Since 1978, Shepley Wood Products has served the Eastern Seaboard with integrity and success. In looking to improve the delivery process for their customers, they began searching for a solution to organize deliveries, simplify communication and increase visibility. They decided to implement DQ Technologies’ Order Delivery Tracking (ODT).
“The benefit of ODT is that we capture and measure time and distance and associating those costs at the order level,” says Tony Shepley, President of Shepley Wood Products. “This gives us true activity-based costing information where we can look at the effect of delivery cost on our gross margin.”
With ODT and Agility, Shepley has the complete package for improving their delivery process. “We track the miles of the route and determine how much it is costing us to make that delivery,” Shepley’s System Manager, John Howell, said. “Based on the truck, we have a cost-per-mile number, so we can calculate the overall delivery costs. Our general manager can watch the delivery screen and know at a quick glance exactly where we are during the day.”
General Manager Tom Dennison monitors delivery screen activity throughout the day to make important decisions related to yard staff. Using the On Time and In Full Report from Agility, he tracks how many deliveries are on time and how many are made without backorders. “We use the On Time and In Full Report to make sure we are using our resources effectively,” Dennison said. “For example, we look at staffing levels, peak times, and other factors to determine if we need to shift employees around at certain times.
With GPS tracking on all delivery trucks and sales team vehicles, as well as dynamic Geofencing around Shepley’s location and job sites, they can monitor and send information about turns, stops, speed and distance travelled back to ODT.
“All of the information in ODT feeds back into Agility, so the salesperson can open the sales order right from their desk and determine in real time if it’s been picked, checked, or delivered,” Shepley’s System Manager, John Howell said. “The other thing our sales staff can do is right click on the ODT screen. It brings up a Google map and drops a pin right where the truck is. It takes visibility to another level.”
ODT provides Shepley with a wealth of information and a standard of accountability they didn’t have previously.
“Not only are we looking for deliveries to be made on time and in full, but we are looking for reasons why they aren’t,” said Shepley. “Was it a vendor backorder, an unrealistic time period we set up, or what? ODT helps us find the answers. In the old days, you could fake it, but with Agility and ODT, it’s a higher level of performance.”
Shepley’s use of technology to improve deliveries separates them from their competitors. “Instead of saying to our customers, ‘We are a good company. Most of the time we get there on time.’” Shepley said. “With ODT, I can say ‘98.2% of the time we are right on the money – and we are working on the other 1.8%.’”
Based in McKinney, Texas, SRS Distribution has a strong national network of industry-leading independent roofing distributors serving professional roofing contractors. Knowing they were at the beginning of an aggressive growth period, SRS was faced with choosing software that would eliminate maintenance hassles and make acquisitions and upgrades easier.
“It made sense to move to Agility because through companies that we acquired, we already had experience with it as a platform,” said Sonya Wells, Senior Vice President, Information Services.
While a software decision for most companies can take years, SRS made the decision to implement Agility in the hosted environment in just two months.
“We needed a platform in place quickly. We already had a great relationship established with DMSi, which made the decision much easier,” said Wells.
“With Agility being hosted, all we need is a good internet connection, a PC, and a print server. I have set up new locations in a locally hosted environment in the past, and there is no doubt about it, it makes the process much more seamless,” Wells explained.
Acquisitions are at the core of SRS’s business model, and Agility in the cloud streamlines this intricate process. They can establish a new location in a matter of days.
“When we open a new branch, our week goes like this: On Monday, our team will have been in there the week before training them, performing a physical inventory, and converting their data into Agility. On the prior Thursday, they perform a physical inventory. On the Friday before opening, they reconcile that and finish getting open orders entered by Saturday. On Monday morning, they open as an SRS location,” said Wells.
Timber Trading Group was searching for ways to provide their sales team with more collaborative tools for their white pine lumber distribution business. As the team met with contractor yards and builder yards across New England, they realized the data management aspect of their business was more than their current system could handle.
“Long-term loyalty from our customers means managing the amount of lumber we move between the mills and reload centers. It also means quality control in our shops; and how fast we can ship it out of the warehouse,” said Dave Zappone, General Manager.
