Casterland Keeps Business Rolling In with Sage Accpac

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Casterland group is the largest distributor of wheels and casters in Western Canada. They also sell material handling products, hardware, chair parts, as well as specialty tires, rims, and other accessories.

Accounting and computers headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the company has additional operations in Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver. Casterland has enjoyed substantial growth since its beginning in 1975 as a spin-off from an existing bearing house.

Casterland President, Brian Reid and his wife Anne have witnessed many changes in their business since founding Reid Wheel and Caster (later to become part of Casterland group), including the addition of three new locations. Through the years, the company remained true to its core values of business integrity, and dedication to employee and customer relations.

Accounting for Growth

As Casterland added customers, revenue and locations, they needed a cost effective accounting system flexible enough to accommodate their growing mid-sized business. As they evaluated different accounting software, Brian Reid became convinced that Sage Accpac would be the best fit.

Built in Canada for Canadian businesses, Sage Accpac offers an end-to-end business solution with a modular design. Casterland would be able to add to the system as their business needs expanded. And Sage Accpac could support multiple currencies out-of-the-box - an important feature for Casterland.

"When we looked around at the different types of accounting systems, Accpac has the flexibility without doing special custom work all the time," explains Reid, "One of the biggest advantages is that it easily ties our data together in real-time, across all four of our locations."

"Sage Accpac is ideal for them because they have four locations that are separate corporations," adds Stuart McKelvie, President of 21st Century Systems Corporation, the Winnipeg based solution provider who brought Sage Accpac to Casterland. "The software accommodates their organizational structure and distributed business model perfectly."

A Partner with Integrity

21st Century Systems Corporation is a Sage Software Authorized Business Partner specializing in Accounting and Management consulting. Their professionals design, implement, and support state-of- the-art, end-to-end business solutions.

"We chose 21st Century Systems because they demonstrated a great knowledge of accounting, as well as technology," says Reid. In addition to accounting savvy, Reid appreciates 21st Century Systems' values, noting, "They've been around for a long time. They handle themselves with the integrity and honesty that we like to work with."

"The people at Casterland understood that accounting and technology were inextricably linked to their success and wanted a partner who could contribute," recalls McKelvie, "They need systems that their accounting and managerial staff can use strategically and understand on their own. They don't want to treat IT employees like typewriters or adding machines."

Real-time Inventory across Multiple Locations

Casterland has taken advantage of the flexible, modular design of Sage Accpac, implementing just the right solutions for the way the company does business. Inventory Control provides a real-time view of inventory levels across all four locations, allowing Casterland to ensure adequate stock levels, gain purchasing power, and analyze company-wide inventory trends.

For sales and order analysis, the company uses Ops Inquiry, an integrated third-party solution that shows them everything about an item or an order in a single graphical dashboard. Casterland also employs Accpac ePOS to ensure a complete record of each sale in Sage Accpac at the point of sale. According to Reid, one advantage of Accpac ePOS is its ability to go offline. When the internet is down, ePOS continues to operate and records sales until the store can re-establish connectivity.

Doing Business Online

In 2003, Casterland completed a major computer upgrade with the help of 21st Century Systems. They underwent a transition from a DOS computer environment to the Windows version of Sage Accpac. This change enabled Casterland to integrate accounting and inventory systems with their email, fax and web store capabilities, resulting in even better customer relations and communications.

In 2004, the company added a web store. The web store integrates seamlessly with Sage Accpac, saving time and IT resources. Sage Accpac keeps information fresh without the need to update items on the website manually.

"What's crucial about the web store is that it ties into our systems," explains Reid. "Sage Accpac supplies the web catalogue with part numbers and product descriptions, so our most current data is always live."

As a result of these web and communications initiatives, Casterland's customers can now receive invoices and statements via e-mail, and obtain custom quotes or place orders online at the web store.

Looking to the Future

Brian Reid continues to be happy with his decision to purchase Sage Accpac, as well as his selection of 21st Century Systems as his technology partner.

"Sage Software does a good job of reaching out to customers and finding out what they want from Sage Accpac," he notes, "They take suggestions and make changes as they go along."

"We couldn't ask for better service than what we receive from 21st Century Systems," adds Reid, "They've never caused us to experience downtime or a major problem. We're very comfortable with them."