enable us to optimize our truck and driver usage, boost efficiency, and minimize delivery errors. With BisTrack Journey Planner and BisTrack Delivery applications, we can generate real information for our team—and especially for our customers—as to when a delivery has been completed, providing pictures and documentation for each drop. We recognize this as a big advantage, and we're viewing it as not only improving our efficiency but also offering better service for our customers."

The great thing about BisTrack software is it gives more information than we could have imagined, and now we can get that information in front of the right people to make better business decisions. A competitive advantage for companies like yours is definitely creating a great customer experience.

"The hardest part of our business is maintaining profitability while keeping processes efficient," Hinman noted. "There are many technological advances that the BisTrack system offers us—many tied to the ability to provide information to our customers throughout the delivery process. BisTrack software gives us a competitive advantage over other lumber and building materials dealers."

Customer Experience Matters

"Our big focus is on enhancing the customer experience," said Hinman. "The BisTrack Delivery application plays into that focus very well because now I can have drivers take pictures at each drop site and mark orders delivered in the system. We can set up notifications so that our customers are notified when their delivery has been made in real time.

We have always assured them that we can deliver what has been ordered and on time, but now we can show them the proof."

"There are so many metrics tied to deliveries that we didn't even realize existed until we started using more robust delivery software," he continued. "The great thing about BisTrack software is it gives more information than we could have imagined, and now we can get that information in front of the right people to make better business decisions. I have an operationally focused role, so I like to see those delivery metrics and production numbers and check in on efficiency data to make sure we're doing things as well as possible. A competitive advantage for companies like ours is definitely creating a great customer experience. Taking steps to streamline operations—like that of our deliveries—to provide an out-of-the-box experience is crucial. Adapting new, innovative technologies—like BisTrack software—helps us tailor that experience to a particular customer and accomplish our goals."

Training for Optimal Software Use

Epicor Training on Demand help to provide a robust catalog of BisTrack software training courses—delivering application-specific education to dealers and their employees. Kimal Lumber has experienced the benefits of leading its team with high-quality training.

"When we were getting into BisTrack software, priority number one was to have good training before the actual go-live," said Hinman. "We were a little concerned, so we focused greatly on training and hired someone to create a positional program to cover training at each location before, during, and right after go-live. We depended on the Training on Demand solution to help us succeed. Our go-live with BisTrack went much smoother than we had anticipated because of the training we received within Training on Demand.

"There are many technology advances that the BisTrack system offers us—many tied to the ability to provide information to our customers throughout the delivery process. BisTrack software gives us a competitive advantage over other lumber and building materials dealers."

"When you change an entire ERP system for a company with six locations, there's going to be some hiccups along the way," continued Hinman. "We were preparing for hiccups and hoping for the best, and the BisTrack team exceeded our expectations. The great thing about BisTrack software is that there are many different ways to get to your end result. We have started setting up functional re-training sessions with our leaders, dispatchers, purchasers, and accounting administrations to remain consistent. Training on Demand is a cost-effective method for exposing staff to new training and skills within our company.

Improving Inventory Accuracy

"From an inventory perspective, BisTrack software has given us the ability to improve precision," said Hinman. "We've started using kits to help us account for a bill of materials products, which has really brought real-time accuracy to our business. Now that we are beginning to utilize cycle counting as a way to keep our data up-to-date and streamline the inventory process, we don't necessarily have to get 30 people together for two days to count the entire yard. We'll be able to trust that the information in the system is accurate. We've been able to increase margins because we know we have more consistency with how our price tools are set and have products delivered to the customers in a more focused fashion. We have seen great benefits with BisTrack software, and I know there's certainly more to come."

Star Lumber & Supply Co. is a nearly 80-year-old lumber and building materials (LBM) company based in Wichita, Kansas. As a family-owned, fourth-generation business, Star Lumber has broad-reaching operations—supplying building materials, trust plant delivery, door processing, a custom mill, flooring, and installation to the surrounding areas.