Zappone was looking for a modern system that would give his staff a live snapshot of the company’s inventory and delivery schedules and Agility inventory management software fit the bill. Furthermore, using the lumber distribution software through the internet allows Timber Trading to capitalize on their customers’ needs for instant and accurate information, with the added benefit of reduced expenses.
Today, Timber Trading’s entire IT (Information Technology) system runs at a remote data center, allowing them to pay on a metered basis. Adapting to this change ahead of the curve, Zappone first weighed the true value of hosted software to his business, including information control, reliance on technical expertise, and infrastructure upkeep costs.
“I first saw software hosted through the internet at a NAWLA trade show, and its potential was obvious to me,” described Zappone. “Agility in the hosted environment allows everyone in our office to be more mobile and productive. Our capacity to provide better service to customers has improved substantially. And as a management tool, it makes our office run a lot smoother,” said Zappone.
The instant access to information eliminates the risk of unknowingly selling units of lumber while a second prospect deliberates its procurement is significantly reduced.
“Before Agility, you checked your computer screen and printed 50 or 60 sheets of product information, or you wrote it manually before getting an answer to your prospect,” Zappone said. “Unlike many companies in the industry, no unit length is the same when we receive material. Depending on our customers’ inventory, certain length configurations are more appealing. Complete inventory access from any computer is helpful in closing the sale and keeping our customers happy.”
Timber Trading saves about $12,000 annually by reducing third-party networking expenses. Time savings from handling technical issues are also substantial, especially without having IT resources on staff. Timber Trading has more control of inventory and customer data than ever before.
In 1993, Woodwork Manufacturing & Supply began using DMSi’s legacy software, DMS+. In July 2006, the company migrated to Agility, motivated to migrate by its powerful millwork-specific functionality.
“About 99% of what we carry and build is unique,” said Rick Mitchell, Vice President of Sales. Agility’s built-in features and processes were exactly what we needed to manage the complexities of our millwork product lines and departments, including pre-finish, paint and stain, door assembly, and custom molding manufacturing.”
When it came to processing custom configured unit orders, Agility’s CAFE (Component Attribute Filtering Engine) millwork logic, coupled with non-stock template functionality for special order doors and components, virtually eliminated ordering and purchasing errors. Autoflow provides complete automated control over inventory commits and back orders.
“Every configuration decision is clearly represented in CAFE, so the process of choosing available options is intuitive and precise,” said Mitchell. “The entire transaction cycle from order entry to production to fulfillment is seamless.”
Inventory and transaction control, along with the easy access to information of Agility’s customizable Viewers, has proven to be invaluable tools for Woodwork. The company relies exclusively on the system to drive all critical business processes. Viewers, fed by real-time transaction and inventory information, make it easy to stay on top of their complex, high-volume business.
“With Agility Viewers, we know exactly where to increase margins and where to cut inventory. A snapshot of work in progress information helps us control labor and plan our workload effectively,” said Mitchell. “We are now worlds ahead. We have all the tools we need to increase our bottom line.”
Via their acquisition of a Baltimore-based company, Wurth Wood Group was introduced to DMSi’s legacy software, DMS+, in 2005. They soon realized they needed to consolidate into one system that would give them inventory accuracy and building material-specific features like rebate reporting.
“Moving from D+ to our legacy software would be moving backwards, and moving to D+ was not an option,” said Theresa Liscinsky, IT Manager of Wurth. “The support we received from DMSi led us to review and consider Agility.
To continue to grow profit using the resources they had, and increase inventory accuracy, the company implemented Agility in 2007.
“Agility made us more efficient and therefore better at serving our customers” Liscinsky said. “It allows us more connection and easily interfaces to third-party software.”
One of the functions Wurth fully capitalizes on is the rebate reporting features, which make it easier to submit laminate vendor rebates to suppliers. Rebate reporting also allows them to track cost and gross margins more accurately for items that qualify for rebates.
“We had rebate reporting in our legacy system,” said Liscinsky, “but Agility is much more detailed and allows better tracking formatted to our multiple suppliers. The import price program speeds price updates and rebate changes.”
Another DMSi product Wurth Wood Group has had success with is BInformed, a flexible business intelligence application that lets the company view and interact with business data. It allows companies like them to make informed decisions, and to standardize reporting processes.
