Colorado Industrial Packaging Increases Profitability With Distribution One

With over 40,000 stock and custom packaging solutions, Colorado Industrial Packaging experienced immediate success with Distribution One. “ERP-ONE tracks product costs and sales margins for us… that benefit alone has added 4% to our bottom line after the first year of implementation and has more than paid for the cost of ERP-ONE.” -Vice President of  Colorado Industrial Packaging 

Distribution One has been helping wholesalers distributors drive increased efficiency and profitability through innovative software since 1996. To learn more about ERP-ONE visit the Distribution One Newsroom.

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Finding that you cannot keep up with all the changes in the latest software? Want to know how the software's features and functions can assist you? Please contact sjay@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.


For 2018 Distribution Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Distribution_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018DSG


For 2018 Manufacturing Software Guide:
http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Manufacturing_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018MFG


Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.

Also, read our 2018 Mid-Year Supplements http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Mid_Year_Supplement_Blog.pdf?utm_source=DownloadPDF&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018Supp
Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.



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B&R Enclosures Expands Global Reach With Phocas

B&R Enclosures is a private family-owned Australian business with global ambitions. The 60 year-old company designs and manufactures enclosures for a variety of customers, including telecommunications, mining companies and prime contractors for large engineering projects. For the past 10 years, the company has opened offices in China, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

The company has been a loyal Phocas customer, using the business intelligence software since 2004 for sales reporting, quotation management and inventory portals. In January 2014, B&R implemented a new ERP system and as part of the planning, Ian van Haeringen, Information Systems Manager for B&R Enclosures, made a deliberate decision to maintain sales reporting in Phocas, saving the company time and money while ensuring business continuity across the sales organisation.

Phocas played a critical role in the ERP implementation because it remained a constant throughout the rollout and during the company’s international pursuits. "Phocas is one of the reasons our implementation was so successful," said van Haeringen. "There is enough change involved in migrating from an old ERP to a new system. You should only change what you need to change, and there was no need to change Phocas."

Key benefits of using Phocas
•Delivered consistent sales reporting throughout the ERP transition
•Provided sales team confidence in sales, orders, and processing information
•Business continuity for company sales as rest of company managed changes
•Eliminated any training for salespeople on new ERP system
•Slicing and dicing of information continually reveals business opportunities while helping with strategic decision-making process
•Key reason for success of new ERP implementation

To learn more about Phocas, visit the Newsroom. https://www.phocassoftware.com/case-studies

New Software Research Guides Available
Finding that you cannot keep up with all the changes in the latest software? Want to know how the software's features and functions can assist you? Please contact sjay@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.


For 2018 Distribution Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Distribution_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018DSG


For 2018 Manufacturing Software Guide:
http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Manufacturing_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018MFG


Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.

Also, read our 2018 Mid-Year Supplements http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Mid_Year_Supplement_Blog.pdf?utm_source=DownloadPDF&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018Supp
Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.



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Kelly-Fradet Lumber Masters Inventory With DMSi's Agility ERP

Kelly-Fradet Lumber is a pro dealer serving professional contractors across Connecticut and Massachusetts. A key part of their business is custom items, many of which have hundreds of configurable options. One of Kelly-Fradet’s biggest challenges lay in serving customers who want an exact copy of custom items ordered months or years ago. With so many configurable parts, customers rarely remember the exact specs of the original piece. To further complicate the matter, Kelly-Fradet’s customers frequently do business at different branches. They may have placed the original order at one branch, but then reorder it at a different location.

Kelly-Fradet wanted to provide even better service to their multi-location customers, so they decided to implement the Agility ERP system from DMSi. “We made the move to DMSi several years ago after experiencing serious growing pains with our previous software,” says Dan Sullivan, Kelly-Fradet’s general manager.

Agility handles every aspect of Kelly-Fradet’s operation, from sales and accounting to purchasing. “Agility integrates all our information into a very efficient system,” says Sullivan. “With just a few clicks, you have everything you need to handle inventory management and fulfillment quickly and accurately.”

Agility streamlines custom order processes, from order-entry to fulfillment. From the customizable Point of Sale screen, Kelly-Fradet’s team can easily search a customer’s order history (including orders placed at other branches) to find a specific custom item. The sales rep can then add the item to the current sales order with a few clicks. “Finding customer information is infinitely easier,” says Rick Barrows, outside sales rep. “Even if a customer isn’t sure about a previous order, we can look up their past orders and re-create the item.”

Overall, Agility’s full integration and real-time data allow the Kelly-Fradet team to deliver outstanding service. “Agility works very well handling multi-store transactions,” says Sullivan. “The process is seamless for customers who visit multiple locations.”

Kelly-Fradet continues to expand its services to customers, branching most recently into e-commerce with the Agility online customer portal, PartnerView. PartnerView increases service levels by giving customers a 24-7 way to place orders and pay bills.

“Agility saves so much time and research,” says Sullivan. “There is no more guessing. The data that Agility provides allows quicker and better decisions regarding inventory, payables, receivables, and purchasing. On a daily basis, I’m able to accomplish much more and do so more accurately. DMSi has been a big factor in our company’s growth and success.”

Learn more at the DMSi Newsroom.

New Software Research Guides Available
Finding that you cannot keep up with all the changes in the latest software? Want to know how the software's features and functions can assist you? Please contact sjay@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.


For 2018 Distribution Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Distribution_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018DSG


For 2018 Manufacturing Software Guide:
http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Manufacturing_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018MFG


Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.

