Mid-State Lumber Improves Real-time Data With DMSi

Mid-State Lumber is a family-owned business in Branchburg, NJ that has grown significantly since its founding in 1976, adding multiple locations and expanding into new territories.

DMSi's Agility has proven to be a good fit for Mid-State Lumber. The industry-specific functionality is an asset for the company. “I have worked in every department in the company, and I find that Agility is helpful in every area,” said Maria Hall, Mid-State Lumber’s primary system manager. “Anything that you want to do from quoting, to automated processing, to reporting, to viewers…you name it. Agility does it all. I love the system.”

Agility allows Mid-State Lumber’s departments to coordinate effectively. Because Agility provides real-time data, everyone sees current information. There’s no need for departments to update each other over the phone or email. Real-time data makes it easier for the Mid-State Lumber team to provide excellent service. Employees in every area of operation know information in Agility is current and accurate. There’s no need to double-check that a product is available before placing an order or scheduling a delivery.

Agility also allows Mid-State Lumber to be extremely responsive to customers’ needs. Credit manager Anita Toupin appreciates that results are instant: “I love the way it’s real-time. As soon as a guy enters an order, I have receivables change. If a customer is past due and on credit hold, as soon as we get checks and apply them, it frees up their account.” Agility has also helped Anita reduce the paper trail common in many offices. Agility’s reports and queries pull up all the data she needs in one screen. For instance, she can run a report to find all invoices past due by a certain number of days. Or she can use the A/R Credit Details screen to view an account’s credit information across all branches.

The DMSi team has worked closely with Mid-State Lumber and developed solid relationships with their counterparts. As a veteran employee of a service-based company, Anita is keenly aware of the impact those relationships can have: “DMSi is like a family. It really is. They treat their customers the same way, and that’s a really positive thing.”

Learn more at the DMSi 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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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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Plunkett Distributing Enhances Custom Order Process With DMSi's Agility ERP

Plunkett Distributing provides laminate, solid surface, hardwood moldings, and cabinet supplies to markets in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. Founded in 1948 by J.F. Plunkett, the business is into the third generation of family ownership. The company handles hundreds of custom orders every month using a multi-step process that had become time-intensive and prone to data-entry errors. Plunkett Distributing knew it needed a more efficient way to handle custom orders.


The Solution
Plunkett Distributing implemented the Agility ERP system and took advantage of the branch transfer functionality. Agility makes it easy to coordinate remanufacturing processes across multiple locations. To make the process even more efficient, the DMSi team created a catalog of item blanks for every species and width of molding Plunkett Distributing produced. When reps create a custom order, they are able to pull up one of the product blanks instead of entering all the details from scratch. Order entry is now much easier and faster.


The Result
Agility ERP proved to be a very effective platform for Plunkett Distributing. “It has been an extremely positive experience for us,” says owner Don Plunkett. “The rep just has to enter the sales order, and then the bill of materials and the work order show up on the screen at our other facility across town. It’s been a huge help.”


Don also leverages Agility’s reporting tools. Sales dashboards make it easy to assess and monitor his team’s performance: “We have better visibility into things like market costs and gross margin violations. We can pull out data that we never could before. I’m able to see things as they are trending instead of hearing about it after something goes wrong. It’s been a huge impact on our bottom line.”


Plunkett Distributing has experienced significant growth, and Don is excited about the future. He sees more opportunities for improving operations and expanding the business: “There are things within Agility that are making us better than we ever were before, and we’re ready to take another step forward. It’s just time. We’re growing so much right now.”


To learn more, visit 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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Holt & Bugbee Improve Inventory Accuracy With DMSi's Agility

Holt & Bugbee Company of Tewksbury, MA manufactures and distributes rough sawn planks, finish dimension planks and boards and custom finished and unfinished moldings. Their customer base is approximately 2,500 companies. Holt & Bugbee needed an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution that had lumber specific functionality and gave them speed and inventory accuracy. To achieve this, the company turned to Agility, DMSi’s business accounting software. 


Since Holt & Bugbee implemented Agility, they have improved inventory accuracy because of the many lumber specific features. The end tally functionality tool, allows them to efficiently track hardwood unit tallies by the thickness, width and length of every board or by total board footage per length. “We gravitated to Agility because of the inventory functionality, specifically being able to tally lumber,” Bill Robinson, Holt & Bugbee's IT systems manager said. 


Agility’s inventory functionality and accuracy made a big difference to the company, but it was what they could do with that information that really made an impact. The hand-held technology seamlessly brings critical lumber inventory information into Agility for tighter inventory control; from receiving to remanufacturing, all the way from raw green lumber to finished products.


Agility also helped to improve customer service. Robinson states, “Right now, everything is about being able to turn faster. How fast can you ship and manufacture. If you aren’t quick enough, customers will go to someone else – Agility has given us that speed advantage.” 


Agility has helped Holt & Bugbee automate processes. “It has cut a lot of time off processes and taken a lot of manual list implementations out,” Robinson said. “Technology is ever evolving, it never stops. You just have to go with the flow and get there,” Robinson added. “There is a lot of technology that DMSi keeps bringing out to the forefront.” 


Read more, access additional case studies on 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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McCray Lumber and Millwork Improves Customer Service With Agility DMSi

McCray Lumber and Millwork provides building materials, including lumber, windows and interior millwork, to the Kansas City area. The company has 5 lumberyards, 1 millwork facility and 80 employees. McCray's customers are primarily single and multi-family homebuilders. 

McCray’s sales team wanted a better way to serve their customers in the field - especially when they wanted change requests to existing orders. With their original system, the sales rep would call one of McCray’s dispatchers to request information and make the changes. This slow, manual process created more work for McCray’s dispatchers and caused problems for the sales reps too as they didn't have immediate access to information.

The McCray team decided to try the Agility Sales mobile app from DMSi Software. The Agility software is specialized for building materials and manages every step of the product cycle, from purchasing and receiving to sales and billing and allows users access to key account information such as open A/R, existing order status, pending deliveries, customer pricing and item availability.

The Agility app accesses data over a basic wireless or cellular network which was another feature of interest to the McCray sales team. Since implementing, the Agility Sales app has helped to keep projects on track and provide good service - proving to be a game changer for how McCray serves its homebuilders and in turn, their customers.

To read more, and see other case studies of the Agility app, visit 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 snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.

Read our 2016 Mid-Year Supplements. 

Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and the Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group, 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.

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