Epicor Software Corp. has announced that E&Y Distributors, dba U.S. Taxi Parts, an automotive parts distributor serving customers across the state of New York, will upgrade to the Epicor Vision distribution management solution. The company said it expects the new enterprise solution to help improve inventory control and facilitate its planned expansion into new markets.

“We are very pleased to have U.S. Taxi Parts join the impressive number of distributors that want to grow beyond their traditional business constraints through the powerful, proven Vision solution,” said Scott Thompson, vice president, automotive, analytics and content, Epicor Software. “Investing in new technology is a proven path to stronger growth, improved profitability, and increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

Established in 1992 as a small taxi parts wholesaler, E&Y Distributors now serves dozens of medium to large fleets, each with hundreds of vehicles. The company prides itself on its ability to be a one-stop-shop for its customers – supplying most replacement components, from suspension to engine parts to tires and wheels. E&Y also offers several private label lines, including Elite brake pads; USTAXIPARTS brake rotors; Elite7 air, cabin and oil filters, radiators, condensers and cooling; Royal belts; and Everest oil.

With its growing inventory requirements and increasingly complex operations, E&Y says it had exceeded the capabilities of its existing software. With plans to expand to up to three locations in the next few years, the company decided it was time to invest in a more powerful and versatile solution.

“Our existing software solution is great for a small business, but not for a company of our size,” said Amer Chahal, director, E&Y Distributors. “We want to continue growing and expanding, and to do that it’s imperative that we utilize software that can manage multiple locations. We need to be able to keep track of what’s going on at each of our facilities and get away from all the manual data entry. Epicor Vision software will allow us to do both.”

Chahal said he expects the system to save his employees countless hours by simplifying inventory management, invoicing, purchasing and a variety of other business-critical tasks. The ability to receive, ship and verify shipments with electronic scanning “is going to make controlling inventory much, much easier and far more accurate,” he said. Chahal also expects the solution’s integrated Epicor LaserCat 3 electronic catalog to improve customer service.

“In Vision software, it’s easy to see where you’re sourcing parts from, what kind of parts they are, where they fit on the vehicle – that’s the kind of stuff that is going to make our lives easier and help us to better serve our customers,” said Chahal. “The Vision solution is made for our kind of business and we expect it will make everything simpler, faster and more efficient for us.”

In addition, Chahal said E&Y employees are looking forward to leveraging the Vision solution’s intuitive interface and the ability to integrate with warehouse management systems and third-party applications. “Ultimately, we’re expecting it will improve our gross margins, help drastically with inventory, give us better control of our sales and keep us from wasting a lot of time doing things that can be done easily and automatically.”