MAR-CO Equipment

However, Mar-Co was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain its reputation for quality and superior service with a software platform that was more than 20 years old.
“The system we were using wasn’t user-friendly, and it limited us in what we could use in programs,” said Mar-Co Office Manager Becky Brown. “The version of software we were using didn’t work with the Excel spreadsheet or nearly any kind of file that would be used today in everyday operations. It got to the point where it was impossible to update our pricing and handle inventory. Enough was enough – we had to make a change.”
Thus began an 8-10 month process, during which Mar-Co searched for a user-friendly system that would be compatible with all of the software the company needed to use. After tests and demos, they were set to go with another supplier, until someone at Mar-Co saw a magazine article about Rover ERP. “What a lucky break that was!” Brown recalls. “It turned out Rover ERP was exactly what we needed – it was user friendly, very easy to understand and manage, and easy to customize to what we needed for our business.”
The transition process was very smooth, according to Brown. By the time they reached the date to go live with the new system, Mar-Co employees were already comfortable with Rover. “We have between 20 and 25 employees and nearly all of them were using it right away,” Brown said. “With the old system, if I couldn’t figure out the procedures, no one could.”
With Rover ERP, there are no longer concerns at MarCo about visibility or questions about whether the business is being run as well as it could. Rover ERP provides complete operating information in the EIS, in reports, or through automated notifications, so the owners can see how the company is operating and make decisions that have an immediate impact. Since Rover ERP is fully integrated into all aspects of company operations, executives can spend more time making these key decisions and less time searching for data.
“If someone wants to know how many machines we sold in 2002, in a particular territory or in a particular month, I can pull that information up right away in the software, or have it go into an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document or whatever is needed. We couldn’t have done that with our previous system,” Brown said.
Perhaps the most dramatic impact of Rover ERP has been in pricing. “Our manufacturers update pricing either yearly or quarterly. Rover let us create any kind of program we needed, so we had one written to help us update pricing, regardless of the format in which that information was provided,” Brown explained. “One manufacturer can have more than 20,000 parts. It required us to move a mountain to get all of this done with our old system, but with Rover ERP, price updates take 15 minutes.”
Technical support used to be an issue at MarCo as well. “We had to sign up for two different programs, one for hardware and one for software, and usually when we called for help we had to leave a message and wait for someone to call us back. And when you’re having computer problems you need it fixed yesterday. So we had a lot of downtime as a result,” Brown remembers.
“With Rover ERP, the difference isn’t just night and day; they are second to none among all of my vendors. Rover offers a module where they can connect to our computer from their office to check on something and provide help as needed. That has saved us quite a bit of time,” Brown said. “Plus, they still answer their phones, so I’m not going to be redirected from voicemail to voicemail. It’s also great how they are very patient with people who are not computer literate. That’s a huge plus for us.”
Today, Becky Brown no longer worries if she’s away on vacation or has to attend an out-of-town meeting. “It’s been so easy to train our office on Rover ERP that if I’m gone and something goes wrong, they can take care of it, and they have the support that Rover provides for us. That by itself is invaluable.
“Rover ERP is the heart of our business, and we treat it like gold.”

https://marcoequipment.com