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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Cathy's Concepts Selects Distribution One For Business Growth

Cathy’s Concepts, a wholesale manufacturer and distributor of personalized gifts, wedding accessories, spa accessories and novelty apparel, started as a small wholesale jewelry company and has grown into a complex business servicing end users, retailers and gift stores nationwide. With a state-of-the-art distribution center, fully-staffed design team, sales team and customer service call center on site, Cathy's Concepts sells both directly to consumers and to retailers.

To keep pace with business growth, meet the needs of its customers and secure a competitive advantage, Cathy’s Concepts needed an automated ERP solution to ensure streamlined, efficient business operations. The solution they chose was Progress OpenEdge®-based V2 ERP solution from Distribution One. One of the key decision factors was that the Windows-based V2 Enterprise system allowed the company to take advantage of the solution’s expanded capabilities, including an online order management system and expanded reporting.

Since upgrading its order management system from a manual, paper-based operation to an online system, the company has achieved tremendous results in streamlined business operations, improved customer service, increased visibility and reduced costs. Cathy’s Concepts is using V2 as the core of its business to manage inventory, order processing — from import to the manifesting — as well as pushing updates to their multiple websites to reflect near real-time inventory availability. Said Patrick Geisler, IT Administrator, Cathy’s Concepts, “The ability to manage orders online has created greater efficiency in our business and has given us more flexibility in modifying and tracking orders. We have also reduced our costs previously associated with the paper-based production process by about 70%.”

Outcomes since implementing Distribution One's Progress OpenEdge®-based V2 ERP solution:
  • reduced costs associated with the paper-based production process by 70%
  • cut production time for various operations by at least 15%
  • reduced order inquiry call volume by approximately 20%.
To learn more about the Cathy's Concepts implementation, or receive details about Distribution One's V2 ERP, V2 Fastener, V2 Industrial and V2 Retail Fulfillment software, visit the Distribution One newsroom.

The Brown Smith Wallace 2014-15 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.

 
2014 Manufacturing Software Guide: 
 
 
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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Bambis Spotlights Data With Phocas BI

Bambis, an Australian company specializing in the design of contemporary homewares and furniture, had quickly became a major player in the homeware/giftware market. However, staff members were manually extracting data from an existing ERP system as well as manually creating spreadsheets and pivot tables in order to understand it. It was a time-consuming and frustrating process that wasn’t delivering results. To achieve greater business advantage, Bambis sought to improve their access to business intelligence throughout their organization, and began their search for the right product.

After serious evaluation, Phocas was selected and the results were described as "staggering." Phocas' combination of simplicity, high visibility and high speed has given Bambis the ability to take corporate decision making to a level that was hard to imagine before. The sales staff can now leverage data for immediate decisions and non-IT personnel are able to create, run, and interpret reports.

The improved ability to analyze sales data through Phocas has had a significant and positive impact on Bambis' business and they are exploring the potential to include General Ledger and Purchasing and Inventory databases to their contract.

To learn more about the BI capabilities of Phocas and read additional case studies, visit the Phocas News Blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace 2014-15 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.


 
2014 Manufacturing Software Guide: 
 
 
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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Acumatica Grabs Gold, Silver, and Bronze at the American Business Awards

Acumatica, a provider of cloud-based accounting and business management software for small and mid-sized companies, was recently awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie® Awards in four different categories in the 12th annual American Business Awards.

Acumatica won a Gold Stevie for the New Product or Service of the Year for Cloud xRP Platform, a Silver Stevie for Software, and Bronze Stevies for Financial Management Solution, and Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year categories. Previously, Acumatica won two silver Stevie Awards.  Built using cloud and mobile technology and a unique customer-centric licensing model, Acumatica's platforms deliver a suite of fully integrated business management applications such as Financials, Distribution, CRM and Project Accounting with the additional flexibility of being usable on any device.

The American Business Awards is the nation’s premier business awards program. Nicknamed the "Stevies" for the Greek word for “crowned,” the trophies were presented to winners during a September gala banquet at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. More than 250 nominees and their guests attended for the presentation of new product awards, Website awards, app awards, and more.
Stevie Award winners were selected by more than 240 executives nationwide who participated in the judging process. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

To learn more about the Acumatica Cloud xRP Platform, as well as additional awards, case studies, and business implementations, visit the Acumatica News Room.

The Brown Smith Wallace 2014-15 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.
 
2014 Manufacturing Software Guide: 
 
 
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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

BRAX Manufacturing Grows with I.B.I.S.

BRAX Ltd. has been an industry leader in collectible ceramic beer steins for over a decade, and the business also specializes in custom manufacturing of licensed and promotional products. Their core products include a range of injection molded drink-ware, stationary and home decor using a range of innovation decorating techniques that include lenticular 3-D, foil and other ‘in mold’ labels. 

BRAX believes in making a fair profit and while doing so are committed to giving a percentage of every dollar made to a range of non-profit organizations. These include Make a Wish Foundation, the Boomer Esiason Foundation, the Miracle League and all youth sport organizations across America.

Combining quality products with consumer-popular corporate philanthropy resulted in BRAX growing at a very rapid rate - and their former enterprise solution simply could not handle the new business being generated, much less allow for continued growth.

In evaluating various solutions, BRAX selected I.B.I.S., Inc. for the implementation and support of Microsoft Dynamics® CRM and GP because of I.B.I.S.’s Microsoft Dynamics expertise. By implementing a very unique system built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM, GP and ISV solutions, and designed for their specific needs, they can now support their growing business.

Since the implementation, BRAX has realized tremendous value in their Dynamics solution. They are now able to directly import orders instead of entering them manually. Additionally, invoicing is processed instantaneously. As a result of these improvements, BRAX has increased their school merchandise market share by 300% and is poised to handle continued growth in the future.

To read more about BRAX and other case studies, visit the I.B.I.S. Client Success Stories news blog.


The Brown Smith Wallace 2014-15 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.
 
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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Wesgar Improves Scheduling and Financials with Epicor

Based in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Wesgar is one of the largest precision sheet metal manufacturers in Western Canada. In business for nearly 45 years, Wesgar designs and manufactures products for a wide variety of industries, including the Electronics, Industrial, Printing, Medical Devices, Test and Measurement, Computer Enclosures and Parts, Power Switching and Management, Telecommunications and Radio Frequency segments.

Wesgar first implemented Epicor’s Vantage manufacturing solution and then moved to the next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. “We wanted a modern manufacturing platform that offered better access to data for reporting and customization,” said Troy Richman, IT manager at Wesgar. “We also were looking for improved scheduling capabilities, and the ability to leverage fully integrated financials.”

Wesgar needed a modern manufacturing platform that offered better access to data, improved scheduling capabilities, and fully integrated financials for improved operational performance. The solution was Epicor's next generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) that delivers unprecedented business management tools and supports continuous performance improvement through real-time, in-context business insight.

Since the implementation, Wesgar has experienced the following benefits:
• Improved data visibility to facilitate decision making
• Streamlined access and presentation of information relevant to each user
• Improved financials provide access and visibility of high-level and detailed information for improved financial control and management
• Improved resource efficiency and inventory management, resulting in shorter lead times and more accurate job costing

To read more Epicor customer success stories in the manufacturing and distribution business sectors, visit the Epicor Newsroom.

The Brown Smith Wallace 2014-15 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.


 
2014 Manufacturing Software Guide: 
 
 
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