Self-service portals are increasingly common in the building materials industry. Allowing customers to look up pricing and place their own orders improves efficiency, grows revenue and attracts new business. But there’s one problem with these portals: customers don’t always use them. If you’re struggling to bring customers online, or simply want to improve your numbers, here are three strategies that can help.
Get everyone on board
If employees don’t see the value in your portal, customers will pick up on their lack of enthusiasm. Build support among your team by emphasizing how it benefits them. Explain how it will make their jobs easier by reducing call volume and time-consuming tasks. Williams Distributing uses PartnerView, an eCommerce solution from DMSi Software. “It has helped our staff tremendously,” said Tim Hartley, vice president of technology. “They’ve been freed up to spend more time helping in areas beyond simply taking orders and answering questions.” When your team appreciates how the portal can help them, they will willingly promote it to customers.
Offering incentives can increase enthusiasm. When Wurth Wood Group launched their eCommerce site, they took extra steps to motivate their team. “We ran internal contests that rewarded the sales agents with the most web-buying customers,” said Theresa Liscinsky, IT manager at Wurth.
Improve visibility
If you want customers to use your portal, they need to know you have one. Advertise it like a product: have signs in your showroom and flyers at the front counter. Add a message about it to the bottom of sales docs and delivery tickets. Include a link to the site’s homepage in the signature block of company emails. It may take a few visits before customers are comfortable, so keep encouraging them. Wurth Wood Group continues to promote its portal well after the site’s launch. “To entice our customers, we have web promotions like discounts, free shipping and giveaways,” said Liscinsky. “Our biggest hit was a helmet autographed by Sam Hornish Jr. and Brad Keselowski. Who knew we had so many racing fans!”
As with any advertising, you must emphasize the value proposition. Customers need to understand why the portal benefits them. (Hint: “You’ll call us less” is not a compelling benefit.) Theresa Cole, systems manager of Monsma Marketing Corporation, said, “We have had a great response to PartnerView by focusing on the many features it offers: access to search inventory, invoices, open orders and pricing. There are images available now, which is an added benefit.” Keep in mind your customers may have different priorities and may only be interested in some of the features you offer. Williams Distributing’s customers use their portal for a variety of reasons. “Some use it for checking item availability and pricing. Others enter their own orders,” said Hartley. “All customers really appreciate the fact that the system is available 24/7.” Find out which features your customers value most and promote them accordingly.
Make it familiar
People resist the unknown – it’s just human nature. Making your portal a familiar presence will go a long way towards improving adoption. Liscinsky describes it as “getting customers out of their comfort zone.” Create a setup where customers can watch employees check available inventory, get pricing, and place an order. Have your outside sales team sign on and look up account information during site visits. The intention isn’t training customers to use the portal as much as letting them see it in action. When customers do express interest, have plenty of training resources ready. Create step-by-step guides, cheat sheets, and how-to videos. Find out if your vendor has materials you can use.
It’s crucial your sales and support teams become comfortable with the portal. If they stumble through or can’t answer questions, it will discourage customers from trying it. Allow plenty of time for employee training. It may also help to appoint one person as the “specialist” who can help with more advanced issues. “We did dedicate one person to work with each customer, usually on site,” said Hartley. “Our trainer spent 30-60 minutes with each customer, showing them the basics and any additional features that might not have been immediately evident. It has been very successful for us. Within 18 months of rolling out PartnerView, we had 280 registered users representing 139 companies.”
If your customers are slow to use your online resources, don’t worry or second-guess yourself. Promoting your portal is an ongoing process. Continue to market your resources and customers will start to take advantage of them.
The initial concept was born at an NHLA convention in 2013. Tommy MacDonald gave a presentation about his work with the Hardwood Forest Foundation educating children on trees and the many ways they are used. While listening to MacDonald’s story, attendee and marketing manager at DMSi Software, Elizabeth Langan, had an idea.
A recent member of the Omaha Children’s Museum board, Langan saw an opportunity to combine philanthropy with educating the public and future generations on the importance of lumber and the industries it influences. Upon returning home, Langan arranged a meeting between members of the Hardwood Forest Foundation and the Omaha Children’s Museum. Thanks to this partnership and the generosity of donors, the interactive Forever Forest exhibit will launch this October.
