Aptean > Case Studies > Cardinal Carryor Gains Greater Visibility into Its Availability Tree

Cardinal Carryor Gains Greater Visibility into Its Availability Tree

Customer Company Size

Mid-size Company

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Aptean EquipSoft ERP

Tech Stack

Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Outlook

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Cost Savings

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Applicable Industries

Equipment & Machinery

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Fleet Management

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

Cardinal Carryor is a full-service material handling dealership based in Louisville, KY. Founded in 1947, the company serves Kentucky and Indiana, providing rentals, leasing, and maintenance on both new and used equipment for brands like Clark, Crown, Doosan, and Hoist. Cardinal Carryor’s sister company, Cardinal Integrated Systems, also in Louisville, handles warehouse planning, systems design, installation, project management, preventative maintenance, and repair, plus a multitude of other industrial engineering services. Cardinal Carryor is a third-generation family-owned and operated company. It has been the only authorized Clark forklift dealership serving Kentucky and Indiana since 1962 and has been an authorized Crown equipment distributor since 1983. In 2012 Cardinal added Golf Cart World to its mix in an effort to achieve diversity and increase profitability.

The Challenge

Cardinal Carryor had been using a Unix-based software called MTA since 1978. However, the software company dropped support and subsequently went out of business. The legacy software wasn’t good at extracting information, making reporting difficult. The company needed a new software solution that could provide robust analytics and reporting capabilities. The employees liked the ease of use of the current software, but the lack of an audit trail and difficulty in understanding what was happening in the software made it necessary for a change.

The Solution

Cardinal Carryor chose EquipSoft because of its robust reporting capabilities, inventory management functionality, and customer relationship management (CRM) feature. EquipSoft is built on the Dynamics Business Central/NAV platform, which integrates with other Microsoft products like Excel and Outlook. After deciding to go ahead with EquipSoft, Cardinal initially decided to implement the system themselves, but quickly realized that they needed the expertise and experience of the EquipSoft team. EquipSoft’s implementation team traveled to Louisville to work with Cardinal on the project and promised that they would make Go Live happen on time and on budget.

Operational Impact

EquipSoft has improved Cardinal’s efficiencies so drastically, that the company has been able to cut costs dramatically in their parts and accounting departments.
The two sister companies were able to effectively process more orders with the same number of staff, increasing overall productivity.
EquipSoft’s rental functionality, the availability tree is a big improvement, making it easy for people outside the rental department - such as sales staff - to easily see what equipment is available and what is not.
Cardinal is also utilizing EquipSoft’s built-in customer relationship management (CRM) system for contact management by its sales team.
EquipSoft’s ability to plan the inventory in Cardinal’s service vans in the same way it plans inventory in a warehouse; before EquipSoft, Cardinal would manually calculate the inventory in each of its service vans. Now, the process is automated and visibility into each truck’s inventory is clear.