LIVERMORE, CA – Piston Ring, a Canadian distributor of automotive replacement components and related products, has announced that it is implementing the Activant Eagle for the Aftermarket business management solution across its entire network of company-owned stores.

According to Piston Ring GM Todd Toutant, implementing Activant Eagle is helping to bring the company up to speed from a technology standpoint.

“Activant has enabled us to leapfrog outdated technologies so we can run our business more effectively. It has brought us in line with modern tools and IT initiatives,” said Toutant.

Toutant said the Activant Eagle solution is helping the company’s counter staff provide faster, more efficient and valuable service to customers through a “functionally elegant point-of-sale system and highly intuitive Microsoft Windows-based user interface.” The system also provides an interface with Piston Ring’s Activant A-DIS warehouse management system, enabling rapid sourcing from the company’s distribution center.

“We love the new Windows user interface,” he said. “The catalog is a great asset with its lookups and associated images, [and] it is more easily integrated into our customer service tools. With the Eagle system, we’re more competitive and we can serve our customers better.”

Piston Ring is also seeing positive results in leveraging its new store system to minimize lost sales, according to Trevor Tennant, leader of the company’s Eagle training team. The Activant Eagle system’s integrated, aftermarket-specific POS and electronic catalog provide Piston Ring’s counter staff with access to millions of part images and other information. “Now that our counter staff has more information, it’s easier than ever for them to find the right parts,” Tennant said. “We can even send the customer a part photo, diagram or installation instructions right from the counterperson’s workstation.”

Other key benefits of the new solution for Piston Ring and other distributors include improved returns processing, continued POS functionality in situations when the server connection is interrupted and access to a broad range of business analytics, according to Activant.

For more information about Activant Solutions, visit: www.activant.com.