Forever Forest will feature interactive play spaces where children and their parents will learn about the many careers and products found under the building materials umbrella. Children will learn the different professional roles available in the industry as they maneuver a kid-size grapple skidder, load items onto a Union Pacific train, work with tools to create projects using building materials, and even distribute play medicine at the general store. As parents explore these areas with their children they will become more knowledgeable consumers of building materials and the many industries they affect.
An additional benefit of the exhibit, specific to the lumber and building materials industry itself, is the uniting of various industries that do not typically communicate with each other. As Langan described her goals for the project she stated, “as a company we are in 42 different trade associations which all rely in some way on tree products and these industries don’t talk to each other, so what I really wanted to do was connect them.” By aligning the goals of these industries and highlighting the importance of working together to bring information to the public, the Forever Forest will help bridge a gap across industries while educating children and the adults who accompany them on the wonders of building materials.
Financial contributors to the Forever Forest exhibit include Union Pacific Railroad, DMSi Software, the Hardwood Forest Foundation, Omaha Children’s Hospital, and many others. After a period of time in Omaha, the exhibit will tour the country for ten years, the first three of which are already booked.
Distribution Management Systems, Inc. (DMSi) was presented with the “Vendor of the Year” award by The Drake Group. Drake, a select association of independent drywall distributors, gives the national award in recognition of a vendor’s contributions to the Group’s goals.
DMSi was voted into the Drake Group in 2003 and is actively invested in efforts to advance members’ businesses. When Drake organized The Drake Hub, one of the first association-specific EDI platforms, to help group members do business with manufacturers, DMSi was the pilot software partner for the project. More recently, DMSi hosted an EDI workshop for Group members to help them leverage the application to an even greater extent.
Emily Ethington, DMSi’s senior sales account manager, is credited with cultivating the close relationship between DMSi and Drake members. Ethington describes winning Vendor of the Year as a career goal. “These are some of the smartest, most forward-thinking people in the industry. Earning such a prestigious award from them is a very big deal.”
Mike Limas, executive vice president of DMSi, was at the Drake winter meeting to receive the iconic hand-carved, wooden duck trophy. Limas noted, “This is a special group of people, and we are privileged to be members. Winning Vendor of the Year is a great honor.”
Many businesses are paying for 100% of their software, but only using a fraction of its features. It’s like buying a high-performance sports car just to listen to its radio.
There’s a simple reason for this problem: change fatigue. Once users get through the stress of go-live and finally get comfortable in the new system, momentum dies, users get comfortable, and nobody wants to upset the status quo again. Underutilization of a resource is not a good strategy for any business.
To truly maximize the return on investment of new ERP software, company leaders must take a strategic approach to implementation.
Software implementation is so much more than simply setting up the system. It’s the moment when a company establishes the habits and the culture surrounding the new system. Will users become comfortable with change and improvement, or does everyone settle into a “set it and forget it” attitude.
Go-live can be overwhelming due to the enormity of the changes taking place. It is essential to proceed at a rate that is comfortable for everyone and to work in phases because change presents challenges at every level. Businesses achieve the greatest success when they approach implementation as a three-phase process.
Phase I: Get Back to Normal
When a company implements new software, the number one priority is getting back to normal. Everyone is going to be a little shaky with the new system, so normal processes will probably be slower for a bit of time. So, the first goal of go-live is to get back to doing “one day’s work in one day’s time.” Employees need to be able to serve customers and fill orders with the same speed and ease they had in the previous system. It can take employees anywhere from six months to two years before they feel as comfortable in the new system as they did in the old. Be patient!
Keep in mind new software should deliver benefits even if you don’t dramatically change your processes. For instance, if all departments are integrated and everyone is using live data, it should inherently reduce mistakes, save time, and improve order fulfillment. In this early phase, even with those major improvements, most companies are only using a fraction of their platform’s capabilities.
Phase II: Master the System
Once employees have mastered the fundamental features needed for their job, businesses can start leveraging more advanced functionality in their software. Keep in mind you aren’t merely asking employees to learn a new feature or new report. Implementing advanced features frequently involves making big changes to core business processes. You need to make sure your users are ready.
For example, some ERP platforms can do demand-forecasting and make purchasing recommendations. For buyers used to calculating buying needs in their own Excel spreadsheet, this represents a big change. Instead of introducing suggested purchasing as part of go-live, give them a chance to familiarize themselves with the basic purchasing elements of the system (i.e. Phase I). Once they’re able to run reports and enter POs as easily as before, introduce the suggested purchasing features and come up with a transition plan.