“We needed an upgraded, all-inclusive system,” Mike Potthoff, Christensen Lumber’s Chief Financial Officer said. “We decided to start from scratch and implement Agility to gain the efficiency we were lacking.”
A customer since 1999, the Nebraska-based company ran DMS+ software before making the switch to Agility in 2009. Christensen prides themselves on being focused on service and staying ahead of technology.
“Now our customers feel that we’re a proactive, tech-friendly company,” Potthoff said. “We’re seen in a new light.”
Agility provides Christensen Lumber with easier, more accurate inventory management. “Our real-time visibility has increased significantly,” Potthoff said. “We can trust item stock availability and quantity on hand.”
This increased visibility also applies to non-stock items. “The bill-of-materials (BOM) structure lets us easily quote doors that we don’t carry in inventory. It allows our walk-in customers to get real-time pricing and availability on special order configured doors.”
Agility has helped Christensen Lumber improve their overall operation from customer service to administration.
“We use the suggested purchase order features extensively,” Potthoff said. “The ability to link a sales order to a purchase order has been a big improvement from the way things were done before. We are really becoming efficient at managing our reorder points, which has allowed us to free up significant amounts of cash without compromising service.”
Processes that were once timely and manual are now simple, a change that has made an impact on productivity.
“Agility has helped our month-end billing process,” Potthoff said. “Before, we printed a statement and then manually matched up invoices to the statement and then mailed it to the customer. Now, a statement prints, and all the invoices follow suit. What was once a day and a half project now takes half a day.”
Agility’s project management module is so integrated with the rest of the software’s accounting and inventory capabilities that we take it for granted that it was always part of the program. Not so. The module came about due to a unique collaboration between DMSi and Bridgewell, an existing Agility customer whose extraordinary growth led to the tool’s development.
The Contractor Direct division of Bridgewell, whose business is dedicated to the supply chain management of vast product lines, was bringing in new, large, and complex contracts that required serious coordination. For instance, a builder’s requested delivery date and order size might suddenly change – several times. Purchasing, shipping and invoicing orders would need adjusting with little notice, also a growing challenge. Bridgewell’s existing tools simply weren’t suited to the unique demands of these large contracts. They needed a better method.
As an existing Agility customer, DMSi agreed to work with Bridgewell to create a project management tool in Agility. This would eliminate the need to synchronize data with an outside application or to double-enter information.
“Our approach was to have one centralized order and inventory management and accounting solution,” said Scott White, Bridgewell’s Director of Information Technology. “We were already on Agility, and we wanted to keep it that way.”
DMSi’s development team began working closely with Bridgewell to understand the company’s needs. Representatives from DMSi met with the division vice presidents as well as the sales and buying teams.
“It was a very collaborative process,” says White. “We had a two-day session with them to really clarify the requirements.”
The project management tool would need to centralize key functions so contracts could be updated quickly and easily. Bridgewell also wanted to see each contract as a unified project rather than a series of separate transactions. This would help departments coordinate and would give management a better sense of how a contract was progressing. DMSi continued to work closely with Bridgewell throughout development, making sure the project met the original objectives.
“As sprints were completed, the individual teams would show what they had developed, and we would either unofficially sign off or ask for tweaks,” said White. “That tighter collaboration really added value.”
Bridgewell began integrating the Project Management window almost immediately, adding additional functionalities as they became available.
“Our buyers now make changes, particularly in lumber, that they couldn’t do before,” said White. “Now the admin staff is out of that process. It’s mostly in the buying team’s hands, which is where we always wanted it.”
In 2013, DMSi released the Project Management window to all its customers as a new feature in Agility. It contained the essential functions for managing contracts with multiple deliveries over time: changing item quantity on a quote, updating estimated delivery dates, committing inventory to a sales order directly from a quote, and tracking change orders. Grouping functions together meant admins no longer needed to move between multiple menus for a single transaction.
So, where did this powerful project management tool translate into a competitive advantage for Bridgewell?
“Our edge is that our business processes can scale up where they couldn’t before,” said White. “Now, we compete for those 5-6,000- product-line job contracts that are out there.”
The sales team at Wholesale Millwork had a problem: They were spending a lot of time keeping track of pricing requests. Per a customer’s inquiry, the sales reps would jot down a list of products and prices on a notepad. But if the customer called back days later, there was no easy way to find it. The sales order had to be created from scratch, and any special pricing had to be double-checked. Things got even more complicated if the original rep wasn’t available.
