About Pronto Network
When a mechanic in North America fits new brake pads, there’s often a Pronto Network program behind the parts. The cooperative negotiates vendor terms and rebates for its 236 warehouse distributor members across the US, Canada, and Mexico, and runs the tagging behind those programs in Qlik.
The challenge for Pronto Network
Spreadsheet dependency
Rebate programs only work when members, national accounts, and product lines are tagged together correctly. With roughly 62,000 account locations and 40,000 member products in play, that tagging ran on spreadsheets shuttled between members and Pronto’s team.
Manual data entry
Vendor claims and rebate payments had to be keyed into the accounting system one record at a time. Thousands and thousands of them.
Slow data collection
The budgeting process could not track the inputs behind each budget against actual results. Consequently, the team could not see what was driving the numbers.
Limited access to SQL data
The processes above run on SQL Server data, but the hundreds of people who feed them are not database users. Teaching them SQL Server was never a realistic option.
I’m a one-man band. I’ve been doing that process now for seven or eight years. And before I moved it over to Inphinity, it was sort of the bane of my existence.
Brooks Cochrum
Director of Business Intelligence
How Inphinity helps Pronto Network
Pronto turned its Qlik and SQL Server environment from a reporting layer into a collaborative platform.
1) National account and product tagging
Inphinity Forms powers Pronto’s National Account Management System, allowing members to tag their customers against 62,000 account locations and 40,000 products directly inside Qlik. Instead of exchanging spreadsheets and emails, members update information in real time through governed forms.
2) Rebate claims and accounting
Inphinity also supports rebate administration. Accounting teams mark which claims vendors have paid and export clean transaction data straight into the accounting system.
3) Member relationship management
Pronto’s business development team got its own app. Instead of emailing data updates back and forth, managers look up member details, Qlik access, and KPIs in one place and correct anything on the spot.
Together, these workflows replaced spreadsheet-driven processes with governed in-Qlik applications that reduce delays, eliminate manual rework, and keep information closer to the source.
The Inphinity difference
Inphinity now runs in over a third of Pronto’s key Qlik apps. What changed was not just the workflow, but the amount of manual work behind it.
I used to have to do this from them sending me spreadsheet answers or me sending it to them. And now they can do it right here and I don’t have to ask them anymore. It’s fantastic.
Brooks Cochrum
Director of Business Intelligence
Before
- Account and product tagging lived in spreadsheets emailed back and forth.
- Accounting hand-keyed thousands of rebate records one at a time.
- Email data collection took 2 weeks, and answers arrived outdated.
- SQL Server data was off-limits to everyone but one self-taught BI lead.
After
- Members tag accounts and product lines themselves, directly in Qlik.
- One export replaced it all, saving 15 hours every month.
- Members respond in the app, and changes appear immediately.
- Non-technical users update it through simple forms, while record locking prevents conflicts.
Ready to let your teams update data in Qlik, not around it? Talk to the Inphinity team.