Phase II is where a company really experiences the serious gains in their business. Employees can do more in less time with fewer mistakes. Businesses have new opportunities to reduce waste, improve service quality, and grow profitability. Time to take that sports car out on the open road.
Phase III: Expand the Horizon
After mastering the advanced features of a new ERP, it’s time to explore new opportunities to modernize, transform or even overhaul the business. You’re optimizing this investment, let’s look for the next stage. A company might want to explore solutions such as WMS, dispatch/logistics, CRM, or e-commerce. Ideally, Phase III is driven by employees rather than leadership. If an organization successfully creates a change culture in phases I and II, employees will have open and excited minds about business innovations.
A word of caution: before investing in additional technology, it is imperative to successfully complete Phase II. If you are underutilizing your current resources, the pattern will repeat with the next system. You will spend an increasing amount of money and only realize a fraction of your investment’s value.
MOVING FORWARD
All businesses start their implementation with good intentions. Most of them get stuck in Phase I. They never leverage the more powerful features in their platforms.
Why? Because creating a culture of change is hard. Once employees learn the new system and finally feel comfortable again, there is little appetite to tackle more changes. These are some strategies for keeping up the momentum around your system.
Revisit your strategy
Companies need to build a long-term strategy around their technology investments. A technology leadership team should meet at least once a year to evaluate performance, set priorities, and create plans. This group identifies which advanced functions to implement in Phase II and the order in which to implement them.
Stay informed
Software vendors constantly add new features to their platforms, and adopting these features is key to maximizing the value of your system. The system administrator needs to stay on top of software news, read the release notes, and pay attention to product updates. They need to alert department managers to new enhancements that may benefit their teams and help implement them if necessary. During the annual strategy meeting, they should provide a summary of the key enhancements to the system, giving leadership a high-level view of what’s available.
Get to know your provider
Actively engaging with your provider makes it easier for them to help your business. User forums, trade shows, and customer conferences are all opportunities to communicate your needs, learn relevant news for your business, and get faster access to helpful resources. Good software companies build active relationships with their customers and are delighted to have customers engage with them.
Marathon Mentality
The maximum value of a new ERP doesn’t materialize immediately or by accident. It is an on-going process for the life of a business. The reality is “go-live” is just the first in a series of thousands of transformative moments. Small, constant changes rather than extreme or spontaneous decisions allow businesses to leverage the full value of their investment.
DMSi Software announces its new proof of delivery app, Agility | Mobile P.O.D. It lets businesses answer the growing demand for better order tracking by making the delivery process more efficient and transparent.
Agility | Mobile P.O.D. uses data integration to keep drivers, customers and sales teams on the same page. Inside reps can view delivery statuses in real-time. Drivers can see schedule changes the moment they happen. Customers receive automatic notifications when shipments are en route or delivered. Integration reduces the mistakes and frustration that come from poor communication.
Businesses can manage disputes by using Agility | Mobile P.O.D. to keep accurate, detailed records. Delivery-site photos and electronic signatures automatically upload to the company’s primary system for future reference. (Signatures can also be printed on customer invoices.) If quantity errors are discovered during unloading, drivers can immediately update information to ensure billing is accurate. Once a shipment is marked “delivered,” Agility automatically invoices the order.
Agility | Mobile P.O.D. is the latest addition to DMSi’s line of integrated, cloud-based solutions. It is available for Agility customers across iOS and Android mobile devices, and can be found in the Apple iTunes store and the Google Play store.
Bethany Doss, a business manager at Capital Lumber, knows exactly how complicated a software transition can be.
When her company decided to install the Agility ERP platform from DMSi Software, Doss was part of a six-person team that managed the process. “We were the point people for the project. The super users at each branch would train the people at their location, but the six of us at corporate were responsible for the overall go-live.” More specifically, they were responsible for eight branches, seven states and 220 employees. Capital Lumber had its work cut out.
Businesses depend on software for creating sales orders, purchasing inventory, delivering product and invoicing customers. So when a company decides to change its software, it’s a huge project with a lot at stake.
Here’s how Capital Lumber’s project team tackled three of the most challenging stages of their software implementation, including what worked and what they’d do differently.