Also, read our 2018 Mid-Year Supplements http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Mid_Year_Supplement_Blog.pdf?utm_source=DownloadPDF&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018Supp
Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.



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Wholesale Distributor RJ Schinner Leverages Data With MITS

Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, RJ Schinner has been in business for over 50 years and has 8 locations across the Midwest, from the Dakotas to Texas. RJ Schinner operates as a redistribution specialist, or as Jerry Boughner, RJ Schinner’s CIO puts it, a ‘wholesaler to wholesalers’. Their business model consists of purchasing food service, paper, janitor/sanitation, and grocery supplies from over 200 manufacturers and repacking them on pallets for customers who are unable to buy full or half truckloads. This allows RJ Schinner’s customers to mix and match their order, while still taking advantage of the favorable pricing terms offered to a large purchaser.

In searching for a new B.I. and reporting solution, two companies kept coming up – and MITS was one of them. Jerry remembers. “It really came down to my decision, and I wanted something that was native to our system – and with MITS being an official Epicor business partner whose product actually worked on the server as opposed to having to export all the data outside of our company and then have it come back, was a big factor in my decision to go with them,” Jerry said. “Plus I have an ever-expanding sales force and I didn’t want to have the cost and trouble of continually going out and getting licenses for them. I liked the MITS system and how it showed to the sales reps – it was much easier for them to use.”

After the decision was made to go with MITS, the next step was installation. “We first started rolling it out to sales people and management. The feedback I got was that it was very easy to use; in fact I was looking at some of the responses to the MITS test I ran with our salespeople after they had been using it for about 7 months. Every one of them was excellent in their proficiency with using the system. That is the nice thing about MITS - there is a lot of information, but it seems easy to disseminate.”

For RJ Schinner, the data trending functionality in MITS is proving to be an effective cost saver. “We really liked the way MITS trends data, “ Jerry says. “With regard to sales, our sales force can now see within 30 days what’s happening to an account, as opposed to finding about it at the end of the year."

“Our President is using the system for branch analysis – where the sales are trending, where the gross profit is trending – and really diving into the way our business is going, from our buy lines from our manufacturers for example, to determine which branches are up, which are down, etc. Our CEO, who is a wizard at working an Excel spreadsheet, is doing the same type of high-level analysis – and he really loves the MITS system for that. He is spending around 50-60-% less time generating reports than he was prior to MITS.”

Read more on the MITS Newsroom.

New Software Research Guides Available
Finding that you cannot keep up with all the changes in the latest software? Want to know how the software's features and functions can assist you? Please contact sjay@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.


For 2018 Distribution Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Distribution_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018DSG


For 2018 Manufacturing Software Guide:
http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Manufacturing_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018MFG


Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.

Also, read our 2018 Mid-Year Supplements http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Mid_Year_Supplement_Blog.pdf?utm_source=DownloadPDF&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018Supp
Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.



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Advantage Industrial Automation Improves Customer Satisfaction with Epicor

Advantage Industrial Automation, based in Duluth, Georgia, provides industrial control and automation solutions to the food, beverage, water and waste management, consumer products, and materials handling industries, among others. Founded in 1989, Advantage most recently became a subsidiary of Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications, and data networking products. This relationship benefited both companies by joining Advantage's capabilities with Graybar's supply chain management and logistics services to open opportunities into new territories and better serve existing customers.

Challenge: Identify a Windows-based ERP solutions system that accurately captures historical customer information while streamlining the company's processing, purchasing, and shipping process and offering electronic data interchange (EDI) transaction capabilities

Solution: Epicor Prophet 21 Benefits Provided the ability to process and ship orders in a timely fashion Facilitated EDI transactions and minimized the time and errors associated with handling paper documents Automated internal processes so employees can better serve customers

“Our growth plans have always been to expand with existing customers, while identifying new ones. As a subsidiary of Graybar Electric, our resources and potential are greatly enhanced and we are able to expand into new markets and territories. We are always looking for ways to find efficiencies and improve our processes.” said David Tatro, CIO/Finance Director, Advantage Industrial Automation.

According to Tatro, Prophet 21 furthered this goal by providing the ability to “quickly process orders, purchase products, and get those products out the door to customers.” This includes using EDI extensively with larger customers to reduce the time Advantage employees “spend printing and sending things out, logging into other networks to find key details,” and manually producing and tracking down purchase orders and other extraneous documents.

Other benefits included the automation of transactions using Epicor Trading Partner Connect (TPCx) and mapping software features. This has offered the in-depth eCommerce ability to exchange information electronically with customers. For instance, Prophet 21 enabled Advantage to simply and instantly accept transactions and then share purchase and shipping order acknowledgements with one of its largest customers via their new trading platform.

“Prophet 21 has helped us drastically reduce errors,” added Tatro. “The old days of faxing and managing pieces of paper, as well as tracking down files, are done. We are solely focused on growth and meeting customer needs. Epicor knows distribution, and that's what we do.”

To learn more, visit the Epicor Newsroom. https://www.epicor.com/en-us/resource-center/success-stories/advantage-industrial-automation/

New Software Research Guides Available
Finding that you cannot keep up with all the changes in the latest software? Want to know how the software's features and functions can assist you? Please contact sjay@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.


For 2018 Distribution Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Distribution_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018DSG


For 2018 Manufacturing Software Guide:
http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Manufacturing_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018MFG


Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.

Also, read our 2018 Mid-Year Supplements http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2018_Mid_Year_Supplement_Blog.pdf?utm_source=DownloadPDF&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2018Supp
Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.



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