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Key
features & functionality used
by
All States Flag Co.: |
| E-Commerce |
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Running web store
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operations |
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• Real-time
integration
with
back-end
accounting
and
business
operations |
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• A-Z listing |
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Selling products
online |
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• Full product
selection |
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• Storing
of item
descriptions
in HTML |
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Taking orders online |
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• Real-time
order
creation
in the
back-end |
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• Real-time
order status |
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PageBoost |
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| Accounting |
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General ledger |
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Accounts receivable |
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Accounts payable |
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| Sales |
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Sales order |
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Store/validate credit
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card information |
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| Inventory
control |
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Serial number tracking |
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Graph inventory
levels |
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Item kits |
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| Purchasing |
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Purchase orders |
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Generate/assign
serial |
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numbers on purchase
orders |
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Drop-shipping |
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| Shipping
& Receiving |
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Packing slips |
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Address labels |
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Everest freight
estimator |
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option |
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Company
Background |
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A penchant for pennants
All States Flag Co. offers a wide array
of flags for corporations, organizations
and trade shows to name a few. Based
out of St. Louis, MO, All States Flag
started out from the basement of a house,
then moved into its present location
with a staff of three.
Producing quality flags and banners
for over thirteen years, All States
Flag – a family-owned business
– also retails flagpoles, bases,
ornaments and miniature flags for table
displays.
All States Flag Co. runs on Everest.
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The
Challenge |
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The company was using Peachtree for
accounting, Miva Merchant for the website,
and had no inventory management functionality
in place. “Peachtree for me was
more of an accounting system rather
than an order-entry system; I did not
use the inventory management features
of Peachtree even if there were any,”
said vice president of production, Jacob
Buhrman. Everything was managed manually,
inspite of the disjointed software used
at All States Flag. While on Peachtree,
it would require Buhrman to transfer
order information from Miva Merchant
into Peachtree. “It was pretty
ridiculous. And there were several things
about the way Peachtree worked that
we weren’t really impressed with.”
All States Flag switched over from Peachtree
to QuickBooks, which lacked in most
functionalities and lasted only a month.
“We just gave up on QuickBooks
because there was no way to pull up
sales orders and we wanted the instant
results,” said Buhrman. “I
wanted to be able to see the exact status
of orders placed today and yesterday;
and how many of those orders were backordered,
how many of them had been paid for,
which I wasn’t getting to see.”
Buhrman looked at ACCPAC, Mail Order
Manager and Everest. “Out of the
three, Everest was the way to go and
we just started using Everest.”
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The
Solution |
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Purchasing a three user-license of Everest
Standard Edition in 2001, Buhrman has since
upgraded to Everest Advanced Edition 2.0.
“Everest very quickly shows real-time
order status and that’s what it’s
designed to do. I am glad, it was a good investment.”
For Buhrman, software integrated with e-commerce
was a major determining factor to go with
Everest, and currently All States Flag has
over 13,000 unique items listed on its web
store.
Earlier, customer calls were always put on
hold to get information on stock availability.
“Our inventory system was our shelf.
Now I have four times the inventory, and trying
to keep track would have been near to impossible
without a system that’s designed to do
it. I would be lost without Everest,”
Buhrman said. “I can go to the items
browser which displays items in stock and
its availability. One of the best features
of Everest is the ability to find out who
ordered what by using the items browser, to
quickly find customers by searching by item,
which is pretty unique – not very many
programs out there have it as a feature.”
Now, up and running on Everest, All States
Flag uses Everest’s PageBoost for two
of its websites which are directed to the
default shop. “I am using PageBoost to
allow me to create multiple shops, without
having to purchase multiple shops.”
With the item kits built in Everest, Buhrman
is able to categorize items in the correct
order.
All States Flag utilizes most of the major
functionalities in Everest: right from point-of-sale
for its retail store, purchasing, the freight-estimator
to estimate shipping costs, and the contact
manager. The availability of real-time information
has improved customer service and has saved
time.
All States Flag ships out one hundred orders
a day compared to about fifteen before Everest.
“Peachtree doesn’t have any of these
features that Everest does, and Everest allows
you to ship faster.”
With business growing, Buhrman has been able
to do things he never had the time for earlier.
“Now I am able to web design and pay
attention to other marketing strategies,”
said Buhrman. “I wasn’t able to
do any of these before, because I was tied
up dealing with customers on the phone. I’ve
been able to move my attention towards other
things now, then trying to use a cumbersome
program that takes me way to long to get my
stuff done.” |
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The
Result |
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100%, year 1 ROI |
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Enabled just-in-time inventory and
drop-shipping |
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Increased shipping by
85 orders on a daily basis |
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Improved customer service,
thereby increasing customer-base |
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