 DPS/Real-World Solutions: Confectionery/Wholesale Grocery
Making the Decision to Control Costs and Maintain High Service Levels:
Family Business Leverages IT in Newfoundland
Goulding’s Wholesale Ltd. is a family run wholesale distributor of confectionery, baked goods, potato chips and grocery items. A small company established in 1951, Goulding’s must control costs and offer high service levels in order to remain competitive. When asked about the challenges of selecting the application software to support his business, General Manager Melvin Goulding had much to share. (The following is a consolidation of two letters from Melvin to DPS.)
“We originally considered the DPS system and were impressed with it but we felt that it was too expensive a solution for our size operation.
Instead of DPS, we decided to install a popular software package running on a personal computer network. We found that the general accounting worked fine but when we installed the order entry and inventory packages we ran into problems. We spent a year trying to get the software in operation only to determine that it didn’t have the flexibility to meet our needs, and the vendor’s support wasn’t what we had expected. On top of this, we found that the personal computer hardware was unreliable and the network required a high degree of maintenance. We eventually decided to revisit the DPS proposal.
Since installing the DPS system our experience has been very positive. We now realize that just as important as selecting the right hardware and software is the vendor behind the system. We feel that although their system required a larger initial financial investment, our company has benefited in many ways and we have recovered our costs.
A couple of key areas where it has helped us include:
Inventory Control – We are able to watch stock levels more closely and have actually been able to reduce inventory levels. We can tell very quickly what we’ve been selling and how much stock we should reorder.
Improved Margins – Through the use of detailed on-line sales information, not only do we know what we’ve been selling but how profitable each sale is. Using DPS we are in better control of our pricing and our profit margins. We can stay on top of things on a daily basis and are able to spot any trends.
There are many things the DPS system does to help us every day that we didn’t anticipate when we started out. Many features help us to serve our customers better and allow us to make more productive use of our time. Unlike our experience with the PC network, the IBM AS/400 (now eServer iSeries) is very reliable and requires little management.
The DPS system allows us to be more effective by putting the information we need at our fingertips. It has allowed us to improve our reputation for service, and to maintain control over our business without increasing staff levels or hours worked. From the time we installed the system we have seen many benefits. Because of the management controls and reporting provided by the DPS system, we believe we have increased our bottom line by at least 3%.
We will sum it up by saying that installing a system from DPS has proven time and again to be a good business decision. We are pleased with the results we’ve achieved and the support that DPS provides us. We recommend the DPS Extend™ software to any distribution company in need of an easy-to-use and flexible system supported by professional and helpful people.”
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