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Yardley, PA, April 18, 2007 -- In late 2002, John Wiborg had a decision to make. After engineering the acquisition of a nearby industrial supply house, the president of Stellar Industrial Supply found himself with two enterprise software solutions.

Having run Activant Acclaim since the early 1990s, Wiborg had to decide whether to implement the UNIX solution at his new branch, or switch the entire company to their newly acquired company's Windows-based, SQL Server solution, Activant Prophet 21™.

We've always tried to build our company for the future," says Wiborg. "So while it would have been easier to just put the new branch on Acclaim, we knew that Prophet 21 had a more favorable architecture that made it better suited for evolution and development. We invested in the solution as much for what it could do at the time, as for what it would be able to do down the road."

To illustrate, Wiborg recalls how the Wireless Warehouse Management Solution (WWMS) was not available as a complement to Prophet 21 when they switched from Acclaim. Now, Stellar is in the process of incorporating the WWMS into warehouse procedures at each of their eight locations.

"We continue to deploy all aspects of Prophet 21 and the products with which it interacts," says Wiborg. "Whether we're talking WWMS, Knowledge Management Center (KMC), or the Internet-based B2B Seller and Trading Partner Connect - each one creates a different strategic advantage."

Uncommon Versatility

No stranger to creating strategic advantages, Wiborg earned a degree in finance and worked for an investment firm in New York, before returning to Tacoma, WA, to do small business turnarounds and mergers and acquisitions. "I realized then that I didn't want to do just project work," recalls Wiborg. "I wanted to be a part of building something."

Wiborg went to his father, who had a background in distribution, and they discussed the fragmented nature of industrial distribution. Both men agreed the industry was ripe for consolidation, and, with this in mind, they capitalized Stellar Industrial Supply in July of 1988. Now, more than 18 years later, the company boasts multiple branches with product lines that serve a diverse array of industries, from pulp and paper to aerospace.

Supplementing this growth over the years has been the company's relationship with Activant, which reaches back to Stellar's earliest days, when they ran a proprietary hardware/software Activant business system before switching to Acclaim and then Prophet 21 in 2003.

"Knowing that technology would be crucial to the development of our business, we made a decision a long time ago to have a really capable technology partner," explains Wiborg. "We always wanted to be ahead of the pack."

A quick survey of Stellar's capabilities proves they are right where they want to be. Prophet 21's latest release, version 11.0, provides them with complex inventory management and CRM functionality in the form of advanced demand forecasting and customer master inquiry (CMI). In addition, the integration of Prophet 21 with Activant's Internet trading network, Trading Partner Connect, and Stellar's B2B Seller Web-based storefront gives the company a versatility few of their competitors can claim.

Getting to the Point

"People are always asking how much business we do through our Web site," says Wiborg. "I tell them that's not the point â€" the point is the level of service we offer our customers."

If Stellar's customers want to view invoices or look at their buying history, they can do that through the company's B2B Seller site, and the benefits are three-fold. In addition to providing customers the convenience if accessing information 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Stellar saves on overhead since customers can help themselves, and the site serves to differentiate them from competitors without similar offerings.

"We just won a large safety contract in eastern Washington, and a big element of that was the demo we did on our Web capabilities," explains Wiborg. "So whether they place orders through the site or not, it's obviously important that we give them the option."

Reflecting on Stellar's relationship with Activant, Wiborg is confident his company will maintain their position on the cutting edge. He concludes: "Activant's a thought leader, and we'll continue to invest in their technology and take advantage of the tools they bring to the table."

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