Efficiently Adding Value with Technology

In 2017, Star Lumber implemented Epicor BisTrack to streamline operations and set the business up for continued growth. “We’ve always embraced technology, and that’s part of what makes us different,” said Patrick Goebel, president, Star Lumber & Supply Co. “To have technology, people, and processes that allows us to efficiently add value—and still be low cost—makes us successful. Leaning on industry partnerships—such as the one with Epicor—helps strengthen our market share and offer our customers something really valuable.”

“For years, we used a home-grown system, but we recognized we had to make a change to stay competitive,” he continued. “Epicor was a provider we initially reached out to, and we instantly realized that Epicor BisTrack was a powerful system—the support was impressive and it was an industry leader. We selected the Epicor BisTrack solution to help us maintain successful and growing operations.”

Implementation of Seamless Software

“We wanted to implement the latest technology, and Epicor BisTrack allowed us to do that,” said Dave Gregory, IT director, Star Lumber. “Implementation of Epicor BisTrack was easy and well thought out by the Epicor team. We spent a lot of time preparing for Epicor BisTrack, which paid out endlessly—the more you put into it, the more you’re going to get out of it. The Epicor assistance throughout the entire implementation was totally hands on, and the Epicor BisTrack solution implementers and project leadership team are the real reason we succeeded in a smooth roll out. It was amazing what they knew about our business and how much they knew about building materials.”

“We are probably some of the biggest data hogs around, so the data conversion process required a lot of data,” continued Gregory. “We thrive on data and provide information to our entire team and our customers. The Epicor BisTrack data conversion needed to be a flawless process, which we found to be easy. Of all the software rollouts I’ve seen, this was by far the best. Epicor BisTrack is the best package for us.”

Benefits of Epicor BisTrack

“The immediate benefits of Epicor BisTrack have been on the front end with our salespeople,” offered Goebel. “I was pleasantly surprised how quickly they adopted it. For example, converting window quotes in our previous ERP system used to take upwards of an hour and a half. Now, with Epicor BisTrack, it takes three to four minutes. It has also reduced errors and eliminated the unproductive time re-keying information. We can capture our costs in the system more efficiently, too. Our team doesn’t know how they would live without Epicor BisTrack today.”

“Previously, we had to type everything in manually, and it would take two hours for each large window order,” added Eric Chippeaux, commercial sales manager, Star Lumber. “With Epicor BisTrack, we’re experiencing a big time savings. Our salespeople now have four to five extra hours in the day to find new customers and grow the business—rather than only managing the customers we have. I can definitely see our business continue to grow and expand because of Epicor BisTrack.”

Faster Delivery Details

“Through Epicor BisTrack and GPS Insight, we’ve been able to gain detailed information faster about our delivery trucks,” Chippeaux continued. “We have 20 to 25 delivery trucks out daily, and if a driver is having trouble unloading, we can pull up GPS Insight to see exactly where the next closest driver is to have him help. In the past, we’d have to call everyone to see where they were. Now, we’re able to see exactly where they are in the software. In turn, our customers get materials faster with more accuracy.”

“The biggest benefit that we see from the Epicor BisTrack Delivery app is picture taking out in the field,” said Mike Meyer, director of operations, building materials division, Star Lumber. “When drivers get to a job site, we ask them to mark that they’ve arrived and then begin the unload process. They take multiple pictures to tell the delivery story—including if there’s a job address on the foundation, pictures of the materials, and where they left them. The bottom line with Epicor BisTrack Delivery is it shows when we arrived, when we left, and where the product was dropped on each jobsite.”

“The first week running on the Epicor BisTrack solution, we had a customer call us and say, ‘I don’t think you delivered my products yet.’ We looked in the software and immediately saw the delivery picture. That was an important feature that we never had before,” said Chippeaux. “In the past, we’d have to get a hold of the driver—who may or may not answer the phone. Now, we have that information at the click of a button—in about 20 seconds—and can pass that on to the customer immediately.”

