bookstores, dealers, and distributors who buy at wholesale prices for resale). CPH operates under the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and is deeply oriented around its strategic objectives and continuous quality improvement processes.<br><br> The company has always been committed to using the very best present state technology to serve customers with benchmark levels of service and product. As part of the goal to remain at the forefront of technology, Concordia made the decision to implement Epicor Enterprise, including Epicor Precise POS. Out with the old, in with the New Concordia 9s old system was outdated and no longer supported by the vendor.<br><br> Forced to work with day old data because they were on a batch system solution 4 something had to change. Concordia wanted one vendor, with a single point of contact and accountability. After evaluating several different solutions, they knew Epicor was the right choice.<br><br> Concordia knew they wanted business intelligence, customer relationship management, warehouse management, financials and other offerings in a fully- integrated solution that could meet the needs of their growing company, while maintaining a low ongoing total cost of ownership. At a Glance Concordia Publishing House Industry Publishing Headquarters St. Louis, MO Employees 300 Employees Solution Epicor Enterprise Epicor Precise POS Concordia Publishing House Worldwide Headquarters 18200 Von Karman Avenue, Ste 1000 Irvine, California 92612 USA Toll Free: +1.800.999.1809 Phone: +1.949.585.4000 www.e icor.com Europe, Middle East & Africa Headquarters 1 The Arena Downshire Way Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1PU Phone: +44.0.1344.468.468 Epicor Asia Pacific Headquarters 238A Thomson Road #23-06 Novena Square Tower A Singapore 307684 Singapore Phone: +65.6333.8121 Epicor Software 3 Australia Level 32, Northpoint 100 Miller Street North Sydney, NSW 2060 Australia Phone: +61.2.9927.6200 www.e icor.com.au ©2008 Epicor Software Corporation.<br><br> Epicor and the Epicor logo are registered trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation. The pro ducts depicted in this document are produced by Epicor Software Corporation. All other trademarks acknowledged.<br><br> All rights reserved. Published in the U.S.A., 2008. This document is for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice.<br><br> Epicor makes no warranties, express or implied in this document. The contents of this document are believed to be current and accurate as of its date of publication. For a complete description of the product features, please refer to the product 9s user guides, reference manuals and release notes.<br><br> Working with the New System Concordia has 300 employees, all of whom touch the solution in some way. Whether it is to clock-in and out or to check if a specific item is in stock, the solution is truly utilized across the entire workforce. In the back office they have over 100 employees accessing the solution in the customer service, finance, marketing, production control and warehouse / distribution areas.<br><br> cAll of our people now have ready access to the data they need to help customers, d said Steve Harris, Executive Director - Information Technologies for Concordia Publishing House. cThey are able to answer most questions immediately, now that they have access to real-time data concerning stock availability and order status. This has enabled us to work more efficiently, improved our relationship with our customers and made our employees more productive. d With the end-to-end integration of the e-commerce storefront, warehousing, supply-chain and financials, Concordia has drastically reduced its order fulfillment cycle.<br><br> With the previous system, order fulfillment routinely took three to five days. Since implementing Epicor, Concordia now consistently fills over 98% of its orders by the next working day, many within the same day. Concordia 9s Bookstores Concordia operates a bookstore at its headquarters location in St.<br><br> Louis, along with bookstores at five other locations in the Midwest. Before Concordia implemented the Epicor Precise POS solution the stores operated independently of the rest of the company and used solutions from several different vendors. They had separate inventory as well as separate financial reporting mechanisms, and the integration of financial data into the overall operation of the company was difficult and time-consuming.<br><br> The time had come to standardize this part of the operation. Concordia wanted a solution that would fully integrate with their back office and would be easy to implement and use. They knew they would require a system that would handle all of their selling needs including returns, sales tax, special orders, reporting and more.<br><br> The Epicor Precise POS solution fit the bill. Shortly after they decided on Epicor Precise POS they began implementation. It was decided that the headquarters store would be implemented first, with Concordia taking over responsibility for implementing the other stores.<br><br> The initial implementation was successfully completed in just three weeks. Concordia has since completed implementations in four more stores, and also uses Epicor Precise POS extensively for retail selling at convention events, including one event with more than 25,000 attendees. cWith each implementation the process becomes smoother - we are very pleased, d said Harris.<br><br> cAll of our people now have ready access to the data they need to help customers. They are able to answer most questions immediately, now that they have access to real-time data concerning stock availability and order status. d Steve Harris, Executive Director, Information Technologies Concordia Publishing House Concordia Publishing House Worldwide Headquarters 18200 Von Karman Avenue, Ste 1000 Irvine, California 92612 USA Toll Free: +1.800.999.1809 Phone: +1.949.585.4000 www.e icor.com Europe, Middle East & Africa Headquarters 1 The Arena Downshire Way Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1PU Phone: +44.0.1344.468.468 Epicor Asia Pacific Headquarters 238A Thomson Road #23-06 Novena Square Tower A Singapore 307684 Singapore Phone: +65.6333.8121 Epicor Software 3 Australia Level 32, Northpoint 100 Miller Street North Sydney, NSW 2060 Australia Phone: +61.2.9927.6200 www.e icor.com.au ©2008 Epicor Software Corporation. Epicor and the Epicor logo are registered trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation.<br><br> The pro ducts depicted in this document are produced by Epicor Software Corporation. All other trademarks acknowledged. All rights reserved.<br><br> Published in the U.S.A., 2008. This document is for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice. Epicor makes no warranties, express or implied in this document.<br><br> The contents of this document are believed to be current and accurate as of its date of publication. For a complete description of the product features, please refer to the product 9s user guides, reference manuals and release notes. With the implementation of Epicor POS, the use of standardized business processes has greatly improved.<br><br> Management is better able to see what is going on in the stores with real-time visibility. They are able to quickly analyze inventory and sales data to make informed decisions. Also, they are beginning to gain new efficiencies because they can deploy a consistent, standardized approach to store operation, including uniform pricing and inventory replenishment policies.<br><br> With this structure in place, they can look to a bright future in the religious publishing retail space. cWe have really enjoyed working with both Epicor and Precise, d said Marty Benner, Manager 3 Project Management Office for Concordia Publishing House. cWe knew what we wanted, and did our homework on the benefits of the solution, and they really did come up with the A+ grade. d Best Practices with Epicor Since the Epicor implementation, Concordia has reduced its IT staff from seven programmers down to three.<br><br> Their inventory accuracy and order fulfillment accuracy have greatly increased. Because of the integration between the storefront and the back office, they have been able to successfully shift about 20% of their phone order volume to the Web, reducing order entry costs. And because they now have improved access to data, the length of their month-end closing cycle has been reduced by several days.<br><br> cWith the implementation of Epicor we have really begun to see some additional best practices emerge, d said Benner. cThe IT burden has been reduced as each department manages the system to meet their requirements. d About Epicor Epicor is a leading provider of enterprise business software solutions to the midmarket and divisions of Global 1000 companies. Founded in 1984, Epicor serves over 20,000 customers in more than 140 countries, providing solutions in over 30 languages.<br><br>

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