A fourth-generation dealership replaced disconnected, location-bound systems with one cloud platform for sales, parts, service, rental, and inventory.
“It’s a snapshot of the entire company, not just your location.”
– Stephanie Smith, Owner, White’s Tractor
A family business built to keep moving forward
Long before White’s Tractor became a four-location Bobcat dealership, Stephanie Smith’s great-grandfather was a veterinarian, a “mule doctor,” selling farm implements from his practice. When he saw tractors beginning to change agriculture, he changed with them. He left veterinary work, opened a dealership, and laid the foundation for a family business that has now operated for more than a century.
Today, Stephanie and her brother represent the fourth generation of the family business. Members of the fifth generation are already working across its truck, bus, and Bobcat operations. What began as a small agricultural business has grown into several divisions, including four Bobcat locations in Wilson, New Bern, Jacksonville, and Winterville, North Carolina.
That legacy shapes how White’s operates. Employees are treated like family. Customers are known personally. And as the company grows, Stephanie remains focused on preserving the culture and customer experience that made the business successful in the first place.
“It’s by far and away the best place I’ve ever worked. It feels like a family.”
– Drew Marsteller, Operations Manager, White’s Tractor
When growth outpaces systems built for another business
White’s Bobcat operation was once a small piece of a larger truck-oriented organization. Its dealership software reflected that history. The team was using the truck version of CDK, a system that was not designed around the workflows of a seasonal equipment dealership.
The Bobcat team had limited control over the system and little visibility across its locations. Sales was largely outside the operating platform. Parts and service used one system, rental used another, and sales used a third. None of them communicated with one another.
The fragmentation made routine questions unnecessarily difficult. Leadership could not easily pull a list of top customers by location. Employees could not see a customer’s complete history of equipment purchases, parts purchases, and service visits in one place. Rental inventory was separated from the rest of the business. Equipment inventory was maintained through shared spreadsheets and manual updates, creating more room for human error.
“We were essentially using three systems: one for parts and service, one for rental, and one for sales, and none of them communicated with one another.” – Drew Marsteller, Operations Manager
One cloud platform connecting the entire Bobcat business
With Flyntlok, White’s brought sales, parts, service, rental, equipment, and customer information into one cloud-based dealership platform. Instead of viewing each branch or department in isolation, Stephanie and Drew can now see what is happening across all four locations.
For Stephanie, the greatest business value is straightforward: the company is easier to see and easier to manage. For Drew, who oversees parts, service, and rental across all four stores, the difference is the ability to search once and understand the complete picture.
A salesperson can see which location has the only available machine and act quickly for a customer. A parts employee can enter a part number and see quantities, bin locations, sales history, and availability across branches on one page. Managers can see what is rented, what is available, where technicians are working, and what needs attention, without toggling between locations or separate systems.
“It’s just a lot easier to manage now than it was before.” – Stephanie Smith, Owner
Better inventory visibility, from machines to the parts shelf
Inventory control has been one of the most meaningful improvements for White’s. Flyntlok gives the team a clearer way to track equipment and parts across branches, including transfers from one location to another. Physical inventories that once depended on spreadsheets and shared documents are now supported by current system data.
On the parts side, the team has improved its ability to follow ordering and receiving activity and understand what it actually has on hand. Automated Bobcat parts-pricing updates also remove a recurring manual task as vendor pricing changes.
The transition required work. Historical inventory data did not come over from CDK, so White’s used its first 12 to 18 months to rebuild a trustworthy data foundation and complete full inventories across its stores. With that history now in place, the team is beginning to make greater use of stocking guidelines, minimums and maximums, and sales-based recommendations.
“We have a firmer grasp on our parts inventory currently than we have ever had.”
– Drew Marsteller, Operations Manager
That cross-location visibility also powers an important part of White’s daily operation: a courier service that runs between all four branches. Because employees can quickly see where parts are available, White’s can move them to the customer, or to the shop that needs them, faster. That helps technicians complete repairs sooner and return machines to customers more quickly.
“Taking care of our customers is at the heart of what we do. Flyntlok gives us visibility into our parts departments across all four locations, so our daily courier can get parts into customers’ hands, and into our shops, faster.”