Planning More Efficient Journeys

“When we were introduced to Epicor BisTrack Planner, we were extremely excited, because we could get away from clipboards and move to ‘point-and-click’ journeys. The Epicor Journey Planner application makes it much easier to make delivery changes on the fly,” said Meyer. “We can easily move journeys from one day to the next, and once we create journeys, we don’t have to start the process over if there’s a change. Before using Epicor Journey Planner, we duplicated all our work in the computer and on clipboards. Now, the clipboards stay empty. The process is very simple and a huge benefit for our business in terms of cost savings and delivery accuracy.”

“What I like most about Epicor BisTrack business intelligence data is knowing the detailed journey information—number of journeys, total drops and stops, and delivered sales for each day. I can also access the driver’s or the specific truck’s production. It gives us crucial data to make educated business decisions and will help with future decisions on staffing and capital purchases for trucks,” said Meyer.

Real-Time Information

“We rely on real-time information about deliveries, and we want that linked to our customers in real time. We have that in Epicor BisTrack now, and we can easily communicate with our customers,” said Gregory. “If there’s a subcontractor out in the field waiting to know when his order is going to be there, we can get that information and communicate it back to him. With up-to-the-minute data, we can see where our trucks are, which stop they’re on, which part of the stop, we know how long the truck is idle, and if the driver speeds in an area. This is big data, and in our world, getting accurate information on trucking is critical.”

"I think that if you’re going to look for the best software in the market, it’s going to be Epicor BisTrack. It is the leader in functionality, scope, enhancements, and rapid development."

Sales History with Dashboards and Smart Views

For Star Lumber, keeping the business running smoothly and efficiently has always been top-of-mind. “We use Epicor BisTrack dashboards for each of our departments. For example, commercial sales, new construction, West Street, re-modeler, etc. all have individual dashboards,” continued Chippeaux. “We can see sales history, open orders, or open POs for that specific department. This means our team members don’t have to search through every single order to find the information they need—they can just open the applicable dashboard. We used to be required to go through all 15 or 20 tickets to find the one we wanted. Now that we’ve switched to Epicor BisTrack, we’re able to get these dashboards at the touch of a button. Our sales team is able to get data faster and access more timely information for our customers without having to search through a multitude of open orders.”

“The user-defined fields, smart clicks, and smart views in the Epicor BisTrack make it a very robust piece of software,” Gregory added. “Epicor BisTrack gives us the ability to have a mid-level manager create his own smart views and easily get that data out of the system. It’s one thing to get the big picture, but it’s another thing to get operational information back to the users who really need to make a decision. Access to information actually pays back dividends for each user. What we have seen so far is that BisTrack speeds up our processes to give people the information that they need at the right time.”

Seamless Ordering

“I use Epicor BisTrack in my role to order products, do purchase orders, set up SKUs, and complete pricing,” said Kathy Ewarts, purchasing product manager, Star Lumber. “Epicor BisTrack has many more capabilities than our previous software, and there’s more than one way to do something. Epicor BisTrack allows us to customize our suggested orders for each person or each component. For example, I do things differently with the door mill orders than lumber orders. The customization of Epicor BisTrack also allows us to do our suggested orders by sales or by usage. It makes my job easier and quicker because I’m getting what I need to look at—not what everybody needs. Our old system had the same view for everyone. Purchasing with Epicor BisTrack is a breeze—all our pricing is right there. We are able to monitor our margins a little more closely now,” she said.

A Partnership for Success

“I think that if you’re going to look for the best software in the market, it’s going to be Epicor BisTrack,” Gregory stated. “It is the leader in functionality, scope, enhancements, and rapid development. The entire Epicor team is professional—their attitude, work ethic, intelligence, and knowledge of the industry is remarkable. They are head and shoulders above every other software vendor we looked at.”

"We want a partner that wants us to succeed, and that’s what Epicor is all about—making it easier for us to succeed. Every day we save hundreds of manhours, and we’re a lot more accurate—and that’s all thanks to Epicor BisTrack."