Using ECommerce for Remote Sales Entry

Laptop man

We’ve been seeing a trend of distributors needing to use eCommerce in a slightly different way than the traditional eCommerce site with a shopping cart and checkout. Distributors with external sales reps are wanting an eCommerce system for their sales reps to be able to place orders on behalf of their customers. A remote sales entry system, if you will.

To be able to do this, however, the method of payment must not be a credit card, but instead be able to offer the terms that the customer has come to expect through doing business with your company.

Other elements that are helpful for the sales rep are the ability to see quantity on hand and history for the customer. Both of which are easily done through eCommerce integration with the distribution software.

 

 

Document Imaging and Storage for Better Productivity and Money Savings

document imaging

I would surmise that the lion’s share of companies out there, particularly the companies that are considered small companies, are still operating in environments where there are reems of paper shuffled about. All of this paper, in the form of reports, orders, purchase orders, product specifications, etc., is shuffled about is eventually stored away for future reference.

We have been internally testing a document imaging/storage product that integrates with our DistributionPlus software to prevent such environments. Countless hours have been saved by using the product, and we are excited to be able to offer a product like this to companies. A product that will save companies the kind of time that we have been experiencing.

Look for more details in the coming weeks as we introduce the docuent imaging/storage product.

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Pick Distribution Software that Fits Your Business

hole

Last week, there was a blog posted at Capterra titled, Can You Spot the Hole in an Integrated System. It is a great story, and very truthful, about distribution companies moving to larger and integrated software systems. In the article, the author (Ryan) states that smaller and more specialized software is often times more flexible than larger integrated software. In other words, smaller software, such as accounting software, is more flexible for accounting than a integrated package would be.

The article goes on to talk about trade-offs in software. When your company get to a certain size, and can longer function on multiple “specialized” software packages, there is a need for a larger integrated software system. The trade-off mentioned is this: while benefiting the company as a whole, some areas of the company (accounting was used as the example) will forfeit certain flexibilities that they have grown accustomed to.

My point in bringing up this article is that companies do not necessarily have to give up flexibility when moving to an integrated system. In talking with companies, we hear this over and over again that companies have had to modify the way that they run their business in order to fit the software that they chose to purchase.

The developer of the software should be able to modify, not customize, the software so that it is flexible. The software ought to fit the way you run your business, and not the other way around.