– Stephanie Smith, Owner, White’s Equipment
A smoother service workflow across four locations
Connecting parts and service also reduced friction in one of the dealership’s most important workflows. When a machine enters the shop, a technician can diagnose the issue and submit the required parts. The request moves to the parts department for allocation or ordering, then returns to service when the parts are ready. Drew describes the process as more seamless, more timely, and involving fewer steps than before.
The shared platform also makes it easier to deploy talent where it is needed. During the interview, a Jacksonville technician was working from the Winterville location to help complete machines. White’s can move technicians or work orders between stores without relying on the cumbersome sublet process required by its previous system. The road-service truck can be managed as its own location, giving the team another level of operational visibility.
Managers can also drill into technician activity and efficiency, while technicians can see their work orders and performance from a phone or tablet. The technicians adopted Flyntlok faster than anyone expected.
“The technicians took to it quicker than anybody else. They like the visibility and being able to look at their own performance numbers.” – Drew Marsteller, Operations Manager
Visibility that helps employees serve customers, and one another
For a family dealership, operational visibility matters because it allows people to help one another without letting customers down. Stephanie shared an example from White’s lawn-and-garden operation in Wilson, where one employee normally handles sales, parts, and service. When that employee took a vacation day, Stephanie called the Jacksonville store. From there, another employee could look up the requested part, confirm that Wilson had two in stock, and even identify the bin location as B12.
The customer was served, and the employee was able to take time off without bringing the department to a halt. It is a small example with a larger implication: knowledge no longer has to live with one person or remain trapped inside one location.
The same visibility helps the team address problems sooner. Reports highlight issues such as negative on-hand quantities and parts without bin locations, giving employees a chance to correct the underlying data before the problem grows.
“The reports let us see the problems before they become out of hand.” – Drew Marsteller, Operations Manager
Turning dealership data into the next customer conversation
White’s is also beginning to use its connected customer data more proactively. Drew recently created a report of customers who had spent money with the dealership during a rolling 12-month period but had not returned during the current calendar year.
That list gives the team a practical starting point for customer outreach: Where have you been? What can we help with? Is there something you need? White’s describes CRM as an area it has not yet fully utilized, but the dealership now has both the customer history and the tools to bring more structure to follow-up.
Support that feels like part of the dealership team
Software is only valuable when a dealership can get help at the moment work stops. For both Stephanie and Drew, Flyntlok’s support has become one of the strongest parts of the partnership.
White’s held weekly calls with Flyntlok during the earlier stages of its rollout. Nearly two years later, the dealership still meets with the team twice each month. Drew says support cases often receive a response within 15 minutes, while direct questions to Flyntlok team members Tyler and Jack are typically resolved within an hour.
“I’ve never used a system where you get an answer or a resolution to a problem that quickly.”
– Drew Marsteller, Operations Manager
That responsiveness helped make the transition manageable and continues to give White’s confidence as it expands its use of the platform. Stephanie also valued the simplicity of getting started: no large upfront cost, a month-to-month model, and a team that made the process feel straightforward.
“The ease of doing business with Flyntlok was another reason we went with it. You all just made it easy for us.”
– Stephanie Smith, Owner
Modern tools for the next generation of a 100-year business
In a warehouse at White’s, Stephanie still has the enormous Rolodex that previous generations used to track customers, parts tickets, and service work. It is a physical reminder of how far the dealership, and the industry, has come.
Today, White’s can connect four locations, multiple departments, field technicians, rental equipment, inventory, and customer history in one system. The technology is different, but the goal is the same one Stephanie’s great-grandfather pursued when he moved from treating mules to selling tractors: recognize where the industry is going and equip the business for what comes next.
For White’s, that means giving the next generation a dealership that is easier to understand, easier to operate, and better prepared to keep serving customers with the personal attention of a family business.
The impact at a glance
- One connected view of sales, parts, service, rental, equipment, and customers across four Bobcat locations.
- Clearer machine, rental, and parts availability across branches.
- A smoother workflow between technicians, service, and the parts department.
- Greater flexibility to move technicians and work orders between locations.
- Reports that help the team identify inventory and data issues sooner.
- Faster movement of parts between branches, helping customers receive parts sooner and shops return machines to service faster.
- Customer history that can support more proactive service and sales outreach.
- Responsive, ongoing support throughout implementation and continued adoption.