Redlands Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc., Redlands, CA, has been in business for over 100 years. They offer a number of services, including plumbing, heating, and air conditioning. The company services residential, commercial, industrial and institutional markets, offering new construction, service, repairs, and maintenance.

It is important for Redlands Plumbing to be able to easily communicate with their field personnel using dispatching and vehicle tracking systems which are monitored through their computer systems. They also need to be able to stock and track an extensive inventory of parts in their warehouse and retail center; the parts need to be easily located and quickly delivered to their service professionals in the field.

In July of 2005, the company decided to upgrade from their character-based system, CONTRAC2 , because they needed a system that utilized Windows and had a better user interface with more features. Redlands Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning’s long-time software consultant, Compusource Corporation , is the developer of the ASCENTE / TRAVERSE suite, an integrated solution specifically made for service and construction contractors The ASCENTE/ TRAVERSE software helps customers in the heating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical service industries handle a multitude of service functions and interface to a quality accounting system.

Tyler Miner, V.P. of Redlands Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc., says they looked at only one company other than Compusource. The reason they chose ASCENTE / TRAVERSE , he said, was because of the long-term relationship they had developed. Compusource was also the supplier for their previous software system, CONTRAC2 . Mark Rice, manager of the training and support department at Compusource , explained why this was helpful. “Since we knew the old character-based system, it was easy for us to convert their data into the new system.” Installation and training on the new software was complete by November of 2005.

Tyler Miner — V.P. of Redlands Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. Redlands Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. is currently operating with a 14-user ASCENTE and 8-user TRAVERSE license on a Windows Small Business Server. This system has helped them immensely with inventory and bar-coding. Tyler has been very happy with the way the inventory and POS systems work within their business. He states, “I love the drill-down financial statements because it makes finding data easy, especially at month-end. I can find a specific number within seconds – it’s that user-friendly!”

Additionally, Tyler has added a tool to the current system to help with the inventory. He uses a WASP handheld barcode scanner that he found and purchased on the Internet. He can upload the information from the WASP handheld onto his computer and easily convert it into a format compatible with TRAVERSE . This makes it easy to manage inventory from the warehouse and decreases the time it takes to count inventory.

Their long-term strategy is to go paperless. Eventually the company would like to have a “digital clipboard” so that their field personnel will be able to access account history from a job site and enter in new data that will communicate with an invoice system based in the office. They currently write out paper invoices, but they are hoping to change this process. The TRAVERSE users at Redlands Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. know that their new software system won’t go down the drain over time. They will be able to continue tailoring the software to fit their business needs, and the ASCENTE / TRAVERSE system will easily grow with the company for many more years to come.