Medina Supply Inc.
Medina Supply is a distributor and manufacturer of industrial equipment. Our task was to convert their outdated software up to Spire Systems without bringing over any of the more than 20 years’ worth of now-obsolete data.
Background
A trusted name in industrial supply
Medina Supply is a distributor and manufacturer of industrial equipment, pipe, valves, fittings, and related process control components. The company is cost-competitive and staffed by experienced product experts. They offer free delivery in their trading area and emergency after-hour service 24/7.
The Challenge
A failing legacy system, weighed down by obsolete data
Medina was running a very old version of Sage 300 / Accpac. The fear was that the software was susceptible to stopping at any time. Additionally, the company was restricted from automating features such as direct email and EFT processing — features that have become both popular and necessary.
Installing new software and converting all their records to the new system did not make sense, as there were tons of entries that contained obsolete data.
The Solution
Spire Cloud, with a clean slate
We upgraded to Spire Systems Accounting, hosted on the Spire Cloud.
The staff at Medina deleted all the obsolete records and updated all the incorrect records in Excel spreadsheets.
We used the extensive Importing feature in Spire to populate all the master records — including G/L Accounts, Customers and Vendors, and Inventory Item records. We also labelled each of over 16,000 items within one of almost 40 different product codes.
We were able to customize the various forms to meet Medina’s needs.
As we were importing the records, we created test copies of the Spire database so the staff could test, verify, and modify entries as required. The test copy also assisted the staff in learning the new software.
The Result
Fully operational, fully automated
Medina Supply is fully operational on the new Spire System accounting platform.
They have automated direct Rich Text emailing. All invoices and other forms are now sent out electronically. Spire maintains full historical records, with the original correspondence saved against each customer. EFT is automated from within Spire. Reporting is timely. The Communications module assists with collections from customers.
One of the strongest benefits the staff has mentioned is the ability to drill down from within a transaction to review relevant information without opening other modules and searching. This has been very valuable to Medina.
Finally, the team is now integrating with a third-party add-on to automate direct credit card processing from within Spire, with very favourable processing fees.