All-in-One POS System Helps to Deliver Intelligence, Speed, Accuracy, and Power
A fixture of the Beaumont Village, Oregon, community since the 1940s, Beaumont Hardware has been owned and managed by Kim Smith for about twenty years. With more than 20,000 items in a 4,500 square-foot corner lot, the company aims to provide customers with everyday home and maintenance products as well as unexpected and unique items. Beaumont Hardware is a member of Do It Best, the world's largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative, assuring customers competitive prices, and access to a vast network of hardware suppliers and quality hardware supplies.
For many years, Smith relied on an on-premises RockSolid point of sale (POS) system but began to feel the provider was falling behind the curve. She said, “As a mom-and-pop shop, technology can help us level the playing field. Larger organizations use analytics to make good business decisions, and we wanted that same edge. Since our existing solution couldn’t deliver, we looked to the Epicor Eagle software suite deployed in the cloud.”
In addition to weak analytic capabilities, Smith had other challenges with RockSolid including increased response times for service tickets, stagnating functionality and software updates, and excessive credit card processing times. Smith explained, “Because the solution was not integrated, we had to use several different packages—such as for credit card processing and general ledger. When an issue arose, there was little accountability.”
Epicor training videos are exceptionally high quality. New cashiers get up and running quickly with the on-demand videos. And I’m saving a lot of money on training.
With a growing business, and an eye to transferring Beaumont Hardware to her daughter in the future, Smith selected the advanced POS and retail management capabilities of Epicor Eagle. She said, “Epicor had been on my radar for years. I am still impressed with the robust, modern functionality, and the fact that everything is fully integrated in one solution.”
She added, “The primary driver for moving to the cloud was keeping up with software updates and eliminating the need to replace a server every few years.”
Since deploying Epicor Eagle, Smith is thrilled with early results and future promise.
An on-time, smooth implementation was aided by a broad library of self-service training videos that can be customized to Beaumont Hardware’s needs and even incorporate company-specific documentation such as the employee handbook. “Epicor training videos are exceptionally high quality,” Smith noted. “For employees who may not be as tech-savvy, the videos are an easy, accessible way to get comfortable with the system. New cashiers get up and running quickly with on-demand videos. And I’m saving a lot of money on training.”
Smith continues to be pleasantly surprised as she learns the breadth and depth of capabilities offered by Epicor Eagle. “I find gold nuggets every day, in terms of the capabilities being very robust and powerful. I’m always uncovering new tasks it can do,” she stated.
The combination of a highly competent Epicor team and the full-bodied functionality gave Smith the confidence to onboard several additional modules early in her Epicor deployment, including Performance Manager, Pricing Planner, and Mobile Manager. She said, “The potential of Epicor became so obvious, I decided to go all-in.”
Meeting Smith’s demand for business intelligence, Epicor Performance Manager helps to deliver a deep layer of analytics, from real-time transaction data to customized reports. Smith cited one example that demonstrates the benefits she is already realizing: Beaumont Hardware completes a transfer with “Do It Best” every evening. With the previous solution, Smith had been seeing a decline in gross margin, even with pricing adjustments to keep pace with inflation. She attributed that slump to inaccuracies in data. With Epicor Eagle, the numbers have reversed course. Smith said, “Our gross margin has already increased 2% in just two months, and January and February are typically our slowest months. With Epicor, I get a real-time understanding of what people are buying and visibility to data such as hourly sales, average sales, even the ability to see our gross margin each day.”
Based on her experience, Smith plans to “eliminate another software package” and migrate from QuickBooks to Epicor General Ledger soon.
With Epicor Eagle, credit card processing has been transformed from slow, glitchy, and unpredictable to fast and easy. “Our old solution didn’t keep up with credit card processing software updates. This meant we could no longer offer contactless payment, a significant customer experience problem,” Smith said. “With Epicor Eagle, transactions are seamless and speedy, and we once again help to offer contactless payment. We even have offline credit card processing capabilities to keep the business up and running, no matter what.”
There is not a single aspect of our business that won’t be improved as a result of moving to Epicor Eagle. It’s an all-in-one solution that eliminates the need for separate products. I’m super impressed and could not be happier.
Smith is also using Pricing Planner and appreciates the no-hassle customizability. “We don’t have sales tax in Oregon and pricing that ends in a ‘9’ was annoying. Epicor helped us create a rounding table to get to nickels and zeros, and it wasn’t at all complicated. It’s working so well I plan to migrate off Margin Master completely.”
Other benefits include access via mobile devices for work-from-home-or-the-floor capabilities. Handhelds make shipping, receiving, and physical inventory easier, and dramatically improve inventory accuracy with real-time physical counts. Epicor also helps track and minimize shrinkage and ultimately will improve the special-order process.
In the near future, Smith intends to migrate Beaumont Hardware’s online selling business to Epicor. She said, “We couldn’t trust our old system to handle our eCommerce. We have full confidence in Epicor to do it, and to do it better.”
She added, “There is not a single aspect of our business that won’t be improved as a result of moving to Epicor Eagle. It’s an all-in-one solution that eliminates the need for separate products. I’m super impressed and could not be happier.”
