Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning, the largest privately owned HVAC service provider in the U.S., found itself in this situation. As the company grew, it sought to enhance services to its over 75,000 customers. To accomplish this, Four Seasons required immediate access to thousands of parts. The company teamed with Sid Harvey's, an HVAC parts and equipment distributor. The two agreed to share an 80,000-sq.-ft. warehouse.

Prior to becoming strategic partners both Sid Harvey's and Four Seasons relied on VAI (Vormittage Associates, Inc.), a leading provider of enterprise management solutions to the HVAC industry, to provide and implement its award winning software. VAI helped these companies find a common denominator, forging a unique partnership in customer service.

Four Seasons Four Seasons' enormous growth, from a small company to a fleet of "rolling warehouses" with over 200 trucks, is a direct result of quality customer service. To manage this, Four Seasons sought an enterprise wide, real time solution to enhance inventory-tracking capabilities across its fleet. Four Seasons turned to VAI, purchasing S2K for distribution and S2K Service & Repair. With S2K, Four Seasons obtained an integrated inventory management tool, enabling it to grasp product and job costs-and much more. Pete Zimmerman, manufacturing segment manager, VAI, explained, "Four Seasons achieved better inventory control, enhanced service call tracking and improved maintenance scheduling, allowing Four Seasons to keep its customers' HVAC equipment running smoothly." Dave Musial, president, Four Seasons, commented, "S2K boosts efficiency so we can service customers quickly. With VAI, Four Seasons has raised profits without increasing prices, keeping us competitive in the industry."

Sid Harvey's In 1999, Sid Harvey's replaced its old software system-which consisted of different software at branch locations and corporate headquarters-with S2K for Distribution, S2K for manufacturing and S2K Commerce Express.

As the company grew, it needed to streamline operations to better serve customers, which needed inventory immediately. Sid Harvey's stocks over 40,000 items at 75 locations throughout the U.S., so a real-time inventory management tool enabling each location to communicate stock availability was required. S2K solved this problem, allowing implementation of a single integrated software package. Russ TumSuden, Sid Harvey's, stated, "With S2K, everything is real-time, offering amazing visibility at all levels. This implementation has touched the entire company, from accounting and pricing to ordering and purchasing. Literally, everything has changed."