Unified Communications

Compiere, a global provider of open source business solutions, announced its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) products are meeting the current demands of companies in the distribution industry seeking to reduce inventory costs, improve customer service and grow margins.

By providing comprehensive IT automation, Compiere enables distribution companies to maximize order management, inventory control, purchasing, financial management and service operations.

 

The advantages from Compiere's product and business model provide distribution customers with a highly configurable ERP solution and powerful economic advantages that include no up-front license fees and freedom from vendor lock-in.

"We understand the importance of cost control in today's lean distribution environment, and we continually work to provide our customers with the technology they need to deliver excellent customer service while reducing operating costs," said Don Klaiss, president and CEO of Compiere, in a Tuesday statement.

Klaiss continued: "Our distribution customers have vastly different characteristics - different business sizes, product lines and locations around the globe. All of them, however, use Compiere's base capabilities and configurability to roll out highly tailored business solutions quickly and affordably."

Companies that implement Compiere ERP solutions experience a different return on investment (ROI). This solution requires a smaller investment before delivering a faster, clearer payoff to ultimately enable long-term margin growth.

Decision makers have the ability to reduce costs and improve service by better managing on-hand product levels through Compiere’s inventory information and reporting capabilities.

"Open source technology, in particular Compiere's ERP solution, has provided key inventory and order management functionality with minimal costs," said Brian Schoenbaechler, president of Southern Book Company, in Tuesday’s statement.

Southern Book Company is an Atlanta-based distributor of educational publishing material. The company’s solution was designed and implemented in 2006 by Compiere partner KnowledgeBlue, who continues to provide product support and hosting services to the company.

Schoenbaechler continued, "We've increased our net margin by 10 percent during the past two years, and we're now able to expand our business by becoming a fulfillment center for a variety of products outside of what has traditionally been our primary focus."

Compiere’s solutions provide a comprehensive view of a distributor’s business operations that enables users to perform a number of different functions, including order management; materials management; purchasing; financial management; and service.

The software also offers multi-organizational capabilities for managing global businesses. These capabilities include complex organizational structures and multi-currency requirements that allow distribution companies to maintain decentralized organizational structure and hierarchies without sacrificing centralized control.

Compiere has done well to recognize that distribution management companies must be able to properly manage their processes, but do not want to invest significant capital to do so. The company has developed solutions that not only meet the needs of the companies operating in this space, but have offered them in an open source platform.

Providing these companies with solutions that meet their current needs while also allowing them to focus on growth will help to drive demand for Compiere solutions.