Wholesale Distributor Capitalizes on AccountMate’s Inventory Control Software to Increase Profitability
Case Study: Tech Trading
Tech Trading is a wholesale distributor in the highly competitive copier and printer supplies industry. In order to grow and stay profitable, Tech Trading needed a scalable and customizable business system that would provide information to operate efficiently, handle high volumes and generate profits on very tight margins.
The Challenge
Tech Trading was operating with outdated proprietary software for sales order, purchase order, inventory control and accounts receivable. EDI, General Ledger and Accounts Payable were not integrated. Warehouse processes for receiving, storing and shipping 3000 products were manual operations. Tech Trading management knew that further investment was needed to stay competitive and grow the business.
Customer retention in this industry is based primarily on competitive prices and reliable order fulfillment. The software systems, manual warehousing, standalone shipping and EDI systems needed to be replaced.
The Solution
Steve Rosenstein and Bill Papanestor of Figtree Consulting, Inc. worked closely with Tech Trading management and staff to build a system that streamlined Tech Trading sales and warehouse procedures.
Figtree started with the AccountMate accounting system because it could be modified and enhanced to exactly fit Tech Trading’s requirements — and because it provides an order entry system that allows for quick data entry and is easy to learn. The enhancements provide the immediate, interactive information needed to make profitable sales decisions.
The Result
Tech Trading required a sales order solution capable of:
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automatically allocating available inventory to sales orders on a first-come, first-serve basis
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overriding allocations when necessary
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automatically committing inventory to orders
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printing pick lists
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handling consolidation orders
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enforcing automatic credit holds
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supporting multi-level pricing
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enforcing minimum prices and minimum margins
The old system required entering purchase order receipts four to six hours after receiving goods — unacceptable and uncompetitive. Real-time updates for warehouse receipts, bin transfers and picking were needed in order to book orders and commit product to open sales orders.
The RedTail Solutions EDI interface was enhanced with Tech Trading–specific business rules for importing trading partner purchase orders directly into the Sales Order module. The time-consuming batch files used for exporting and importing were replaced by a fully integrated EDI solution.
Importing EDI purchase orders, maintaining cross-reference tables, and handling exception reports is now a simple clerical function.
Figtree’s AccountMate add-on, Sales Analysis Reporting, helps manage sales by providing accurate reporting by sales rep, product line and customer — including comparisons of dollars, units and margin.
Tech Trading has thousands of items in inventory. AccountMate’s sophisticated inventory control provided many of the features needed to help manage their business. Figtree integrated ACCU-DART software to simplify and provide real-time shipping and receiving directly from the warehouse. Container and pallet content information is captured using handheld terminals.
The AccountMate solution, together with best-of-breed vertical applications, provided a better information system which allows Tech Trading to operate more efficiently, handling more volume at higher profits.