Increased sales and leads with Microsoft Dynamics GP

To widen the gap between us and our competitors we needed an upfront sales quoting system that could easily and quickly pump out quotes and solutions much faster than our competitors.

—Scott Brunskill
Overhead Door Co. of Regina

Client Profile

Since 1973, The Overhead Door Co. of Regina have built a tradition of quality and excellence in providing door and window solutions for all types of applications including commercial, industrial and residential.  High quality products, professional workmanship and outstanding service have made Overhead Door leaders in the door and window industry in southern Saskatchewan.

Situation

For virtually 20 years, The Overhead Door Co. of Regina (Overhead Door) remained self-sufficient in many aspects of their business including their accounting function.  Due to strong current business trends Overhead Door felt the need to re-evaluate the efficiency and performance of their current technology system.  With the construction and renovation market in full swing, Overhead Door required a system that would help them thrive through periods of rapid growth and successfully meet customer demand. 

Overhead Door knew that their current technology system would not be able to keep pace with the increase in market demand and was simply a ‘bottleneck’ on their course to effectively bridge the gap between them and their competitors. Using a system that had both low administrative and maintenance costs to perform all aspects of their accounting functions was on one hand beneficial, but the inefficiencies were growing tiresome.  Such inefficiencies included the inability to synchronize information due to disparate software systems; the substantial amount of manual entry and work required to complete one sales order or quote; and the lack of reporting and analysis capabilities.  

The pressure to meet and exceed consumer demands and keep pace with industry trends were reaching an all time high.  It was time for Overhead Door to make a decision and change how they had been doing things for nearly two generations by investing in an efficient and robust technology system.  Investing ina new system would not only help to differentiate or set themselves apart from their competitors, but also help them to grow, deliver and succeed in a competitive and saturated marketplace.

“To widen the gap between us and our competitors, we needed an upfront sales quoting system that could easily and quickly pump out quotes and solutions much faster than our competitors,” remarks Scott Brunskill, Operational General Manager, Overhead Door. Solution Aside from finding the right technology to help Overhead Door eliminate their business inefficiencies, it was also important for them to find the right service provider to offer support, training and consultation when needed to keep course with their current and future business plans.

Shortly after Overhead Door consulted with Encore Business Solutions they decided to implement and deploy a business software application they knew worked well in their industry - that solution was Microsoft Dynamics™ GP. “In the construction industry if you do one good thing, the customer will tell three to five people however if you do one bad thing, the customer will tell 50 people,” remarks Brunskill.  “Our business survives on word of mouth advertising and when it came to selecting the right kind of accounting system for our business we selected the system that we heard and knew worked well in the construction industry – Microsoft Dynamics GP.”

Overhead Door consulted with Encore back in November 2005 and communicated their pains, their needs and the direction their company was headed in the short and long-term.  Through in-depth planning discussions, Encore listened and offered recommendations based on what would work best and make the most sense for this company to maintain and ultimately increase their business success.  

“Encore really took the time to understand what would work best for our business today and in the future,” states Brunskill.  “Encore did an excellent job of evaluating our needs and offering solutions that will carry over for years to come.”

Working with Encore, Overhead Door had the opportunity to go at their own pace, implementing solutions when and wherever they felt was strategically important for their business without any pressure.  

From the beginning, Overhead Door has been able to maintain their self-sufficiency and independence while knowing that if they required services such as consultation, training or support Encore was just a phone call away. 

“Encore never once pushed us to do anything,” remarks Brunskill. “They simply offered their two cents based on their experience and best practices with zero pressure.  We knew that if we needed any type of service such as one off consultation, training and support, they would be there immediately which made it really easy for us.  From a business standpoint, this is a great way to treat and approach customers.” 

Since implementing Microsoft Dynamics GP, Overhead Door continues to rely on Encore to review additional modules and system functionality.  To add more operational value to their business systems, Job Cost and Service Management functionality were recently implemented.

Benefits

After their initial business consultation with Encore’s sales team, Overhead Door felt a sense of honesty and genuine interest which led them to establish a trusted business partner relationship right from the start. 

“Encore’s consulting team came across very honest and trustworthy which was very important to us given the fact that our knowledge and understanding of the IT world was lacking,” states Brunskill.  “Encore provided real, honest answers to real, honest questions and simply stated they really know how to establish trust right from the start.” 

With a shortage in the labor market for qualified sales professionals, it was not only difficult but also costly to find an experienced, skilled sales’ candidate to meet the increasingly high market demands.  On average, it would cost Overhead Door between $80-$150.00/per hour to train the right sales person to qualify more leads. 

However, since implementing Microsoft Dynamics GP, Overhead Door has decreased their sales efforts by integrating critical data and information into one system and reducing manual and duplicate entry.

“With Microsoft Dynamics GP, our sales staff has increased the amount of leads and sales they can handle in one day by up to 30% by eliminating the need to anually write and enter work orders” states Brunskill.  “We now have one central place to store and retrieve data allowing employees to quickly print electronic forms and track
customer data without duplicating efforts.  We are definitely one step closer to bridging the gap between us and our competitors.”  

Overhead Door required a system that enabled them to easily run adhoc reports in order to accurately forecast future sales and gain better business intelligence from their financial and operational information.  With Microsoft Dynamics GP, that is exactly what Overhead Door is now able to perform. 

“We wanted to be able to run reports to better analyze our business for future business opportunities,” remarks Brunskill.