A Productivity Game-Changer: 20+ Year Epicor Eagle Customer Migrates to Epicor Propello and Doesn’t Look Back
Walk into Tobinson Hardware, and you'll find three generations of the Tobinson family hard at work: the owner, Carolyn Tobinson; her daughter, in the back office; and her grandchildren, on the store floor and the registers. The Tobinson involvement goes way back, with the store started by Carolyn's grandfather in 1927 and then managed by her parents before Carolyn assumed general management in 2009.
An Epicor customer for 20+ years, the hardware store recently moved from Epicor Eagle® to Epicor Propello, seeing immediate productivity gains from the cloud-based retail management solution—paving the way for other Ace Hardware® retailers to follow suit.
For two decades, Tobinson Hardware relied on Epicor Eagle to support day-to-day point-of-sale activities and business processes, such as inventory management. The solution was a staple for the business, helping to deliver as promised and part of the fabric of operations. But when Tobinson saw Propello demoed at an Ace conference, the advantages of moving to a cloud deployment were hard to resist.
“Being able to access Propello from anywhere and maintain platform uptime even during a power outage, via a hotspot on our phones, had me sold,” Tobinson explains. “That type of reliability and anytime access is huge for a retailer, and we were excited to be one of the first Ace stores to make the shift.”
Once Tobinson decided to migrate, the Epicor team sprang into action, holding several meetings to introduce employees to Propello and train back-office staff. The ease of use and ability to quickly onboard employees were evident from the start and were a huge selling point for Tobinson, along with the ability to create mobile service points from anywhere in the store.
”The day we went live on Propello, we had Epicor support on-site, standing with us at the registers," Tobinson explains. *All our employees could jump in and use the system, with cashiers up and running that morning."
With Propello, Tobinson Hardware has broadened integrations with third-party applications, leveraging connected data to reduce manual steps and streamline workflows.
Propello is also linked with the Ace Change Management system, alerting the store when items are closed out and unavailable in the Ace catalog. From there, Tobinson can select from replacement options, kicking off a report in Propello detailing which items to pull off the shelves.
Propello is more intuitive and makes my life as a store owner easier. We forged a migration path from Eagle to Propello to enable other Ace retailers to do the same.
”Moving to Propello from Eagle has delivered a huge productivity advantage,” Tobinson shares. “The ease with which we can create promotions, change pricing, and forecast inventory has brought new levels of speed and accuracy we couldn’t before imagine.”
“Eagle supported our business so well, but Propello brings us to the next level,” Tobinson continues. “The cloud-based system is built for retail, allowing us to empower employees who, in turn, give our customers the retail experience they deserve.”
Tobinson’s cashiers see more of the customer transaction and history at the point of sale, such as account balances and payment history. Plus, the Quick Find and Product Information Lookup features allow staff to find products for customers on the spot, eliminating the need to radio for assistance and saving time at checkout.
Propello brings our business to the next level. The cloud-based system is built for retail, allowing us to empower employees who, in turn, can give our customers the retail experience they deserve.
When considering the top reason other retailers should migrate to Propello, Tobinson couldn’t settle on just one. “Propello is more intuitive and makes my life as a store owner easier,” she says. “The backup is seamless, as is the support from Epicor, and we forged a migration path from Eagle to Propello to enable other Ace retailers to do the same.”