System Set Up
Businesses are unique. Each has its own method for tracking balance sheets, approving credit, setting pricing, etc. Documenting these processes is one of the first steps of a software installation. It ensures the system is configured around the company’s specific practices. If the new software has features not available in the previous system, the company may decide to update existing processes. For example, Accounting may switch from faxing printed invoices to emailing electronic ones.
Capital Lumber’s project team worked with their counterparts at DMSi to configure the new system. They performed an extensive review across the company and considered any changes. “Anything to do with background work, like branch set up or G/L, was done by the Corporate group,” said Doss. “We would decide if we were going to change a process or consolidate something we’d been doing in the old software. We aimed to get feedback from the whole company, but the majority of the actual background set up was done at Corporate.”
In order to get through such a huge project, the team needed to be very efficient with their time. Doss explained how the group kept meetings productive: “I think the biggest thing is having an agenda with milestones you look at every single week. Also, everyone needs to know what their role is. Sometimes in these big go-lives, the project management people aren’t totally sure what they’re supposed to be doing.” Structure and routine helped the group stay on track and move forward.
Data Clean Up
The next major stage of a software transition is converting data. Information must be pulled out of the old system and imported into the new one. Many businesses use this as an opportunity to clean up their records. For instance, a business may have three different codes for the same 10-foot piece of southern pine: 020410SYP, 2410pine, and 2410StPn. Before importing anything into the new system, the business can create standardized naming rules, update their catalog and remove duplicate records.
Cleaning up an entire catalog is a massive undertaking. Vendors can suggest best practices, but ultimately the naming system must make sense to employees. Capital Lumber had a catalog of over 10,000 product codes it needed to streamline. Doss’ team decided to assign the challenge to a separate sub-committee. “We took a person from each branch and had them come up with a plan for consolidating our product IDs. They decided what the new renumbering would look like and did a cross reference for any items that we wanted to keep over.”
The project team wanted this process to be as inclusive as possible, so they made sure every area of business was represented on the sub-committee. However, bringing so many people into the group became a problem. “We originally wanted a wide variety of viewpoints, but ended up getting ten different ways of looking at every decision. It was a good intention, but it may have been better to limit that group’s size a little bit.”
Training
Training is one of the biggest challenges a company faces during implementation. It takes time and commitment from everyone in the organization. Watching videos and passing out user guides isn’t enough. Employees need to truly absorb the information. If training is successful, the business will resume its normal speed of operation with relative ease. If unsuccessful, businesses have a much harder journey ahead of them.
Capital Lumber’s project team recognized the importance of their training program and allocated plenty of resources towards its success. Doss described their process, “The one thing that worked very well for us was giving each person their own computer with their own screen, so they could click through the system themselves. Setting that up at all the sites was a little painful, but we found it worked best.”
As employees moved through their training, the project team paid attention to their progress. When people seemed to be struggling with the same issue, they made adjustments to the program. “We had to use our own inventory for the training. We sell lumber, but the training data included things like windows and doors. People weren’t connecting with it, because that’s not what we do. It had to be our items, our customers, our information; the stuff that we deal with every day. Then people were able to make sense of it.”
While there was success in some areas, others remained a challenge. Effective training takes time, but Capital Lumber was too busy for employees to step away from their normal responsibilities. Finding opportunities to practice on the new software was difficult, Doss explained. “Employees have an eight-hour day, and it’s already pretty darn full. So, training had to be at 7:00 a.m. before a meeting or maybe at 4-5 p.m. when the phones are a little slower. We did a lot of offsite training for our super users, and that worked well, but setting aside that extra time at the branch level was probably the biggest struggle we had.”
Lessons Learned
After much diligence and hard work, Capital Lumber completed their implementation. The entire process, from signing the contract with DMSi to going live at the final branch, took about 18 months. Their ability to build consensus, work as a team and adjust to challenges as they arose is a great example to any business transitioning to new software.
Founded in 1948, Capital Lumber is a privately-held distributor of lumber, hardwood and specialty building products.
This article originally appeared in Building Products Digest.
All too often, business intelligence tools are stuck in the manager’s office. This is unfortunate because the real value of business intelligence is driving action. A good way to realize this value is to get business intelligence (BI) out of the office and into the field. As an example, here are three basic ways a good BI tool can make outside reps more effective.
