Parts Warehouse Inc

Somerset, NJ -- A leading distributor and specialty manufacturer of automotive cooling systems has taken measures to prevent its own business operations from overheating.

Parts Warehouse Inc. (PWI) is the premier provider of heat transfer products (radiators, air conditioners and heaters) to the U.S. automotive aftermarket, and serves as the exclusive distributor of the popular Max Cool® radiator.

The Somerset, N.J.-based company now supports 110 end users at 25 warehouse centers, each processing sales, inventory, and administrative information that is sent to corporate headquarters via a frame relay network. But its increasingly decentralized environment began placing a tremendous strain on PWI's PC-based system. "We needed a system that could support our distributed environment and ever-increasing transaction volume," explained Controller Tom Durkin.

Vital to replacing its in-house built, DOS-based applications was preserving the company's established business processes. The centerpiece of the system is an electronic catalog that helps customers such as repair shops pinpoint the exact radiator, air conditioner or heater they need.

"Our founders' vision was to deliver product knowledge quickly and accurately via our electronic catalog. The catalog was designed to offer a lifetime of information to a person with minimal training," said Durkin.

Additionally, the new system had to address four other objectives, which are embedded in the company's customer-driven philosophy. "We also strive to provide superior availability, affordability, same-day delivery, and support after the sale, including the best lifetime warranty in the business," Durkin said.

PWI retained a computer consultant, who recommended Microsoft technology as the new system's backbone: MS SQL Server 6.5 database and Windows NT 4.0 server, with Windows '95 clients. To solve the data sharing challenge, Citrix's WinFrame multi-user system software was recommended to deliver Windows '95-based applications to PWI's remote offices.

Following an evaluation of leading business software vendors (in which all accounting modules received similar ratings from PWI), Durkin and the IS team selected the Relational Financial Systems (RFS) accounting & distribution software from Skylight Systems, Inc. "RFS broke the [accounting module] tie with their distribution modules. Their multi-bin and multi-warehouse features were superior to the others," Durkin said.

"Skylight was also a good cultural fit for us," explained Jim Muldoon, PWI's software manager. "After our first meeting with the Skylight staff, I left thinking 'I can work with these people.'"

Durkin appreciated the accessibility of Skylight's developers. "With other vendors, I wound up talking to marketing reps who couldn't answer the tough questions. With Skylight, I spoke to key people who demonstrated an expertise in distribution, which we knew would be valuable."

Skylight's development staff began customizing the software to match PWI requirements, which included a sophisticated pricing matrix and point-of-sale functionality. In addition, the consulting group within Skylight worked with PWI to design the electronic catalog. The first phase of RFS installation occurred in April, 1997, with the latest version of RFS (4.0) installed in October, 1997.

Eventually, PWI plans to add functionality such as direct vendor replenishment via EDI, thus moving more responsibility to its distributors. "We want to be able to say to vendors: 'Now you can keep track of how your inventory is moving,'" Durkin said. "With RFS, we can expand our operations without concern over system restraints."