Dorcy International Enhances Financial Management With VAI

Dorcy International, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, is a global distributor of flashlights and batteries. Dorcy employs 100 individuals and has annual revenues of about $50 million.

Dorcy carries about 2,500 items in its inventory, which approaches $12 million at any given time. Three warehouses—two in Columbus, Ohio and one in Burlington, Canada—have a combined capacity of nearly 250,000 square feet.

Dorcy operations relied on 25-year-old, homegrown software. The system lacked a true warehouse management component, and the three facilities were not integrated with each other or with the financial system. Inventory variances approaching $200,000 were not uncommon. No real-time inventory information was available as the system could only batch data overnight.

A separate financial package handled accounting functions, but it did not integrate with the other homegrown software solutions. Staff spent innumerable hours pulling data from the various systems to create basic financial management reports in Excel. The process was repeated weekly and monthly, as needed, to obtain the data necessary to guide corporate operations.

Dorcy faced two challenges – to modernize both the company’s hardware, and software systems in order to handle day-to-day operations. Ultimately, Dorcy selected VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.) to be its software vendor because VAI offers fully integrated solutions with unparalleled functionality. Mark Craddock, Dorcy’s IT Director, relates, “Three things impressed us about VAI: its extensive install base, the size of its support staff and its emphasis on regularly updating its software. However, it was the technical knowledge and responsiveness of VAI’s staff that carried our decision. We wanted the personalized service that is the hallmark of VAI.”

Dorcy purchased VAI’s S2K Enterprise Software, including the financial, warehousing, purchasing, and inventory modules, as well as an EDI integrator from VAI business partner EXTOL. VAI software is equipped with built-in adapters that interface directly with this product.

According to Macy Bergoon, Director of Supply Chain, Dorcy, “The combination of real-time inventory, cycle counting and RF devices has yielded negligible inventory variances. We dropped from a $170,000 variance to less than $5,000 in one year.”

To learn more, visit the VIA Newsroom.

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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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C.H. Briggs Improves Margins With SPA

Don Schalk, President & COO of C.H. Briggs has this to say about his company's use of SPA's analytics tools for manufactures and distributors:

"Our principal business is specialty building products. Our principal vendors are DuPont for premium surfacing products; Knape & Vogt, Amerock and 3M for hardware products and production supplies; and Panolam, Atlantic Veneer, and Roseburg for board and panel products. With the implementation of SPA’s pricing model, we achieved a 1.5% improvement in gross margin in the first year. This improvement had an annual positive impact of $600K to our bottom line. The level of customer pushback or resistance to pricing changes has been minimal. During the execution of the pricing model, SPA invested time in training our sales force in the principles of the model and included them as participants in the rollout. This helped dramatically to secure their buy-in to the change. SPA has helped us maintain a strong ROI for the shareholder in a shrinking market. They have given us a comprehensive pricing program which includes not only a process but also a strategy, which we never had before working with them. We highly recommend SPA to other distributors looking to maintain solid profitability in a difficult economic environment."

To learn more, visit the SPA 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 2019 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guide:

http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2019_Distribution_Manufacturing_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2019Guide

Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services at http://www.software4distributors.com and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard, visit http://www.software4distributors.com/compare/default.aspx.

Also, read our 2018 Mid-Year Supplements at 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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Three Ways Tour de Force Uses Tour de Force

Tour de Force provides B2B solutions and tools for sales organizations. Their software solutions were created with sales teams in mind, keeping a heavy focus on SFA (sales force automation). Tour de Force not only helps salespeople at other businesses do their job more efficiently and more effectively, but it's also used within Tour de Force! Everyone in the company, from Accounting to Support, utilizes Tour de Force on a daily basis.

Here are just 3 ways Tour de Force uses Tour de Force:

1. The Front Lines: Sales
We often find ourselves in the same boat with sales staff from our clients – which is why we built the fully mobile Tour de Force Web interface for actionable data that goes where you go. Our sales team can access Leads, Opportunities, and Reports no matter where they are. If you’ve ever seen us at a tradeshow, you’ve probably seen us whip out a tablet to quickly add contact information into our system. Having that option makes it easier for us to follow up on that conversation.

2. The Anchors: Customer Support
With Tour de Force, our customer support team is easily able to pull up customer information while on the phone or onsite and can track down any open support tickets. Our system provides visibility into important information such as upsell opportunities or at-risk customers. Whether it’s increasing your sales or satisfying customers, you're covered.

3. The Nurturers: Marketing
Because Tour de Force was built with detail-oriented people in mind, we’re able to apply endless filters in order to narrow down the perfect email list to use. Any action those contacts take is reflected on their record in Tour de Force, simplifying the follow up process. We also enjoy managing our events and tradeshows in the system and can easily track all items associated with that event such as appointments, registration lists, and expenses.

Visit the Tour de Force Newsroom to learn more about they can do for your business.

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 2019 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guide:

http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2019_Distribution_Manufacturing_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2019Guide

Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services at http://www.software4distributors.com and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard, visit http://www.software4distributors.com/compare/default.aspx.

Also, read our 2018 Mid-Year Supplements at 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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Robertson Supply Gains Sales Insights With SMP

Robertson Supply is headquartered in Nampa, Idaho, and has nine locations throughout Idaho and Oregon. Robertson Supply is a 60-year old, family-owned plumbing and industrial supplier, with a business base that includes residential and commercial plumbing sales, domestic and industrial pump supplies, agricultural supplies, HVAC and appliances.

Mark Michels, Vice President of Operations and Byron Morgan, Vice President of Sales, shared that SMP enables them to quickly pivot based on market conditions, and make sound decisions about where to focus their time and energy to ensure organic growth across the company. And it’s paying dividends – the company is on track, targeting another year of double-digit growth.

Before SMP, Robertson had access to key information via their ERP but running queries for the salesforce was time-consuming, and could not always be completed in appropriate time to act upon the data discovered as a part of the query. Both Mark and Byron note that this is one of the things that made SMP so attractive to their team from the getgo. In the past, the two conceded, some opportunities simply passed them by because they could not identify the opportunity or quickly take action to capitalize on it. “We could not ID market shifts quickly – in the past it might take 8 months to a year for us to spot the trends – for specific customers or a product segment altogether,” Byron offered. “Now we can drill down and ID those patterns much more quickly and pinpoint all the way down to the geographical area and to the specific customer accounts and see exactly what was going on.”

They both point out that while SMP has helped them identify holes and sales opportunities throughout the business, it really also helps identify areas where they’re winning as well, and they use that as motivators for their team – congratulating sales teams, managers and sales reps for jobs well done. This is something in sales that often gets overlooked, but celebrating wins together can really play a large role in getting everyone engaged and taking ownership.

Sales Management Plus is a CRM and business intelligence application designed for wholesale distributors. SMP is a cloud-based application that integrates with an ERP application to leverage important information such as accounts, contacts, and historical transaction data. Read more at the Go SMP 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 2019 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guide:

http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2019_Distribution_Manufacturing_Software_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadElectronic&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2019Guide

Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services at http://www.software4distributors.com and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard, visit http://www.software4distributors.com/compare/default.aspx.

Also, read our 2018 Mid-Year Supplements at 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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