Success Stories

ProfitMaster Canada
Winnipeg, Manitoba

IT solution tracks nails to build profit

Wednesday 8 February 2006 | Winnipeg, Manitoba

At a national building supply trade show: (from left) Messrs. Neil Dueck, company founder; Jeff McEachern, General Manager and; Larry Stewart, Sales Manager - East.

In the late 1990s, PM Canada Inc. (PMC) had a challenge that many firms would have ignored. The company's hundreds of direct clients and thousands of end-users were happy, and the Winnipeg-based company was making a healthy profit. But company insiders knew they had a ticking technological time bomb —  PMC's software architecture was quickly becoming obsolete.

Through a close working relationship with the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), PMC embarked on a major technological upgrade designed to maintain and enhance its leadership position servicing Canada's building supply industry.

PMC produces ProfitMaster Canada™, the leading turn-key business management and enterprise resource planning software solution for the building supply industry. When contractors and consumers buy two-by-fours and paint at more than 400 building supply centres from B.C. to Newfoundland to Nunavut, the order is likely to be processed using the ProfitMaster Canada™ system.

"In the building supply business, profit is made up of a whole bunch of little things, from the accuracy of inventory to tracking returns," says Martin French, PMC's Director of Research. "There are just too many details for people to manage on a day-to-day basis. This is where our products make a huge difference in a businesses' bottom line."

Just how big a difference can the little details make? French notes that about eight-per cent of sales in the approximately $36 billion annual Canadian building supply market are lost or gained due to out-of-stock items. The ProfitMaster Canada™ system integrates business components from purchasing and sales to provide clients with both the big picture and day-to-day business intelligence.

But in the late 1990s, French says the company realized its success rested on a legacy technology. The software that powered the "green screens" PMC's customers used was built using computer platforms in use from the early 1980s. Now in the age of World Wide Web, the company's long-term success depended on a seamless, stepwise migration to an Internet-based, graphical interface using lower-cost open-source code.

"We were caught in a real Catch-22 situation. As a small business we couldn't afford not to move our technology ahead, but spending the resources to move ahead posed a major business risk," says French. "NRC-IRAP support enabled us to take that risk, something we probably wouldn't have done on our own."

Starting in 1999, the company began what developed into a close working relationship with NRC-IRAP Industrial Technology Advisor (ITA) George Ortega. He helped PMC craft a long-term business strategy that hinged on an intensive technology upgrade program.

"They had to develop a smooth technology migration process," notes Ortega. "It would have to be seamless and painless for their clients."

Through NRC-IRAP support, PMC secured two IRAP/ Technology Partnerships Canada repayable contributions — all of which have been duly repaid.

To start, the company — based at Smartpark, a technology cluster on the University of Manitoba campus — developed a prototype Internet-based technology for tool and equipment rental. The project saw French out in the field working behind the rentals desk to get a first hand feel for the demands of this niche business. The project provided the company with a bevy of technology experience, and resulted in the sale of the rental software in 2003.

Based on the skills acquired on this project, the company moved to the first direct upgrade of its core product — changing the purchasing component of its business management solution to a Java-based open-source platform. The company's eight computer scientists and technicians "glued together" the old and the new software platforms, to create the first key phase in the technology's full migration to a best-of-breed business management solution.

Two subsequent NRC-IRAP applied research projects enabled PMC to build their technological capability to successfully integrate handheld, wireless mobile devices into their system and also ensure that the overall system was up to the task of handling more business.

"We needed to know if we could scale-up to tackle larger markets where there can be 50 stores in local building supply chains," says French.

Computer simulation research with Smartpark-based TRLabs proved that the ProfitMaster Canada™ technology was scaleable and ready for growth. Something that both French and Ortega note was clear to Bell Business Solutions of Montreal who acquired PMC in early 2006.  

The right mix of people, business processes and technology has ensured that PMC continues to thrive and grow from their facility in Winnipeg, while enabling the business success of each client in their growing client base.