Spot low-hanging fruit
Get the right product in front of the right customer, and the deal will practically close itself. The trick to scoring easy wins is knowing how to spot them. Pushing the same top-ten items at every customer isn’t an effective strategy. Instead, reps should look at each account in context. They need to consider what is “normal” for a given customer and how they compare to others in their market.
BI tools provide an overview of an account’s current and historical activity. They make it easy to see patterns and changes in a customer’s buying behavior. If activity is different in some way, it may signal an opportunity. Reps can ask a customer about specific products they ordered last spring, discuss current trends in the local market, or find out how to better serve the business’s changing needs.
Avoid getting blind-sided
“I’ll get back to you” is a terrible response to a customer question, but sometimes it’s the only option reps have. Every account has different pain points, and predicting the issues a client will bring up requires going over a huge amount of information. Combing through an account’s open quotes, past sales, late invoices, and current backorders prior to every meeting isn’t realistic.
BI tools let reps prepare for meetings in a short amount of time by consolidating multiple areas of data. For instance, instead of reading several reports, reps can view summaries of a customer’s recent purchases, backordered items, open A/R, and available credit on one screen. It’s easy for reps to spot outliers, anticipate what issues a customer will raise, and prepare a response.
Improving service
Beyond increasing sales and avoiding trouble, a good BI tool improves service quality. Customers appreciate a rep who knows their company. When a rep demonstrates she knows important details of a client’s business and understands what they need to be competitive, it strengthens the relationship and improves customer loyalty.
BI tools can also help reps improve their own operation. For instance, instead of returning with a customer’s general complaint that “deliveries are always late,” reps can use a BI tool to find specific instances of late deliveries. This gives them something more concrete to investigate and a better chance of resolving the issue.
What Makes a “Good” Sales BI Tool
Business intelligence benefits many people, but BI tools aren’t one-size-fits-all. An application that works well in the office may not be a good fit for the field. If you’re considering a BI tool for your sales reps, here are a few things to look for.
User-friendly
Information isn’t helpful unless it’s easily consumable. A mountain of spreadsheets will just make reps’ eyes glaze over, no matter how valuable the data. BI tools with easy-to-read charts and graphs convey trends and patterns in a glance. Reps can spot the outliers without reading pages of numbers.
Mobile-friendly
An effective sales BI tool allows reps to prepare and adjust on the fly. That benefit goes away if the application is intended for an office desktop. An effective BI app should be optimized for mobile devices such as tablets. This makes it easy for reps to quickly review an account’s status wherever and whenever (such as their car, three minutes before a client meeting).
Real-time data
When reps know they have current, accurate data, they’re much more confident when speaking with customers. A BI tool that integrates with your primary accounting and inventory management system eliminates the risk inherent with using multiple sets of data.
Businesses that can give employees critical information in an accessible format have a huge competitive advantage. The people in their organization can make smarter decisions and take more effective courses of action. Getting a good BI tool into the hands of outside sales reps is the first step in changing the perception of business intelligence from “reporting tool” to “change agent.”
DMSi Software has partnered with the University of Nebraska to support the future of supply chain professionals. The company is providing six scholarships annually for students with junior or senior status majoring in Supply Chain Management across the University’s three campuses.
The scholarship program is the latest development in DMSi’s initiative to draw new, young talent to the building materials industry. The company has been developing a strong relationship with the School’s Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics for several years.
In addition to the company’s financial contribution to a new building for the College of Business, DMSi employees are connecting with educators and students. Team members have presented to classes and been guests on panel discussions exploring real-world issues in supply chain management.
DMSi has built especially close ties with the Department’s student organization, the Nebraska Supply Chain Club (NSCC). Most recently, the company arranged for club members to tour a customer’s operation, so students could see classroom theories put into practice.
“It’s important to connect with young talent,” says Cindy McCarville, a Senior Account Manager at DMSi. “They are the future. It’s our duty to help them see the building materials industry as a viable career path. This is a great way to support our schools and bring new talent to our industry.”
Variable pricing is gaining a lot of attention. Everyone wants a system that can crunch data and spit out a magic number. But chasing a magic number misses the real value of the process. Pricing optimization is not just a software function or calculation. It’s a powerful managerial tool. More specifically, it’s a strategy for improving profit by changing behavior. And when done correctly, it helps provide better service to your customers.
