Champaign Do It Best Hardware: RockSolid Lets Them Spend More Time on the Sales Floor

George Edwards

Dealership:: Champaign Do It Best
Industry:: Hardware
Affiliation:: Do It Best

Champaign Do It Best Uses:: POS software for hardware and lumber dealers

The Champaign Do It Best Hardware store in Champaign, Illinois, consists of a single location. The store employs just 23 people and yet serves between 500-800 paying customers a day.

“We’re located just a mile and a quarter from the University of Illinois (at Urbana-Champaign) campus,” says George Edwards, president of D. Tepper (d.b.a. Champaign Do It Best Hardware). “So we service the college and a majority of the landlords with property around the campus. That’s probably 50 percent of our annual business. The university does about $1 million in business with us. We have 1100 commercial accounts on RockSolid.”

We recovered our program and equipment costs in the first year.

George Edwards has used RockSolid to run his hardware store for four years now. Before that, they were using J3 Point-of-Sale software. However, that software did not work out. "It did not have the depth or the ease of use that RockSolid has," relates Edwards.

“We were gonna start using the program (RockSolid) on January 1,” continues Edwards. “My lead cashier always takes the last week of the year off, and that’s when we did training. Within 2 hours on her first day back, Jenny was literate on RockSolid. That speaks loads about the ease of use.”

After the experience with J3, Edwards says he was “committed to getting the best I could.”

“RockSolid’s presentation was very well done,” Edwards says. “They were friendly, not big corporate folks. They did trials here. It worked great.”

ROI in the very first year

(With RockSolid) you can email invoices. Our postage costs are about $600 a month, and they were probably $1,200 a month before.

“I was really looking for a speedy POS, but second, managing AR. With RockSolid, there are four invoices to a page. And you can email invoices. Our postage costs are about $600 a month, and they were probably $1,200 a month before.

“We recovered our program and equipment costs in the first year.”

RockSolid’s features serve them well

When asked what his favorite RockSolid feature is, Edwards replies, “I have to say the AR just because I have two credit managers and it makes their job so easy. The info on the screen is so good. We had a guy try to con our paint department and we were able to shut his account down, there were no questions.

“Our daily report financial records are maintained off site and fed into QuickBooks Pro daily. Not a big deal. The shining light is by far AR.”

About point of sale, Edwards says, “When we crank out receipts with signatures so quickly, the customers love it. It processes payments quickly. It’s just excellent. We’ve got five POS and there are no delays. When you have 500-800 paying customers per day, it’s wonderful.”

Champaign DIB has 55,000 products in their system with an additional 5,000 that aren’t used a lot. “We are all over the board,” says Edwards of the product assortment. “Cleaning, electrical, paint, etc. For the university, we supply facilities and services; they buy all sorts of stuff. On top of that, though, our school of architecture and engineering are well known worldwide, and the students have to build models. We furnish Midwest Architectural Supplies to them."

When asked what his favorite RockSolid feature is, Edwards replies, “I have to say the AR, because I have two credit managers and it makes their job so easy.

Asked about inventory management through RockSolid, Edwards relates, “We get two trucks a week plus Orgill Brothers, so the handheld scanners get used really well. It’s an excellent program, worth the money. When you’ve got a short time frame and you’re trying to get through the building (to take inventory) it works wonderfully. We use it for maintaining pricing, in addition to inventory. I can’t imagine not having it. It keeps us up to date. Accuracy is a whole lot better with it, with the large number of items we have in the store. We do between $10-20,000 twice a week in purchase orders.”

Excellent support and targeted features

“I really haven’t found a need to go to RockSolid training seminars because the program is so well written and the support is so well done,” says Edwards.

“You know, I have my favorite people. Craig and his wife Kathy are outstanding. Stephanie is excellent. She’s a real bulldog when you’re trying to solve something. They get back very quickly. They really do have areas of expertise. If someone doesn’t know, they forward me to someone who does.”

Asked the top three reasons he’d list if he were recommending RockSolid to a colleague, Edwards replies, “POS, Order Entry, AR. All simple. Not needless reports like I found 15 years ago with Triad. That thing was a paper hog. There were features you didn't need. RockSolid is structured with things people need. I spend 98 percent of my day on the main floor. I make my money by interfacing with the customer. I don’t need all that stuff.”

RockSolid is structured with things people need. I spend 98 percent of my day on the main floor. I make my money by interfacing with the customer. I don’t need all that stuff.

Edwards hopes to open a store in Oregon or Washington soon. “I lived in Oregon 20 years and loved it. My son is about to go to college out there so I want a small store. He may possibly go into the business, so he might take it over. And of course I’d use RockSolid.

“I like working with RockSolid. The few whines that I have they listen to. It’s a good crew."