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Brothers Emil and
Henry Stanz started a foodservice business in 1923 with just $500, a small
truck, and big plans. Today, Stanz Foodservice serves 3,500 institutions in
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Indiana and Michigan, including the University of Notre Dame.
The
foodservice industry is competitive; most vendors sell similar merchandise at a
low profit margin. Because of this, Stanz is always looking for new ways to
offer its clients more value by improving responsiveness, facilitating
consultative selling, and reducing the cost of business. The technology-centered
solutions used by Stanz—particularly its advanced Retalix ERP system that
runs on an iSeries Model 810—contribute greatly to these
endeavors.
In August of 2003, a document automation solution from S4i Systems, Inc. was integrated with
Retalix to produce invoices, purchase orders, statements, and other important
documents via electronic forms on blank, two-part NCR forms stock, all printed
with common HP laser printers. "Because of S4i Express, we are
more responsive to our customers, and we affect better overall customer
satisfaction," says Mark Gaddie, Vice President of Information Technology at
Stanz.
Making a Good Impression
Two years ago, Gaddie vetted complaints from drivers
about the marginal quality of the second, third, and fourth pages of invoices
that accompanied shipments. The IBM impact printers used to produce these
documents on four-part, preprinted forms weren't making a good impression for
Stanz as customers had to sign off on invoice pages that were muddled because of
poor print quality. And it was hard to make adjustments on return items because
duplicate notations had to be made on several pages.
Exasperated, Gaddie
set his Web browser to "iSeries Document Automation," found several potentially
suitable options, and mounted an exhaustive study of the features and
functionality of these products before settling on S4i Express. "I
decided the amount of time needed to set up S4i Express was a little more than
other solutions, but it was worth it because, once S4i Express was configured,
it was more flexible than the other options. I could tailor it to our operations
rather than conform to its constraints."
"Every system allows you to
design your own form," continues Gaddie. "S4i Express offered
more flexibility in how we wanted a specific form to work, from the way it
processed data from spool files, to the order in which the pages were printed."
Gaddie chose S4i Express because he was also considering S4i's ImageXP
electronic document imaging system as a future project and felt that S4i Express
would be a compatible fit.
The unchallenged reliability of the iSeries
came into play too. Says Gaddie, "I wanted a solution that completely resided on
the iSeries. If invoices don't get printed, then trucks don't leave the
warehouse and our customers don't get their supplies." In overhauling the
document-creation process, Gaddie also wanted to streamline shipping, reduce
order staging time, and reduce the time drivers spend reviewing invoices with
customers once the order is unloaded. With S4i Express, he is
able to print two copies of an invoice's first page and have the printer's
stapler bind them together. The same process is repeated for all subsequent
pages until a complete set of shipping documents is created for each order. This
lets drivers and customers review the orders, make any necessary adjustments to
the top copy of each page, and initial it. This eliminated printing all pages of
an invoice consecutively, printing a duplicate set separately, and having
drivers make notations on both copies.
According to Gaddie, "S4i made
this happen, and that's why we settled on S4i Express. They
even developed a couple of features specifically to accommodate us."
Automation and Lower Costs
For Stanz, S4i Express also
eliminates the need for an operator to manually change the preprinted forms in
the printer when printing invoices, shipping manifests, and other documents.
Today, the forms stock that is loaded into printers is blank except for the
terms and conditions printed on the back. S4i Express automatically changes
documents by changing the template that gets merged with the spooled report
data. Gaddie explains, "This is a huge advantage. We can change forms at will
and an operator can handle it. It has really simplified things, and the paper is
less expensive."
Sometimes, busy software vendors don't share their
customer's sense of urgency when the inevitable uncertainty that accompanies a
new product installation slows progress. Says Gaddie, "S4i helped us with a
couple configuration problems over the phone, and their tech support was
excellent. They are a notch or two above the industry standard for
support.“
Several information-sharing processes have also been
automated. When customers used to ask for an order history report, an operator
had to import a text file into Excel and perform several time-consuming steps
before printing it on greenbar, placing it in an envelope, and mailing it. "Now
we can email the report to them, and it really doesn't take any time at all,"
says Gaddie. To fulfill requests for copies of invoices and purchase orders,
staff had to print copies, walk to a fax machine, and feed documents. A copy of
the signed invoice, which serves as proof of delivery, can now be retrieved
electronically from within the ERP system and emailed directly to the customer.
"With S4i
Express, once we select an email address, the product does the rest. You set
it up one time and you're done. We already have the report defined in the
Retalix system 90 to 95% of the time. S4i Express can convert it into a PDF or
Excel file and send it off."
Fast ROI and Happy Customers
Stanz got its investment in S4i Express back in
three months with the money saved on labor, preprinted forms, and delivery. Says
Gaddie, "It eliminated many of our forms and the manpower needed to burst
reports. Our customers are happier, and the high quality of the documents that
leave our building reflect positively on our
business."
S4i develops disk, imaging, and
electronic document management solutions for IBM iSeries and System i computer
systems with industry-acclaimed around-the-clock technical support. S4i has an
above-industry-average customer retention rate approaching 98%, and in
competitive evaluations, S4i products are selected over other offerings 86% of
the time.
 
S4i Systems, Inc.
4755 Oceanside Blvd, Suite
130
Oceanside, CA 92056
Tel: 800.231.5280 or 760.631.5280
Web: www.s4isystems.com
Email: info@s4isystems.com
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