Above: Service center leaders, like Micky Tschirhart of Scion Steel, are enlisting Eniteo to track their inventory by heat for electronic traceability.
September, 2024: Nine service center leaders are helping to shape the future of software advancements for their industry. These nine leaders form the Customer Advisory Board for ERP provider Enmark Systems, Inc. “We want to ensure that Enmark is solving the biggest problems for customers and addressing the changes in the market that are affecting the ways service centers do business,” explains Chris Vaughn, vice president product strategy for Enmark. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based software developer has a mission to increase efficiencies and profitability for service centers.
Advisory Board members align with this mission and are representative of Enmark’s customer base including master steel distributors and midsized service centers. Enmark’s flagship ERP platform, Eniteo, has been developed exclusively for service centers. “We are the ERP supplier to more members of North American Steel Alliance (NASA) than any other ERP provider,” says Ben Lion, president for Enmark.
A MEMBER’S PERSPECTIVE
One member of the Advisory Board is Micky Tschirhart, president of Scion Steel in Warren, Michigan. Scion Steel’s connection to Enmark dates back to 2013. “We were looking for a highly customer-service driven ERP platform,” recalls Tschirhart.
When Scion Steel launched Eniteo in 2013, the sales and accounting functions became incorporated under one system. “We had the Enmark team on site for a week onboarding our personnel. Now we automate the handling of multiple data streams and content, including mill test reports. It’s efficient and seamless. We also gain traceability through the entire shop,” explains Tschirhart. These experiences led Tschirhart to agree to participate in the Advisory Board, which was established in October 2023.
“Micky’s an enthusiastic member of the Advisory Board and he’s very committed to partnership that makes him valuable to the Advisory Board and the industry,” notes Lion. Tschirhart and other members of the Advisory Board meet quarterly both in person and virtually. “The Board asked us to help them manage their most valuable assets more effectively and increase their speed of payment,” states Lion.
The easy-to-read EnVision dashboard was influenced by members of the Enmark Customer Advisory Board.
The taskboard feature of EnVision helps service centers manage time more efficiently.
As a result of the Advisory Board, three areas of product development have emerged at Enmark: inventory management, electronic payments and data analytics.
ENVISION
After being piloted at the Advisory Board members’ companies, Enmark launched EnVision in June 2024. This addition to the Eniteo suite gives customers a business intelligence and decision support tool that’s purpose-built for Eniteo users, providing measurable and actionable insights into their inventory. “Inventory is one of the most important investments at a service center. If they make a wrong decision about what and when they are purchasing, it can be the difference between success and failure for a company,” reports Vaughn.
For example, EnVision can send an alert when inventory levels exceed a certain amount or when a product is running low. “The auto alerts mean a customer doesn’t have to sift through detailed data to uncover a lurking issue. This saves time and increases efficiencies. It’s a better way for service centers to see the inside of their warehouse,” says Vaughn.
Users of EnVision can create custom reports and take advantage of a pre-built library of dashboards. Input from the Advisory Board helped influence the dashboard design and content of the report templates. Customer feedback to EnVision has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Lion. “A majority of our customers are in conversations with our sales team about adding EnVision to their ERP system,” he notes. “Early users are also giving us their input on other reports they’d like to run. There is a lot of customer engagement happening with EnVision to make the tool even more effective,” adds Lion.
GOING PAPERLESS
Eniteo was launched in 2004 as primarily an accounting and estimating tool. “Today’s Eniteo incorporates the entire service center operation, including purchasing, inventory, shipping and more. In the early days, the goal was to ship steel faster. Now customers want additional efficiencies,” explains Vaughn. One enabler of efficiencies is the barcoding feature within Eniteo.
When a service center applies Eniteo barcoding to its inventory picking, loading and shipping, the business can become more efficient. Shipping personnel use a handheld scanning device to view the priorities for the day. If there’s a change in priority, the information is automatically updated and the warehouse crew can adjust on the fly. “Service centers can be even more nimble when they go paperless and use an electronic barcoding tool,” says Vaughn.
In contrast, paper-based tracking is slower. “More errors can occur. Then there is time required to correct the error,” adds Vaughn. With Eniteo, Scion Steel digitized delivery receipts and team members are no longer looking through drawers of paper files for this information. “We heard from the Advisory Board a clear desire to increase speed, minimize errors and eliminate mounds of paper in their operations,” recalls Lion.
E-PAY AND E-COMMERCE
Eliminating paper invoices and paper payments is inherent in the quest for a paperless business. “Paper is inefficient. Electronic payments allow service centers to receive funds faster and automates the process for reconciliations against customer accounts, invoices and cash receipts,” states Lion. Enmark Pay allows customers to make online credit card and electronic ACH payments. The software manages payments in multiple currencies and addresses third-party sales tax integration. When a service center goes paperless, it’s also a means to address the industry’s labor pains. “Their business can perform the same amount of work with less personnel when it’s paperless. Or those employees can be redirected to more productive or complex work,” notes Vaughn.
Advisory Board companies were integral in the rollout of Enmark Pay. “We were one of the first beta testers for Enmark Pay. The very first ACH payment received through Enmark’s software was received by Scion Steel,” recalls Tschirhart.
Next on the software development schedule at Enmark are more ecommerce features and functionality for an enhanced buying experience via an online portal. “More and more customers of service centers are asking for these capabilities. Our programmers are working with the Advisory Board on more ways to take their businesses into the future,” says Vaughn.
FUTURE ANALYTICS
The future is here for service centers that have added barcoding and epay capabilities to Eniteo. “We are working on dashboards, reports and other ways to aggregate and present the data that Eniteo is capturing. This data can be leveraged to help service centers analyze the big picture of their business and make informed decisions about purchasing and pricing, for example. Leveraging this data will help increase the level of efficiencies and profits,” Vaughn points out.
Tschirhart, who recently signed up for the dashboard analytics, is excited about the possibilities. “There’s so much that Enmark has to offer. We are still exploring all the features,” he notes. Lion agrees. “Our most successful customers are using the software and technology tools available to them. They are even adapting their processes to maximize efficiencies and take their businesses to the next level.”
Helping businesses succeed is at the core of Enmark’s mission one that aligns with the goals of the Advisory Board. The collaboration seems to be working. “We succeed together. The Advisory Board is helping the entire industry,” says Vaughn.
Enmark Systems, Inc., 734/669-0110, enmark.com
