Success Stories

Activant Trading Partner Connect Saves Time and Improves Customer Service

James LaPorte founded Bergen Industrial Supply in June 1965, at its present location in Elmwood Park, NJ. His typical day consisted of filling orders between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m., making sales calls and deliveries all day, placing orders in the afternoon, then building bins and shelving into the late evening, billing that day's shipments, then starting the same cycle the next day at 6:00 a.m.

Under LaPorte's leadership, the company prospered and today has 98 employees managing a $6 million inventory in 71,000 square feet of space and maintaining a fleet of 12 trucks. In addition, LaPorte's three sons have joined the company.

One of the largest suppliers in the USA of stainless and carbon steel pipe, valves, fittings and steam system products to the pharmaceutical, chemical processing, food and beverage, pulp and paper, cosmetic/personal care products, textile, utilities, plastic adhesive, and coating industries, Bergen operates primarily in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.

Since 1965, their goal has been to "get the customer what they want, when they want it."

Trading Partner Connect

An Activant Acclaim user since 1998, Bergen signed on to Activant Trading Partner Connect, an Internet trading network, shortly after its introduction. Michael LaPorte, vice president of Bergen, says Trading Partner Connect's B2B Seller component is what first attracted their interest. LaPorte says Bergen's initial goal was not e-commerce, but finding a better way to interact with customers. B2B Seller does just that by providing distributors with a fully hosted, integrated Web-based storefront solution.

"Our customer service representatives used to spend 70 percent of their time on the phone answering routine questions and putting out fires," says LaPorte. "With B2B Seller, we've significantly reduced this time and associated costs because our customers have access to all of their pertinent information online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

Through Bergen's Web site, www.bergenindustrial.com, customers can open the "Order & Query" screen and go directly to customer service (expediting). There they can submit questions or comments, run reports, and check on things before they become a problem.

"Having our site available to our customers frees our expeditors to do more of what they are supposed to do - service all of our customers," says LaPorte.

Adding a catalog

Recently, Bergen posted a catalog of products and began taking customer orders online.

"We want our customers to go to the Web first and use our staff for the more difficult issues that arise," says LaPorte. "We want them to get the impression that we're a progressive and forward thinking company with a technology savvy image."

With Trading Partner Connect's B2B Seller, they can do just that.

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