How Switching to AcctVantage ERP Still Pays Dividends 20 Years Later
HIS Glassworks supplies coldworking tools and equipment to the glass art industry. Whenever a piece of glass needs to be cut, ground, polished, or glued, HIS Glassworks is your one-stop shop.
Their customers range from mom-and-pop operations to corporate scientific glass manufacturers, medical equipment companies, and museums.
They started off as an ordinary glass shop, mostly making art pieces. But when they couldn’t source a tool or material they needed, they found a way to make it themselves.
Eventually they started selling to other glass shops, and it snowballed from there into a full-service glassworking tools, materials, and equipment supplier.
Mark Bolick, the CEO of HIS Glassworks still remembers the DOS-based system they used when they first switched from selling art to supplying the glass art industry.
It was slow, bare bones, and became obsolete quickly.
They knew they had to make a change, and soon.
“We Murdered It Within a Year”
Mark’s first solution was QuickBooks, and –– in his words –– ”we murdered it within a year.”
Although it was a small company, HIS Glassworks was way too complicated for a system that stores all its data in a single file.
They tried five or six other systems over the next few years, but none of them could handle backorders and split shipments… daily occurrences for a company that sells both stock and custom product.
Mark knew that AcctVantage ERP was the only system that had all the features he needed, but his colleagues were hesitant to change. Their hand was forced when one last software package imploded on them.
So, HIS Glassworks switched to AcctVantage ERP in 2001.
And they’re still using AcctVantage ERP today.
To hear Mark tell it, his only regret is not switching sooner.
HIS Glassworks’ AcctVantage ERP system is just as reliable, powerful, and consistent as it was at its implementation.
Ever since 2001, AcctVantage ERP has been keeping Mark’s overhead low, his sales high, and his job simple… just the way he likes it.
The man himself said, “It’s so easy, streamlined, and connected that we can train somebody on it in a week’s time…
… it’s so simple in the way that it presents information and connects to every system that people inherently ‘get it’ pretty fast.”
Grew by 10x with the Same Admin Staff
During their twenty years with AcctVantage ERP, HIS Glassworks has grown by a factor of ten.
Over that same time, they haven’t needed to hire anybody to run the computers. No administrative hires. None.
Mark says, “The people who were using AcctVantage ERP in 2001 are the same people using it now. We haven’t had to add anyone extra to do those tasks. Every hire we’ve made has been in a revenue generating role. We are literally doing 10x the business we were, with the same administrative staff. Incredible!”
These days, Mark doesn’t worry about adding to his software, only about expanding his production capabilities. The software can handle it.
As Mark puts it, “AcctVantage ERP deals with everything we want to throw at it.”
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