Customer Success Story – Porter Pipe and Supply

Cyberquery Transcends Data Discovery at Porter Pipe

by Brad Jackson

Craig Costa and Stacey Pike of Porter Pipe and Supply spoke with me about implementing Cyberquery as they transitioned from their on prem ERP, Infor SX.e, to Infor CloudSuite Distribution.

“We are very excited to have found Cyberquery as our go forward data discovery platform. It is far exceeding our expectations!” Craig Costa – VP of Business Technology & Branch Operations

Porter Pipe and Supply is a wholesale distributor focused on the mechanical contracting segment in the Midwest. Porter Pipe needed a new application that could be deployed in lieu of their sunsetting analytics software as well as interface seamlessly with CloudSuite Distribution (CSD). It was a challenging time as they were upgrading from SX.e to CSD just a few months before year end.

The team used to query SX.e data in real-time and develop ad hoc reports with ease. As they evaluated different data analysis solutions, Cyberquery was the software that met their demanding requirements against CSD.

Within the cloud CSD environment, data is replicated in a Data Lake for analysis purposes. Porter Pipe uses Cyberquery to import data on a weekly basis. In addition, incremental daily and hourly updates occur automatically based on Porter Pipe’s unique data refresh requirements. The hourly update takes less than 5 minutes with no impact on the ERP performance. This gives them the near real-time access they need for critical data such as sales, accounts payable and the general ledger.

“Without a doubt, I love Cyberquery. It was easy to pick up and start creating reports and ad hoc analysis.” Stacey Pike – Business Intelligence Analyst

Pricing for distributors is one of the more challenging reporting areas. It is complex and highly competitive with direct impact on the bottom line. Porter Pipe’s pricing team needed reports to help manage prices and maintain price books. With the help of Cyberscience, multi-pass reporting and several calculated fields were leveraged to better understand price type and price level by all customers.

Annually Porter Pipe creates year-end review reports for their top customers and suppliers. These 5-10 page reports summarize sales, rebates, returns, savings, etc. It traditionally took 2 days to prepare one customer report. With Cyberquery the process now takes one day, resulting in a 50% productivity gain. The team is looking at further automating the process utilizing additional Cyberquery features.

Porter Pipe also highly values the support they receive from the Cyberscience Professional Services Group. The depth of knowledge and speed of response were two qualities they say stand out from the competition.

About Porter Pipe and Supply

Porter Pipe & Supply Co. serves the professional trade businesses as a wholesale supplier of commercial plumbing supplies, pipe, valves, and fittings, HVACR equipment, and industrial and mechanical products. Founded 1976, the family business has grown to 5 warehouses, 472,000 total sq ft stocking over 35,000 SKU’s. Porter Pipe is dedicated to saving our customers time, adding value to their business, and helping them build America.

If you have a need for a new business intelligence solution that provides benefits as Craig and Stacey describe, contact Cyberscience for a demo or test drive.  – info@cyberscience.com.

Author: Brad Jackson, Business Development Manager at Cyberscience.