Ability Business Computing helped iOffice Delivers streamline their operations and realize new efficiencies with point-of-sale and inventory control features in QuickBooks Online and Ability Financial Exchange.
Customer challenge
iOffice Delivers is a family owned business providing office supplies to retail and e-commerce customers, as well as business services such as copy/print, advertising, and logo production to retail and wholesale customers. Similar to many expanding mid-sized businesses, iOffice Delivers was held back by cumbersome legacy systems, ill-equipped to handle their increasingly complex business needs. They faced stiff competition from big box retailers employing complex modern infrastructure solutions.
As iOffice Delivers’ customer base expanded, the difficulty of managing sales and inventory data was growing:
- Siloed business systems meant orders required triple entry, wasting time and introducing human error.
- The existing eCommerce platform lacked the dexterity to handle increased order volumes.
- Typical customer profiles involved multiple POs across multiple locations, making invoicing customers and managing their data a complicated, multi-step process.
“For customers with complex needs, we want to provide guidance, but it’s always good to do testing. It gives them the confidence that this is going to be a good solution for them. They can see it in progress and see how it works in the end.” – Lisa Burnett, Ability Business Computing
Solution
After assessing the systems in use and iOffice Delivers’ needs, Lisa Burnett designed a solution that could unify their data sources and simplify inventory management. Upgrading from QuickBooks® Desktop to QuickBooks Online Advanced provided iOffice Delivers’ Joe Neil Henderson with anytime, anywhere access and centralized inventory control. Adding QuickBooks Point of Sale, in tandem with Ability’s own Ability Financial Exchange software, enabled him to now process and track sales from retail and wholesale customers more quickly.
With QuickBooks Online Advanced, Henderson was able to solve interoperability challenges, which allowed him to:
- Streamline invoicing.
- Improve inventory control.
- Increase team productivity.
- Report on wholesale and retail in one view.
- Define permissions on the basis of user or workstream.
- Provide cleaner data and greater visibility.
“Being able to do everything on a single QuickBooks platform has allowed us to focus our attention on our customers and growing our business.” – Joe Neil Henderson, iOffice Delivers
Impact
Eliminating the need for triple entry significantly streamlined recordkeeping. iOffice Delivers now runs reliably in the cloud, so the owners can access information or perform tasks such as inventory on site or on the go. The implementation was easy with the help of Ability’s high-touch approach to modeling and testing, and the Office Delivers team quickly saw the advantages of making the change. The fully integrated system has also made on-boarding new clients highly efficient.
These new capabilities have created opportunities for iOffice Delivers to better focus on the growth of its eCommerce business, which Henderson says has been a huge success. “In a very competitive landscape, we had to make a BIG move and shake things up. These new systems have certainly been a critical ingredient to our continued growth.”
At a glance
QuickBooks Solution Provider (QSP): Ability Business Computing
QSP specializations: Professional services, business services
QSP applied expertise: Consulting, data migration, expert support, business application development
Customer: iOffice Delivers
Location: Texas, USA
Industry: Office supplies and business services
Solution: QuickBooks Online Advanced
Key add-ons: QuickBooks Point of Sale, Ability Financial Exchange
