Zak’s Building Group to Advance Growth Plans with Upgrade to Epicor Eagle N Series Software

Canadian-based builder and home hardware retailer upgrades from Epicor Dimensions software to the Eagle N Series solution to support expansion vision

Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, today announced that Zak’s Building Group will implement the Epicor Eagle N Series^® solution. An Epicor user for nearly 15 years, Zak’s will upgrade to Eagle N Series software from the Epicor Dimensions platform to take advantage of the solution’s advanced reporting and inventory management tools as well as other productivity-enhancing functionality.

Headquartered in Saskatchewan, Canada, Zak’s Building Group has been serving its customers since 1996. As a business with four successful and broad-reaching brands—Zak’s Home Building Centre, Zak’s Homes and Cottages, Zak’s Agriculture, and Zak’s Commercial—Zak’s Building Group has turned to Eagle N Series retail business management software to seamlessly manage the entire company.

• “Our business has been steadily growing over the years and we're about to take the next step to open a second retail location. Epicor Dimensions software helped us get the business started all those years ago, but with our impending expansion plans, we knew it was time to add innovative technology that will ease growth plans and enable more efficiency. Epicor Eagle N Series software was the best fit for our business.”
• - Wyatt Zacharias, Co-Owner, Zak’s Building Group

Strong partnership leads to successful implementation

The Zak’s Building Group leadership team made it a point to have a strong partnership with Epicor before implementation began in order to make the process as smooth as possible. “This has been the best software implementation and training program we’ve been through,” said Clint van Kuik, IT manager, Zak’s Building Group. “We have employees that have been with us for more than 20 years and they were somewhat uncomfortable with the transition to new software because they were very familiar Dimensions software. However, through our partnership with the Epicor team and the use of Epicor Training on Demand™ software, it has been easy to motivate our employees to complete the training—they're actually excited to do it.”

Real-time business data for effective planning

At the heart of making good business decisions is clear and detailed information of where a business stands today and what lies ahead. “The advanced reporting capabilities that we’ll have access to within the Epicor Compass™ application are going to be crucial. Being such a diverse business, we struggle to separate the retail aspect from construction,” said Zacharias. “I'm looking forward to the integrated Compass software functionality, which will allow us to look back in time at what our inventory was at this time last year, for example. With our old software, unless I went into my binders of month-end printouts, I couldn’t easily access that information. With Eagle N Series software, we can quickly get the reports we need to truly understand how our business is doing, where we're making money, and where we need to make improvements.”

“We didn’t have a good control on our inventory with our previous software and with an inventory at upwards of $2 million, that’s just not acceptable,” said Zacharias. “The Eagle N Series solution is going to bring us to the next level where operations will be much easier and inventory more finely tuned. I’d like to see my deadstock reduced by 50 percent and keep my on-demand ordering down to a minimum. This will, in turn, help us have the inventory that our customers want, when they want it, which is the driving force behind retail.”

“We are proud to support Zak’s Building Group in its business development plans, which include implementation of Eagle N Series software,” said Bill Wilson, senior vice president, product development, Epicor Software. “By offering innovative solutions that Zak’s requires for business process improvements, we hope to enable quicker, more effective growth that increases the bottom line.”