Overwhelmed with Distribution?
As a distributor, you are responsible for responding quickly and efficiently to all your customers’ needs to stay competitive and profitable in the market. Between completing orders, shipping on time, and fulfilling post purchase activities (i.e. warranties, customer service, etc.) there is little time to make educated decisions and changes, and as your business grows to adequately serve more customers, it can overwhelm your current business processes. You begin to accept more currencies, expand and adopt more distribution centers, and grow your manufacturer base to sell more products. With so much business growth and opportunity, it’s hard to keep track of it all. That’s why Sage has customized a business management system (Sage 100) to act as a “one-stop-shop” to help you manage and continue to grow your distribution business without feeling like you’ve lost control.
Challenges that Sage 100 Can Help You Overcome
Some challenges you may be facing in your distribution business:
Inability to manage rapid distribution growth
Delays in decision-making from a lack of timely information
Interoperability issues across multiple operating locations
Interoperability issues with customers
What Does Sage 100 Offer that Would Help Me with These Challenges?
If any of these are challenges you’re struggling with, Sage 100 can help you tackle them! Here are just some ways Sage 100 can help your distribution business:
Streamline and accelerate processes to improve efficiency and productivity
Link global operations to improve interoperability and collaboration
Provide timely information on critical decision making data to front-line employees
Provide visibility to business processes across functions and departments
1. Inability to Manage Rapid Distribution Growth
According to Aberdeen’s 2013 ERP Benchmark survey, “Forty-one percent (41%) of wholesalers and distributors indicate that they need to manage growth expectations”. Of course, with new business growth also comes added costs. In order to grow your business and maximize your current resources to keep costs low, it’s essential to have an effective business management solution to ensure smooth business processes. Sage 100 allows you to integrate new technology with legacy systems in order for you to have a single view of your business. By doing so, you’re able to easily manage your shipping, processing, and resources by keeping track of all business processes in one effective business management system.
2. Delays in Decision-Making from a Lack of Timely Information
It was found that, “35% [of distributors] cite delays in decision-making due to a lack of timely information”[1]. As a result, agile adjustments to forecasts and shipments are hindered, which means increased costs for distributors. Sage 100 provides you with the ability to see all of your business processes and data in real-time. By having access to data across your multiple distribution locations through one system, employees are enabled to make better predictions of customer demand, ship orders in a timely manner, and manage your customer base with confidence. For example, if an employee saw a particularly low supply of a particular product at one location, but was able to see that another location had a substantial amount of stock in that product, they could arrange for the higher stocked location to ship the product in order to maintain timely shipment schedules.
3. Interoperability Issues Across Multiple Operating Locations
When expanding your distribution business, it can be difficult to manage and interconnect all of your distributions centers and get them to cooperate cohesively, especially when you begin expanding into foreign markets. By adopting a business management solution, interoperability issues will become a thing of the past. Sage 100 allows for employees and other members of your supply chain to have access to the same timely information. Allowing staff to do their job much more quickly and effectively, ultimately resulting in more employees making better business decisions. For instance, warehouse workers will be given the ability to record inventory or pick orders without having to go back to a workstation. This allows them to save time and perform their jobs much faster, which will in turn save your business money.
Additionally, Sage has developed its business management system to allow you to monitor and measure your business’ performance with the click of a button. Sage 100 has operational, financial, and warehouse processes streamlined with accurate views of inventory, cost, pricing, vendor, customer, and item details to allow you to monitor your business’ activity and align it with your profits. If you wish to have more interoperability among your warehouse locations, Sage offers additional web and mobile apps connected through the Sage Data Cloud flowing from Sage 100, such as Sage Billing and Payment, Sage CRM, and Sage Mobile Service, allowing you to connect your business from the field to your financial and operational teams, giving you and your employees stronger business collaboration and visibility.
4. Interoperability Issues with Customers
Having any type of issues with your customers is bad for business. As a distributor, you need to be able to ensure customer satisfaction and reliable customer service in order to keep your customers happy and coming back. In order to take care of your customers, Sage 100 provides you with deep visibility and control over inventory, incoming orders, shipments, returns, and customer-specific pricing. This allows you to easily manage your customer’s orders and provide pricing. Additionally, Sage’s business management system also provides additional customizable options for your most valued customers. For instance, Sage 100 has the ability to allocate (by lot or serial number) reserve limited quantity products for loyal customers, or match a previously shipped product to a specific customer. What’s more is the system also provides a built in labeling system – recognizing each customer’s preferences and automatically providing your workers with the correct customized labels. This not only speeds up production processes, but also gives you insight into what your customers are ordering and tailors to their needs.
To prevent overstock or backorders, Sage 100 includes real-time cycle counting to ensure accurate inventory levels. This means that correct inventory will be available and customer orders will be shipped in a timely manner. In addition, Sage 100 provides the ability for customers to access, pay, and view invoices online. Not only will this speed up payments to your business, but offers convenience for all of your customers.
Still Have Questions?
For more information about Sage software and how it can help your specific business needs, contact us at Crescent SCS by calling (562) 981-0125 or by sending an email to dhensen@crescentsw.net. You can also visit us online at http://crescentsw.net
[1] Reference from Aberdeen’s 2013 ERP Benchmark survey
