Success Stories

Activant Enterprise Software and Trading Partner Connect Enable Vendor-Managed Inventory

Michael LaPorte, vice president of Bergen Industrial Supply Co., had never seen anything like it before. It was on the wall of a machine parts storeroom in one of New Jersey's premier pharmaceutical companies. It was a red, white-lettered sign that read: "Please let me know if we are down to the last part."

"It was amazing," LaPorte remembers. "The way this place makes their products is state-of-the-art. But, they're still in the 1940's with the way they handle their inventory." LaPorte, along with company Vice President Tom Calandriello, realized that Bergen Industrial could revolutionize the way this company handled their storeroom through vendor-managed inventory (VMI), with a little help from Activant.

He extended an offer to the company: Let Bergen Industrial manage the storeroom. The company would gain tighter inventory control, resulting in lower costs and a less chaotic stock area. In turn, Bergen Industrial would gain control over all purchase orders for inventory that moved into the customer's storeroom, translating into a massive increase in sales for Bergen Industrial.

LaPorte then invited representatives from the company to his Elmwood Park, NJ warehouse. That sealed the deal. "When they saw what Activant does for us, they pieced it together - what it could do for them - and they were sold."

Bergen Industrial installed an Activant solution at the customer location and placed two of its employees there to run the facility. "We'll have so much control, and that will help me sleep at night," LaPorte says. "I know that if Activant is in there, we'll have a constant connection to that company's data."

If all goes as planned, Bergen Industrial will more than double their sales with this customer - from roughly $400,000 to more than $1 million. Though they'll still use the same vendors the company currently contracts, Bergen Industrial will also use Trading Partner Connect to source and place orders. "With Trading Partner Connect, I see immediate availability and can find the best price - or the closest seller, if we need something immediately."

Since their customer has never before tracked important data - like turns or usage, Bergen had to start the project from the ground up - meaning clearing a corner of the warehouse and start cataloging and organizing stock. LaPorte remains optimistic. "The sky's the limit," he contends. "This project is good for our customer - and great for us."

Though Bergen Industrial conducts VMI at other customer locations, all of those projects pre-dated the company's partnership with Activant, and are somewhat manual. Once Bergen Industrial finishes this project successfully, LaPorte plans on demonstrating it to his other VMI customers. "We know that any project we do with Activant is better because we have more control over it," he says. "With Activant, there are no downloads or transmissions of data - all the things that just cause ripple effects of errors."

LaPorte says that he would recommend using an Activant solution to conduct VMI to any other distributor. "You can't get better control than splitting your system and putting it into a customer site," he says. "It's something all your sales people and inventory people are already familiar with. Everyone just has to think a little out of the box."

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