Marco Supply Company isn’t your average plumbing and HVAC supply house – it’s an 80-year-old industry veteran with deep roots and a forward-looking mindset. Starting as two separate companies: Johnson Pipe and Marco Supply founded in 1924 and 1970, Marco Supply has grown into its customers’ supplier of choice and is committed to their success. The company supplies PVF to all residential and commercial plumbing, HVAC/R, waterworks, industrial and mechanical piping markets.
From a single storefront to multiple locations throughout Chicago, the Illinoisbased business has seen generations of change. Yet despite its long history, Marco Supply Company is anything but stuck in the past. In fact, this family-run firm recently made a big 21st-century leap – upgrading its core business systems to a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. The goal? To boost efficiency, improve customer service and future-proof the business for the next 85 years.
"We have a lot of history behind us, but we’re always looking ahead,” says Mike Love, executive vice president of Marco Supply Company. “Moving to the cloud with Infor CloudSuite was a strategic move to gain better visibility into our business and serve our customers even better.”
In simple terms, CloudSuite Distribution is now the digital backbone of Marco’s operations – handling everything from inventory and orders to financials – all accessible through the internet. For an audience not steeped in tech, think of it like the central nervous system for the company, only this one lives securely in the cloud instead of a backroom server. And the payoff has been immediate.
Why Move to the Cloud?
Modernizing an established business is no small feat. Before the switch, Marco Supply’s legacy software was showing its age. Employees often had to wrestle with outdated interfaces and manual processes, and getting meaningful data out of the system required extra time (and sometimes guesswork). Worse, the on-premise system meant if the main office had an issue – say a power outage or a server crash – operations could grind to a halt.
“We recognized the risks of staying on older technology. We didn’t want to be one big hardware failure away from shutting down,” Love notes.
Disaster resilience became a key motivation. Marco Supply’s leadership knew that by moving its ERP to a modern cloud platform, it would gain built-in business continuity – no more worrying about local disasters knocking them offline.
Another motivation was agility. In the fast-moving distribution world, cloud agility is a competitive advantage. Marco wanted the ability to scale up easily during busy seasons, rapidly roll out updates and integrate new tools without the headache of managing servers. “Infor CloudSuite gives us the agility to adapt quickly,” Love explains.
CloudSuite is continually updated by Infor, so Marco Supply always runs the latest and greatest features without painful upgrades. Security and uptime are handled by Infor’s cloud team, taking a huge load off Marco Supply’s small IT crew. “Our IT staff can focus on strategic projects now, instead of babysitting servers,” says Love.
In short, moving to the cloud promised to free Marco Supply from maintenance burdens and set the stage for innovation.
New Visibility and Better Customer Service
One of the first things Marco Supply noticed after implementing Infor CloudSuite Distribution (often called CSD for short) was a dramatic increase in business visibility. The system comes with user-friendly dashboards and analytics tools that put real-time data at managers’ fingertips. Before, compiling sales reports or inventory status might take hours of exporting data to spreadsheets. Now it’s often a click away. “It’s like we’ve turned on the lights in a dim room – suddenly we can see everything clearly,” Love says with a smile, describing the new level of insight.
Sales trends, inventory levels and customer buying patterns are all more transparent. This visibility helps Marco Supply make smarter stocking decisions and identify opportunities that were previously hidden in siloed data.
Crucially, that improved insight has translated into better customer service on the ground. Counter staff and sales reps can now pull up accurate inventory counts and customer histories instantly, enabling them to answer inquiries and fulfill orders faster than ever. “Our team can tell a customer within seconds if a product is in stock and when it can be delivered. That’s huge for service,” Love points out.
With CloudSuite, quotes and orders that used to require multiple phone calls and callbacks are now handled in one go, because everyone has the information they need at their fingertips. Customers have noticed the difference – fewer mistakes, faster turnaround and a more responsive partner in Marco Supply Company. For a business that prides itself on personal service, these improvements go straight to the heart of its mission.
To sum up the benefits Marco Supply has seen since adopting CloudSuite, here are a few standout gains:
- Real-time Analytics & Dashboards: Instant visibility into sales, inventory and financial metrics for data-driven decisions.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Faster quote-to-order processing and accurate, on-the-spot information, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
- Business Continuity: Operations stay up and running even during local disruptions (no more fearing that a server outage could paralyze the company).
- Easy Integration: Seamless connections with third-party tools (like e-commerce, CRM and payment systems), making the overall IT ecosystem more powerful.
- Time Savings & Efficiency: Automation of routine tasks and elimination of redundant data entry free up staff to focus on serving customers and growing the business.
“Our people are working smarter, not harder. The system automates a lot of the busy work we used to do manually,” notes Love.
For example, purchase orders and invoices can be generated and tracked electronically with minimal human intervention, reducing errors and saving time. Marco Supply’s online store integrates smoothly with the CloudSuite backend, so web orders flow right into the system without re-keying. This kind of efficiency gain is critical, especially as order volumes grow.
Resilience, Agility, and IT Empowerment
When a freak storm hit the Midwest last year, Marco Supply’s headquarters lost power for a day but Marco Supply never lost a single transaction. Thanks to their cloud-based system, employees in other locations kept processing orders and serving customers as usual. “If that had happened before, it would have been a very bad day for us,” Love recalls.