Learn Your AA, BB, CCs
Pricing optimization starts with customer stratification. Many businesses only use gross sales to rank accounts as A, B, C, or D. But not all “A”s are created equal. For instance, an A customer with a lot of returned items and late payments may not be very profitable. The stratification process accounts for these “hidden costs.” It provides a more comprehensive picture of your customers and their impact on your bottom line.
Stratification plots customers in a quadrant. (So instead of simply using A, B, C or D, rankings are AA, AB, AC, AD, BA, BB, etc.) The quadrant is based on two axes: buying behavior on the x-axis and profitability impact on the y-axis. The value for each area is based on a set of variables. For instance, profitability factors include delivery costs, will-call orders, returns, and days past due. Using the quadrant helps separate dependable A and B customers from those with sporadic buying behavior or chronically late payments.
Changing Behavior
Customer stratification doesn’t just show which accounts are most profitable; it shows how to make them more profitable. It’s similar to looking at a class’s test results. The overall grades don’t reveal much, but reviewing the test questions can pinpoint which students have problems with spelling and which have problems with grammar. Likewise, a customer’s AB or CD rating only tells you so much. The stratification process, however, breaks out specific factors. When you know what areas to target, you can respond more effectively. The goal of pricing optimization, after all, isn’t to charge the highest price, it’s to make the highest profit. To really improve profitability, you likely need to change the behavior of both customers and your sales reps.
Change #1: Account Management
Consider this (highly simplified) example. Acme Lumber has two customers: Jay Construction and Haas Builders. Both have a profitability ranking of “C.” But if we dig into the specific variables, we can see they have different issues.
Jay Construction usually has just a few items per each order. Haas Builders, on the other hand, makes a lot of returns. This information gives Acme’s sales reps a strategy beyond “sell more.” If the reps can help Jay’s Construction consolidate deliveries and Haas Builders improve order accuracy, it would reduce the cost to serve each company. Those accounts would become more profitable, even if their sales didn’t increase. This doesn’t just benefit Acme. If these customers improve their ranking and move into a higher quadrant (say from BC to BB), they may be eligible for better pricing. It’s a win all around.
Change #2: Policy Updates
If a particular variable causes problems across many customers, an account-by-account response may not be sufficient. It could suggest the need for company-wide changes. For instance, if “returns” are a problem for the majority of Acme’s customers, Acme may want to solve the underlying reasons for returns, add a service charge, or change its return policy.
Change #3: Resource Allocation
Stratification also provides insight about employee performance. Identifying which reps are most profitable can help make decisions about assigning accounts. Instead of going by seniority or sales volume, assign your most profitable people to the most profitable customers. You can also evaluate “star” reps and look for behaviors that other team members can adopt.
Pricing
Once a business stratifies their customers and performs a similar process with their items, they can calculate optimized prices. Exactly how a business uses optimized pricing is up to each organization. Some may decide to lock down prices, while others may allow reps a bit of flexibility on AA-BB accounts. A third possibility is to use optimized prices as a goal, and reward reps when they near their target.
While owners and managers are excited about the potential of pricing optimization, sales reps are less thrilled. The stratification process may reveal some A and B accounts aren’t very profitable and should be charged more. Reps aren’t going to be happy about raising prices on their “best” customers and may feel like they are gouging good accounts. Help reps understand that prices stem from both the products and services you provide. Extra attention and handholding represent real costs. It consumes time and money to constantly update orders, process returns, and wait for late payments. You shouldn’t gouge customers, but it’s OK to charge what you’re worth.
Going Forward
Some people see pricing optimization as the rise of the machines, with software poised to take the jobs of hapless sales reps. This scenario couldn’t be farther from the truth. Pricing optimization is an extremely hands-on process. It demands deeper conversations about pricing strategy. It prompts businesses to consider the “how” and “why” of their decisions.
Software is tremendously helpful. It processes huge amounts of data, runs complicated formulas, and delivers more precise answers. It’s a powerful tool, but it’s still just a tool. It doesn’t know customers, understand goals, or enforce policies. Without active participation, software can’t improve your profitability any more than a FitBit can improve your waistline. Instead of searching for magic numbers, businesses should use pricing optimization as a springboard for greater change.
This article originally appeared in Building Products Digest.
