Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Blue Stuff Improves Order Processing and “Saves Thousands of Dollars”
Overview
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Specialty Retail
Customer Profile
Located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Blue Stuff, Inc. sells and distributes emu oil-based pain relieving creams, health and beauty ointments, and health supplements.
Business Situation
Using an MAS90 system required Blue Stuff to batch entries and that cost them time, orders, and profits.
Solution
Blue Stuff, Inc. implemented Microsoft® Business Solutions-Great Plains® on quad processors with 4 GB of RAM and 200 GB of space.
Benefits
Integrated business systems
Improved reporting
Improved customer service
Improved order processing / "With one centralized database and Microsoft FRx® and Crystal Reports, we are now able to create relevant and reliable reports in a much more timely fashion..."
Eric Grow, Controller, Blue Stuff, Inc.
Headquartered in Oklahoma, Blue Stuff, Inc. sells and distributes emu oil-based pain relieving creams, health and beauty ointments, and health supplements to over 1.5 million customers. Since implementing Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains, Blue Stuff has improved their integration of business systems with tighter cost and inventory controls as a result. Improved reporting now enables them to pull profit and loss statements for each product from one database, thus saving the company hours of redundant data entry each month. The company is now able to break information down into vertical markets. This helps them to quickly identify what products to target for marketing and which items provide their best return on investment. Prior to implementation, reliable information was not available until the following month.
Situation
Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Blue Stuff, Inc. sells and distributes emu oil-based pain relievers, health and beauty ointments, and health supplements to over 1.5 million customers. The most popular products are Super Blue Stuff, a pain relieving cream, and Peach Stuff, a facial moisturizing skin care cream that reduces the appearance of wrinkles. Other products include shampoos and conditioners for both humans and animals. Annual revenue in 2002 was $85 million.
Emu oil, originally used by the Australian aborigines, is known for its beneficial skin properties. Emu oil leaves no oily residue, only naturally hydrated tissue.
Currently the company is selling in many of the national retail drug chains. Blue Stuff continues to market itself through infomercials, a website, numerous small independent retail stores, international companies, and a base of loyal customers who reorder directly from the company.
Blue Stuff was using an MAS90 system which was reaching capacity. This solution required them to batch orders and cost them time, orders, and profits. At times, orders were lost or forgotten. Reconciliation was nearly impossible to complete due to volume and data integrity issues.
Solution
Blue Stuff implemented Microsoft® Business Solutions–Great Plains® on quad processors with over 4 GB of RAM and 200 GB of space. Microsoft reselling partner, ePartners, added a customization using eConnect that provides a connection between Blue Stuff and a third party call center that takes orders for Blue Stuff. Additional integrations provided connections to Concord EFS Credit Card processing and to a third party order fulfillment center.
Orders from independent retailers are usually entered into Microsoft Great Plains Sales Order Processing (SOP). This provides the ability to charge and verify credit card information at the time of the sale. Blue Stuff has also integrated an ACH process allowing check by phone payments.
They have integrated internal and third party customer service providers into the Microsoft Great Plains database. Orders from national retail drug chains are sent via EDI and integrated into SOP. This allows these orders to be created and filled much like any other order and save valuable time needed to comply with customer requirements.
Blue Stuff's conversion to Microsoft Great Plains has given the company incredible flexibility. The company now allows customers to make multiple payments on orders and has developed a continuity program for loyal customers. None of this was possible before implementation. The database has also improved efficiencies in Blue Stuff's replacement and refund processes.
The system starts with orders coming in from the third party call center system or from the Blue Stuff web site. The exported files are received and imported into a Microsoft SQL Server™ table and prepped for import into Microsoft Great Plains. Orders are prepared with the addition of the batch number, generation of the customer number, and adding in customer number defaults. There is also a test to see if the customer already exists in the system.
The complete data is processed into an XML document and is passed through eConnect to generate a sales order. Next, inventory allocation and verification of the customer's credit card verification occurs. Those accepted by the database follow the pre-determined path of the SOP. Those that fail are identified and processed differently.
Data migration during the implementation included loading all existing customers into the software. The Integration Manager SQL Optimized loaded the customer master information at a rate of more than 50 per second.
Screen and functional customizations completed during the implementation included adding fields for credit card approvals in SOP, automatic generation of the next customer number, simplifying order screens to speed order processing, and automated shipping and handling cost calculations on each order.
Benefits
Integration of Business Systems
Integration of business systems gives Blue Stuff tighter control of costs and inventory.
Improved Reporting
Improved sales tracking and reporting allows Blue Stuff to pull profit and loss statements for each product from one data base and saves the company hours of double entry time each month. "With one centralized database and Microsoft FRx® and Crystal Reports, we are now able to create relevant and reliable reports in a much more timely fashion than anyone in the organization could have ever imagined in MAS90," says Eric Grow, Controller. "This allows Blue Stuff to make more timely decisions."
Blue Stuff takes the reporting information and breaks it down into vertical markets so that they know what products to target for marketing and where they are getting their best return on investment.
Improved Order Processes
Improved order processes have saved Blue Stuff "thousands of dollars" in productivity costs. Improvements include:
Order fulfillment–Blue Stuff has reduced order processing time by 25 percent. Under the previous system, Blue Stuff obtained files from the call center and waited a day to actually begin fulfillment. At times, orders were lost or forgotten, and ultimately, went unprocessed. This resulted in a loss in sales and profits. While Blue Stuff may now choose to batch orders, under the prior solution, they were required to batch everything. With eConnect this isn't required; the results include time savings and increases in efficiency.
Order capacity–The prior system was reaching its capacity and deteriorating; the database needed to be rebuilt. Orders were lost in the process. This is not a problem since implementation.
Integration with accounting–Prior to implementation, the accounting system was separate from the order processing system and reconciliation was nearly impossible to complete due to volume and data integrity issues. With Microsoft Great Plains, the systems are totally integrated and Blue Stuff can focus on delivering product to customers and growing their business.
Improved Customer Service
Using the Microsoft SQL Server database has reduced charge-backs, returns, and refunds by a significant margin for Blue Stuff. It has also improved the process for replacement orders when orders are incorrectly filled.
Integration with Concord and the third party fulfillment center enables Blue Stuff to research customer issues immediately while on the phone. This takes less time and helps insure that they are handled correctly. The ability to access shipping information from Microsoft SQL Server has also helped eliminated inefficiencies.
Microsoft Business Solutions
Microsoft Business Solutions offer integrated business applications and services that allow small and midsize organizations and divisions of large enterprises to connect employees, customers, and suppliers for improved efficiency. The financial management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, and analytics applications work with other Microsoft software, including the Microsoft Office System and the Windows operating system, to streamline processes across an entire organization. This gives businesses insight to respond rapidly, plan strategically, and execute quickly. Microsoft Business Solutions are delivered through a worldwide network of channel partners that provide specialized services and local support tailored to a company’s needs.
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