News

New Release Helps Distributors Better Manage Import Information

YARDLEY, PA, May 7, 2004 - Importing product from overseas is hard, says Donald Rober, vice president of United Distributors. There are no two ways about it: "You have to track what's on water, work with brokers, and manage a list of fees that's as long as your arm."

Key features in Prism 11, the latest release of Prophet 21's UNIX-based enterprise software solution, are engineered to make Rober's life - and the lives of all distributors importing product - easier. One feature allows distributors to group multiple purchase orders (POs) from multiple vendors in the same container. Another enables distributors to track detailed data involved in importing product, like on-board confirm, estimated date to ship, and estimated time of arrival (ETA) into port date.

"Because Prophet 21 knows that organized information is critical to complicated tasks like importing, we designed Prism 11 to help distributors better manage data," said Chuck Boyle, Prophet 21 president and CEO. "Because of these features and many others, Prism 11 will definitely help distributors continue to increase sales, improve customer service, and reduce operating costs."

Saving Time and Aggravation

As a ceramic tile and natural stone distributor based in Billerica, MA, United Distributors imports about 50 containers per year from foreign countries like Italy and England - and each of these containers usually holds product from several manufacturers.

Prior to Prism 11, Rober and his accounts payable (AP) representative manually allocated all of the costs involved in importing these containers. "We sat with a calculator and spent hours adding freight, broker's fees, duties, and demurrage fees, into each PO on our containers," he said. "It was incredibly time-consuming.

Since Prism 11 consolidates the POs on each container, allocating costs automatically, Rober can be sure that he recoups every expense involved in bringing each piece of tile to shore. "Plus, it helps save my payables person's sanity," he laughed.

Because all of the information about each container is maintained in United Distributors' Prism solution, Rober can get rid of the flat files in which he once kept the information. And, because employees can access the information from their desktops, they won't have to run to his office each time a customer asks when a certain product will arrive. "This will save everyone time and aggravation," he said.

Other Features Available in Prism 11 Give You the Ability to...

• Deleted Order and Item Audit Trails - Just as you need to know who entered an order, you also need to know who changed or removed it. Prism 11 includes a feature that creates an audit file that displays changes made to an order, and even tracks deleted order lines and orders.
• New Inventory Fields - Gain a better understanding of vendor performance by tracking the date you last received goods - and how many of a particular item arrived in a shipment.
• Expected Vendor Lead Times - Increase internal efficiencies and improve customer service by knowing when to expect your next shipment: Prism 11 automatically generates an "expected date" by adding the vendor lead-time to the date you generate the PO.
• And Many More!

Pricing and Availability

Prophet 21 Prism version 11 is currently available. For additional information and pricing, please visit www.p21.com or call 1-800-776-7438, press 1.

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