News

Prophet 21 Web-Based Training Provided Substantial Savings

Source: IBM Wholesale Distribution, May 13, 2002

YARDLEY, PA, May 6, 2002 - DXP Enterprises, Inc. and Prophet 21 have partnered to train DXP employees utilizing Prophet 21 Web-Based Training, saving time and money, while shortening the learning curve for users.

In March, DXP universally converted to Prophet 21 CommerceCenter in an effort to standardize their daily processes and operations' policies. According to Rhonda Acker, director of operations for DXP, in the past, geography caused difficulties for employee training. This became an even greater issue with DXP's aggressive timeline for conversion to CommerceCenter. Fortunately, Prophet 21 offered a solution: Web-Based Training. "Through Web-Based Training, we delivered comprehensive training to all users while continuing to focus on implementation," explains Acker.

Web-Based Training enables participants to engage in one- to two-hour classes delivered over the Internet. Students interact online in real-time with the instructor and other students without leaving their office. Using a browser window, students log on to a specified Web site to view class handouts, gain hands-on experience with Prophet 21 software, listen to the instructor, and verbally ask questions. Since everything takes place from the participants' own computers, travel expenses have been eliminated and students can apply what they've learned immediately.

"I felt comfortable knowing that Prophet 21 had first-hand experience using Web-Based Training," continues Acker. "They were able to provide the training and support for the development of our courses, as well as the set-up and scheduling. It was a huge benefit that Prophet 21 could customize the courses for DXP employees."

As one of DXP's "CommerceCenter Champions," Richard de la Barcena, a customer first center supervisor for DXP, is responsible for overseeing and training other DXP employees using the solution. For de la Barcena, the hands-on, interactive training was priceless. "Actually going through our daily business steps during training gave us a good idea of what we need to do and how things are going to be done," says de la Barcena. "Knowing how the solution works, enabled us to give our customers a head's up on the changes in the way that we conduct business using CommerceCenter," he continues.

As a result of the company's Web-Based Training experience, Acker says that she can have her best training resources in 14 states at one time. "DXP can offer customer service that raises industry standards when all 503 of our employees are uniformly trained on all aspects and functions of CommerceCenter. We can also standardize our training to help new hires learn our processes quickly and cost-effectively."

de la Barcena agrees, noting that everyone who has been through the training now knows how CommerceCenter works start to finish, which improves business universally. For example, warehouse personnel now know how to enter freight, and outside sales representatives can determine the destination of a shipment by accessing CommerceCenter. "Web-Based Training saves us a lot of time and energy. As a result of the training, everyone feels very comfortable entering an order, receiving freight, and printing reports. We're taking care of business ourselves and working smarter," de la Barcena says.

According to Acker, continuing education is extremely important to DXP's successful operations. With Web-Based Training, they can now develop their own customized courses for training new employees and introducing new processes and procedures to existing ones. DXP realizes tremendous savings with Web-Based Training, as employees learn right from their workstation, rather than incurring excessive traveling costs. "Web-Based Training provided the perfect vehicle to meet my goal of training 503 employees to the highest standard, in record time, with the least cost to the company," says Acker. "Prophet 21 helped DXP realize a huge savings by utilizing Web-Based Training."

"Not having to travel to meet and train in a central location is a huge benefit, not just in saving travel cost, but in saving on travel time," adds de la Barcena. "I would recommend Web-Based Training for the benefit of not having to travel to meet and train in a central location."

Simply put, DXP realizes that they can reach and educate more people faster, cheaper, and more efficiently through Web-Based Training rather than any other training method. Acker concludes: "Properly trained employees are happy and serve our customers best, better than all of our competitors."

About DXP

DXP Enterprises, Inc. is a leading industrial distributor of products and services for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) and capital equipment projects. Headquartered in Houston, TX, they have 38 sales locations, spanning 14 states, two regional distribution centers, central administration services, six fabrication and assembly facilities, and 24 hour a day field service operations. In addition, the company offers integrated supply, systems contracts, and dynamic and static consignments.

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