Recycling Company Increases Customer Count and Retention while Reducing Headcount During Growth

San Diego, California, April 20, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- When Arizona Pacific Pulp and Paper (APPP) contracted with Radiant Technologies to replace its aging, DOS-based financial software system with Recycle One, the company realized substantial and  tangible business gains, including:  giving customers timely, accurate, and custom reports that resulted in specific customer retentions and attraction, great process improvements that resulted in getting financial reports to executives in 1 day instead of 10 or more, and decreasing office headcount while achieving  sustained growth. 

APPP is the largest company in the Recycle1 family that also includes Arizona Center for the Blind Document Destruction, a trucking company, a plastic recycler, a business that sells and services bailers and compacters, and several commercial real-estate organizations that take care of the properties for all Recycle1 companies. APPP is headquartered in Phoenix, where Tracy Huettl takes care of the business management of all Recycle1 businesses. "Our clients rely on us to help them fulfill their sustainability and 'green' initiatives within the best possible marketplace," says Huettl, Controller at APPP.

The company supplies paper mills around the world with recycled materials by taking in waste paper and cardboard from a wide variety of sources, including door trade, where people bring paper to one of APPP's plants in exchange for cash. The companies that sell waste paper to APPP require detailed reports on the environmental and business benefits that their recycling generates, but with the earlier technology, these reports were difficult to produce and customize for individual clients. APPP's system was also unable to keep pace with the company's growth, and, because it required multiple data entry of information, it had become unreliable. When an IT specialist who was familiar with the DOS system left the company, APPP faced even greater complexities and expenses in operating the dated technology. Because of these mounting difficulties, Huettl led an effort to find another solution that would better serve APPP.

Stronger Competitive Advantage

Recycle One creates a competitive advantage for APPP when serving the clients that sell them waste. As Huettl comments, "We have many different competitors, including paper companies and recyclers. Our clients have lots of choices in seeing their sustainability goals through. In the past, we sometimes lost clients because we were unable to get reports out fast enough.  Our VP of sales told me that there are customers who would have left us for a better price, though they were tied to their specific reports they would get from us, which were always on-time and accurate.  The ability to use Recycle One to provide customized reports that tell clients what the resource impact and environmental benefits of their recycling efforts amount to has helped us retain customers and attract many others."

Providing a Platform of Growth

With a Microsoft integrated system, APPP has set themselves up to grow now and in the future.  "We were growing by quite a bit the last few years.  Each year we had to add two headcounts in the office to keep up with the extra work.  Now that we are automated, this next year we are on the same growth path, and not only are we not going to add anyone, we are so efficient that we will redeploy a person to elsewhere in the company.  And we see how we can grow a lot more before we have to bring someone else on."

Productivity Gains; from 10 days to 1 day

Huettl found productivity gains in many places, explaining: "It used to take me three days to close the books at the end of the month in preparation for an audit, and a week to perform the audit. Now it takes me a few minutes to close the books and a day to complete the audit.  Now management gets their reports much faster, and I don't have to work nights and weekends anymore!"

Simplicity and New Efficiencies

Finding the right software for the complex business was challenging. "We found that many companies ran two or more systems: financial management software as well as one or more industry-specific systems to handle operations," says Huettl. "We, however, wanted a single tool to perform all business tasks as we knew that was a key to scaling our growth." Eventually, APPP chose Recycle One, a full enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and contracted with Radiant Technologies to implement it. Radiant Technologies performed the implementation in stages, first bringing the real-estate companies with their relatively uncomplicated needs to the solution, followed by the document destruction business several months later, and APPP last. Huettl explains, "We kept our processes consistent whenever it made sense to do so, and we introduced many efficiencies throughout the company. With a single system in place, we eliminated redundant data entry along with most of our use of paper.  We used to joke that we needed to recycle all the paper that sat in my office.  Now we've essentially gone paperless.  We can now see complete, accurate information in real time. By using the Recycle One RoleTailored client, employees have direct access to the capabilities and data they need.  We now have information literally at our fingertips.  The solution is much easier to use than our previous system."

Real-Time Dashboards

For APPP executives and owners, Recycle One provides dashboards that show how different client accounts perform and with what business the client makes transactions. "People trust Recycle One," states Huettl. "It's very easy to create almost any report we like so that we can analyze cash flow, costs, and business performance in a way that's meaningful." When customers call in with questions, the ERP system provides real-time details regarding pick-up locations, invoicing, pick-up scheduling, and more so that any employee can resolve customer queries immediately.  "The President loves it because he can see exactly and only the information he wants to see, in easy-to-read, color indicators and graphs.  Each manager, VP and department head has their own custom dashboard."

More Accurate Invoicing

Recycle One has also proven to be more accurate than the software tools it replaced. When Huettl ran the old system in parallel with the new solution, she noticed that the older technology rounded invoice amounts down, miscalculated them, or did not record invoices in accounts receivable at all. "Our profit-and-loss statements were inaccurate, with income numbers too low," she explains. "With Recycle One, we can make sure that we invoice correctly and record all invoices appropriately."

Future Plans Include Taking Advantage of Even More Capabilities

APPP already relies on Recycle One to track containers and equipment left at customer locations. In the near future, the company will make more use of the ERP solution's capabilities that are specific to the recycling industry, which include automatic pound/ton conversions of weights and prices. APPP is implementing systems to manage barcode-enabled inventory, materials, truck dispatch, and assets through Recycle One. APPP's sales representatives are also about to use the customer relationship management functionality of Recycle One to manage and record customer engagements, replacing their legacy ACT! software and creating a more efficient way to connect with customers and drive sales performance.

Valuable Technology Partner

Huettl is enthusiastic about her experience with Recycle One and Radiant Technologies. "I would definitely recommend Radiant Technologies," she said, "They understand our business and what we need, and they can fine-tune the technology to work as we wish. They get everything done immediately. And, when it comes to Recycle One, I really enjoy coming to work, using a system that makes financial management easier, more reliable, and more strategically valuable for the company."

For more information contact:
Radiant Marketing
P: +1 (866) 997-2342
RadiantMarketing@radiant.us.com