Now, with data and applications running in professionally managed data centers, Marco Supply has disaster resilience baked in. Whether it’s a storm, fire or other unexpected event, the business can continue operating from anywhere with an internet connection. That peace of mind is perhaps one of the less obvious but most appreciated benefits of the cloud transition.
Cloud agility is another plus that’s been put to the test. As Marco Supply expands its product lines and services new trends (for instance, the booming demand for indoor air quality equipment and energy-efficient heat pumps), the company can easily extend its system to accommodate new items, categories and even new locations without missing a beat.
Infor CloudSuite’s flexible architecture allows Marco Supply to configure workflows or add users rapidly. “We’ve been able to roll out enhancements and adapt the system as we grow, without waiting on a yearly software upgrade or investing in new hardware,” says Love.
In other words, the technology can keep up with Marco Supply’s ambitions in real time. Moreover, the switch to CloudSuite has empowered Marco Supply’s IT team in surprising ways. Instead of spending their days troubleshooting servers or implementing patches, IT staff are now business enablers. They can focus on optimizing processes, training employees on new features and exploring data analytics – the fun stuff that adds value – rather than just “keeping the lights on.”
Love highlights this change: “Our IT department went from being maintenance mechanics to innovation drivers. That’s a big cultural shift.”
And when technical help is needed, Marco Supply has Infor’s services and support backing them up. Love has positive feedback about working with Infor’s team during the migration: “Infor’s consultants were fantastic – they really understood distribution and guided us through the transition step by step. It felt like a true partnership.”
That partnership approach meant the CloudSuite go-live was on time and on target, with minimal disruption to Marco Supply’s day-to-day business.
Looking Ahead: Data-Driven Growth
Now that Marco Supply Company has its operations firmly in the cloud, Mike Love and his team are looking to the future with confidence – and data. One of the next frontiers Marco Supply is excited about is leveraging the robust analytics and business intelligence dashboards in CloudSuite to drive strategic growth. The distribution industry is evolving fast, with new product innovations (like the rise of smart home plumbing devices and greener HVAC systems) and shifting customer expectations (such as more e-commerce and next-day delivery). Marco Supply plans to use its rich data to spot trends and adapt proactively. “We’re able to slice and dice our data in ways we never could before,” notes Love.
Interactive dashboards let Marco Supply’s managers monitor performance by branch, product line and even customer segment in real time, which will help in identifying which markets to expand or where to stock new product categories. If the demand for, say, high-efficiency heat pumps surges, Marco Supply can see that early in the numbers and respond faster than competitors.
The cloud system will also support Marco Supply’s geographic growth. Adding a new branch used to mean significant IT setup and coordination – now it’s largely plug-andplay. This positions Marco Supply well for expansion, whether that means acquiring another distributor or simply opening new locations in underserved areas. Love envisions CloudSuite as an enabler for Marco Supply to continue evolving: “We have the tools now to grow intelligently. The dashboards and analytics show us what’s working and where we can improve, so we’re making decisions based on facts, not hunches.”
For a company that’s built on earning customer trust daily, those data-driven insights ensure Marco Supply will keep delivering on its promises in an ever-changing market.
The Cloud Trend Across IMARK Distributors
Marco Supply Company is not alone in its cloud journey. Many peers in the IMARK distributor community are also leveraging Infor CloudSuite to modernize and thrive. Two notable examples are Charles D. Jones & Co. and Plumbing & Heating Wholesale, both long-time distribution businesses that have embraced CloudSuite to improve efficiency and fuel growth:
- Charles D. Jones & Co.: A well-known HVAC supply company in the Midwest, Charles D. Jones turned to CloudSuite to help standardize and automate its core business functions. By adopting Infor’s cloud ERP, the company has cut down manual data entry, reduced errors and gained better visibility into its multiarehouse inventory. This efficiency boost allows Charles D. Jones to handle higher sales volumes with the same headcount, directly supporting their growth strategy. Moreover, the modern, user-friendly system has been a hit with employees – training new hires is faster and they’re productive sooner. Leadership at Charles D. Jones notes that having up-to-date dashboards and reporting has improved decision-making and helped pinpoint new market opportunities, keeping the business on a solid growth trajectory.
- Plumbing & Heating Wholesale (PHW): This regional distributor modernized its operations by moving to Infor CloudSuite Distribution, which unified data across its branches that recently went live with Infor.
These case snapshots underline a clear theme: cloud-based ERP is becoming the backbone of successful distribution businesses. Whether it’s plumbing supplies in Iowa or HVAC equipment in Kansas, IMARK members are finding that Infor CloudSuite delivers the agility and insight they need to compete and expand in today’s market.
A Fun but Firm Conclusion
Infor CloudSuite may be high-tech, but at its core, it’s enabling age-old business values to shine through: great service, reliability and knowing your business inside-out. For Marco Supply Company, the journey to the cloud has been a transformative adventure – one that’s making an 85-year-old company feel new again. “We’ve got the visibility, the flexibility and the confidence to take on the future,” Mike Love says, reflecting on the changes.
And with those trademark Marco Supply Co. trucks now filled with PVF and fueled by cloud-powered efficiency, it’s clear that even old businesses can learn new tricks. The takeaway for any IMARK distributor member reading: if Marco Supply Company can do it, you can too – and the results are well worth it.