Success Stories

Mark Faessler, president of Progress Supply, was used to fielding calls from suppliers when sales of their products fluctuated at his distributorship. But he got curious when a representative from his largest vendor called to ask why purchases had dropped. "I had just looked at the reports and found sales in that vendor's lines were up over 10 percent," Faessler says.

So why did the representative call? Progress Supply's purchases from the vendor had dropped noticeably - decreasing at least 10 percent from the same time the year before.

Progress Supply managed to increase sales while cutting purchasing by working with an Activant Application Consultant. "We had been purchasing reactively instead of proactively, and realized that we needed someone from the outside to look at what we were doing and make suggestions and adjustments," Faessler contends. "We were having trouble with out-of-stock situations, inventory values were increasing, stock was in the wrong locations, and too many customers and employees were complaining about inventory issues. The Activant consultant helped us turn that around."

Offering Insight

Activant Application Consultants help distributors learn more about how to operate their solutions. But, that's just a small part of what they do. They also have years of real-world industry experience, and can offer new and tenured employees insight into better business processes and practices.

The Application Consultant spent time learning about Progress Supply, and helped executives determine which purchasing methods were better suited to the company's growth, and to changes in supplier behaviors. "Because our major vendor had lowered required preseason purchase requirements and reduced ship times from two weeks to two days, we adjusted stocking levels accordingly," says Ed Bachus, purchasing manager.

Also, because the company was growing so rapidly, they moved from Min/Max, a fixed purchasing method, to UpTo, a variable method. "This lets us respond to changes in inventory demand and take advantage of good buying opportunities," Bachus says.

Overall, as a result of working with the Application Consultant, Progress Supply's sales have jumped by more than 14 percent, while overall inventory value has increased by less than 5 percent - despite massive price increases. "It's really changed us for the better," Bachus says. "Store managers aren't missing sales because they're out of stock. Sales are up and inventory is down. Things just work better."

Faessler says that working with a consultant changed the way he views his Activant solution: "We weren't using our solution as well as we should have. The Activant Application Consultant helped us tailor it to our business, so we're now realizing the full benefits."

Bachus agrees: "Our initial Activant training was only meant to get us started on the solution," he says. "We really should have invited the consultant onsite much earlier."

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