Wholesale Millwork’s leadership believed they could improve this process with Agility’s OrderPad. OrderPad that is a standard feature in Agility ERP software. Think of it as an updated version of the classic sales notepad. Reps can quickly put together a list of products with job-specific pricing. They can then turn the list into an order or save it for later. OrderPad records are saved in Agility, so it’s easy for any rep to find quotes.
“We saw the value in everyone knowing what someone else had quoted (or mis-quoted) without having to get the original person back on the phone,” said T.L. Wright, System Manager at Wholesale Millwork.
OrderPad’s simple interface lets reps build product lists quickly. Account information, inventory levels, and job-specific pricing are displayed on one screen. Adding items to the OrderPad product list is much faster than creating a full quote, so it’s perfect for informal price checks. When the customer is ready to purchase, users can turn the product list into a sales order directly from the OrderPad screen with only one or two clicks.
OrderPad is also available in the Agility mobile app. Outside sales reps can give immediate and accurate quotes during customer visits. Saving the list in Agility means reps don’t have to manually enter the details later.
For Wholesale Millwork’s leadership, it was so important for them that teammates start using it that they took an active role in encouraging adoption.
“We pushed OrderPad to our people by doing things like giving prizes for using it,” says Wright.
Now, Wholesale Millwork’s sales team has a much easier time tracking pricing requests. Chrissy Cerillo, sales rep, thinks OrderPad is helpful for any location where more than one person takes customer orders.
“Special pricing and change of quantity are right there,” said Cerillo. “For job-specific pricing, it’s quicker for me than pulling up stock status and entering the customer number. I’m more confident that I’m getting the correct price.”
As a manager who only sometimes takes orders, Wright says the tool is especially useful for someone in his position, since the quotes he creates are saved in Agility for the regular team: “It’s unlikely I will answer the phone next time, but the information is there for whoever does.”
OrderPad has also improved the speed and accuracy of building quotes. Wholesale Millwork’s team can quickly look-up customer pricing or turn a product list into a sales order without starting from scratch.
“I like the speed of getting pricing and being able to change UOM for a customer in the same screen,” said King.
Questions and change requests have always been part of jobsite visits for McCray Lumber and Millwork sales reps. Customers wanting to add quantity or move a delivery date would tell the rep, who would in turn call a McCray dispatcher. The calls, said Scott Schwart, would quickly pile up.
“There are about 30 of us in the field all trying to get ahold of somebody at the same time. The dispatchers had to do lookups for 40 or 50 different customers a day.”
In addition to creating more work for McCray’s dispatchers, this system caused problems for the reps too. They would wait around for a callback or go to the next job, promising to update the customer as soon as they heard something.
Wanting a better way to serve their customers in the field, the team decided to try the Agility Mobile Sales app. It lets reps access key account information such as open A/R, existing order status, and pending deliveries. They can also immediately check customer pricing and item availability. The app accesses a company’s data in Agility but does not require the bandwidth and processing power of the full platform. Reps can find what they need over a basic wireless or cellular network.
The McCray team downloaded the Agility Sales app onto their phones and tablets then spent some time trying out the functionalities. Scott noticed the speed right away.
“It’s amazing how fast it performs. You just push the button, and the information comes up. It’s instantaneous.”
The app changed the nature of Scott’s customer visits. Having direct access to account information eliminated the telephone game. “I can be on the job site, and the carpenter will tell me ‘Hey that load that was scheduled for next week, I need it tomorrow.’ And instead of calling the guys in the office and waiting for them to go through the lookup process, I can find the ticket number in about 15-20 seconds, get the date changed, and it’s on its way to being billed.”
The Agility Sales app has made Scott much more efficient. “There’s been a huge savings in time. I can look at the ticket, have the information, and be on my way in less than 30 seconds. And I don’t bring a lot of the paperwork that I used to. I just pull up the app and look at exactly what I want to see.”
In addition to keeping projects on time, the fast turnaround makes it easier for Scott’s contractors to provide good service to their customers.
“We can tell the builder we already got it ordered, and it’ll be here tomorrow. A couple of contractors have said to me specifically that they are impressed with how fast we can get them information.”
