VAI's S2K Enterprise and IBM’s AS/400 – The Perfect Combination!

For over 50 years, Nutley Heating & Cooling has provided mechanical contractors, oil dealers, schools and hospitals with everything needed for boilers. Their users range from a small home to a large university.

In 1992, Susan Cancelosi and her management team were faced with replacing an aging Prime System unable to keep pace with the business. After an extensive search and evaluation of several systems, including those that ran on UNIX and PCs, Nutley Heating & Cooling chose VAI's S2K Enterprise and IBM's AS/400.

"VAI's Executive Information Center probably made the biggest difference to us. Now, we use it everyday," says Susan. "The Executive Information Center is like the digital dashboard for the top executive - it provides an easy instant snapshot of all the key indicators of one's business (i.e. sales, accounts receivables, profits, etc.) with simple drill down capability to access the underlying detail. It gives us a quick feel to what's happening in our business and we can quickly find out what is going on. We find S2K Enterprise easy to learn and easy to use. VAI seems so intuitive, and although we have little staff turnover, this system is easy for new hires to learn so they become more productive faster."

Since 1992, business has changed for Nutley Heating & Cooling. More of Nutley's suppliers and competitors have been bought up. This means that Nutley has to work that much harder chasing the few remaining customers. Consequently, Nutley has grown from three locations to five locations.

Susan is enthusiastic about IBM's AS/400 and VAI's S2K Enterprise. "I love the AS/400. It's flexible, supports multiple users, and all the data is shared. With our growth, S2K Enterprise has been just wonderful. All of our locations have quick real time access to all of our information - stock locations, sales history, kit information, and the like. We know who has what and where. I can have one of my managers at a remote location call with a credit issue, and I can review the same information with him over the phone, because we can all share the same information."

Nutley Heating & Cooling relies on VAI's purchasing system to help maintain the proper inventory levels and to buy in the most economic quantities. According to Susan, "50% of our business is kits. Kits are crucial to our business. We can sell our products as separate pieces or in kits. S2K Enterprise makes kits easier to use."

"S2K Enterprise really helps with credit and collections. We are immediately notified if someone has exceeded their credit limit or is delinquent. When making collection calls, we have access to all previous detail comments. When someone says they don't have our invoice, we can immediately fax a copy. We can also remind slow payers of previous promises they have made to us to pay. This works pretty well," Susan laughs. "The integrated contact manager will make this even easier to use."

Above all, Susan Cancelosi has found the people of VAI attentive, responsive, and very knowledgeable. "They are easy to do business with. That's important to me. We like VAI so much we continue to upgrade with them to their latest release!"
 
For more information about VAI products and services, call VAI at 1.800.824.7776 or email sales@vai.net.