Activant Trading Partner Connect Seen as the Future Industry Standard

Rick Doerr, North American distribution sales manager for M.A. Ford, an international manufacturer of high performance solid carbide milling and drilling tools, has seen a lot of changes in the industry over the past 10 years. "There are a lot more competitors now," says Doerr. "And end-users are more bottom line focused. What I'm seeing a lot of is less people doing the same amount of work."

To compensate, M.A. Ford created catalogs so a non-technical professional could select the right type of tooling, made their tools more high performance oriented, increased field sales support, and automated many phases of production. To keep ahead of the changes, M.A. Ford focuses on continually improving their products through constant analysis of end-user needs and back end process improvements like joining Trading Partner Connect.

"A major part of how we adapt to change is to listen to our customers," says Doerr. "They will tell us what they need. It's up to us to respond."

It was that emphasis on listening to their customers that got M.A. Ford involved with Trading Partner Connect. "When Trading Partner Connect was first introduced, Mike Baker, president of Quality Mill Supply - one of our Premier Sales Partner Distributors in the Midwest - mentioned they were joining," recalls Doerr, who also learned about Trading Partner Connect from Western Tool in Livermore, CA. "When I saw him a few months later at the Industrial Distribution Association convention in November, he raved about how Trading Partner Connect was helping him reduce not only his costs, but his manufacturer's costs as well. He also mentioned that he saw an increase in his purchasing from his Trading Partner Connect manufacturers because of how easy it is to do business with them. He told me this was something M.A. Ford should explore. As soon as I was done talking to Mike, I walked over to the Activant booth to find out more."

Doerr knew of Activant's reputation among distributors as a great company to deal with. Activant has helped distributors drive dollars to their bottom line by keeping them on the leading edge of technology. "I wanted to see M.A. Ford on the leading edge," says Doerr, who was immediately impressed with the streamlined functionality of order entry and distributor communications with Trading Partner Connect.

"The main thing M.A. Ford wants to accomplish with Trading Partner Connect is to provide our distributor customers with a seamless ordering, stocking, and availability mechanism," says Doerr. "Our distributor partners are thrilled that M.A. Ford is now part of Trading Partner Connect. They feel it will give us a huge advantage in the supply chain. As partners we understand we must continue to invest to cut cost and drive new sales opportunities for both our distributors and us.

"I foresee Trading Partner Connect growing into a standard operating procedure for the industry," predicts Doerr. "Between the inventory systems and inventory trading, it's good for everybody."

Headquartered in Davenport, IA, M.A. Ford was founded in 1918, when Mark Ambrose Ford (no relation to Henry) invented a luggage rack and then a headlight for the Model T. One year later, he developed a hand cut file. The company founded by a toolmaker now has 300 employees worldwide manufacturing high performance solid carbide milling and drilling tools.

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