Challenges:
The company’s customers, which are wholesalers who sell Predator Group cues to retailers nationwide, place orders via the company’s sales department. Staff must then identify which components are required and create the appropriate purchase orders for them. These purchase orders are sent to the various suppliers Predator Group works with, who ship the requested items back to Predator Group to be stored. Staff pull the necessary items for each customer purchase order and ship them to China, where they’re manufactured into the cues themselves. The finished cues are then shipped back to Predator Group to be sent to the customers who ordered them.
Predator Group’s previous system lacked the automation capabilities needed to execute these processes efficiently. Instead, staff had to track all customer orders, purchase orders, inventory and shipping information manually, via spreadsheet. Since nothing was updated automatically, staff had to spend hours each week painstakingly entering new information into these spreadsheets in order to stay on top of everything. Predator Group’s previous system was also on-premises, which made it very difficult for their employees in China and US-based sales staff to log in and work on the system.
The Blue Link Solution:
Before Predator Group transitioned to the new system, Blue Link created a trial version for employees to test out in order to see which features they would be using the most so the system could be modified according to their needs. When the time came to implement the system, members of Blue Link staff arrived at Predator Group facility and spent two weeks training employees and transferring all of Predator Group’s data into the system.
Blue Link’s Inventory Back Order Fill Screen is a key asset to Predator Group. The screen alerts staff to which customer orders should be filled first based on when the orders were placed, which saves the staff and logistics team a minimum of 10 hours per week and allows them to focus on more essential activities.
Blue Link’s sales order review screen is also extremely beneficial, as it allows staff to view the completion percentage of all orders so incomplete orders aren’t pulled before they’re ready.
The new system has helped Predator Group improve their relationship with customers. Customers are automatically emailed their invoice, packing slip and tracking number. This keeps them up to date on the status of their order and alerts them to what it will include when it arrives. It also saves Predator Group staff the hassle of having to manually send out invoices each month.
Blue Link’s strong reporting capabilities have also proven incredibly useful. Predator Group’s CFO uses the system to automatically calculate financials at the end of the month. Additionally, since Blue Link is cloud-based, Predator Group employees can log into the system anywhere they have Internet access, ensuring that they never skip a beat if they’re traveling or out of the office.
Predator Group estimates that Blue Link will save them a minimum of $12,000 per year simply in terms of how much less it costs to run the system as compared to the old software they were using. As the company continues to save countless hours as a result of Blue Link’s automation capabilities and the future modifications to the system that are planned, Predator Group expects to see additional cost savings in the tens of thousands of dollars.
To learn more about Blue Link, visit their Case Studies page.
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