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Manufacturer Increases Order Processing Accuracy with AccountMate E-commerce Integration
Customer
Popular Imports
www.popularcreations.com
Corporate Headquarters
South Plainfield, New Jersey
Type of Business
Manufacturer of giftware, home décor and collectible products
Number of Locations: 2
Number of Employees: 40
Software Installed:
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Bank Reconciliation
Customer Inventory
General Ledger
Inventory Control
Manufacturing
Purchase Order
Return Merchandise
Return to Vendor
Sales Order
System Manager
"We’ve realized significant gains in employee efficiency and accuracy when processing orders. The upgraded system has streamlined the ordering process for our customers and promises to open up many opportunities for expansion into new markets.”"
- Daniel Fong,
General Manager,
Popular Imports
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Popular Imports is a premier manufacturer of top-quality giftware, home décor and collectible
products based in South Plainfield, New Jersey. Founded in 1990, they now rank among the
leaders in the billion-dollar gift industry. Popular Imports has distributors in Europe, Asia, North
and South America and Africa.
The company has more than 65,000 customers and employs a sales force of over 200
worldwide. Popular Imports sells its catalog of products only to retailers, but its products
are available at fine-gift and retail stores nationwide and abroad.
The Challenge
Until recently, Popular Imports did business the old-fashioned way by mailing expensive
catalogs to wholesale customers and relying on trade shows for exposure and sales. While
the company did eventually launch a Web site to showcase its product lines, it was for
informational purposes only. All orders came in by phone or fax which made it labor-intensive
and time-intensive to complete transactions. Input errors were common and the company’s
customer service reps were spending too much time fielding calls from customers who
needed information.
In early 2007, Popular Import’s general manager Daniel Fong and the company’s
management team decided that it was time to implement a new e-commerce solution that
could fully integrate with their existing AccountMate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
system. The objectives were to streamline the ordering process for customers and
improve customer service efficiency and accuracy in-house.
The Solution
Fong called in long-time AccountMate Software Business Partner, Alex Kleyff of AKA Computer
Consulting, and presented Popular Import’s feature enhancement list. Obvious to Kleyff was
the need for an e-commerce application that would work seamlessly with the AccountMate
system. Without hesitation, Kleyff contacted AppFinity Software Corporation that was extremely
familiar with the AccountMate system and had created an e-commerce application called
WebStore. This solution accomplished web functionality and the tight integration with
AccountMate that was needed by Popular Imports.
With AKA Consulting’s valuable assistance, the WebStore solution was implemented and a series
of modifications were designed to make it even more customer-centric. To support minimum order
quantities, it was modified to enable customers to view the minimum order quantity for any item
before placing an order. A Quick Order Form was created for customers who already knew what
items and quantities they wanted.
A Customer Service E-mail feature was added so customers
with questions about their orders could send an e-mail to
Popular Imports and receive a timely response. Another feature
enhancement was created that enable customers to have online
access to their order history, including status of a particular
shipment.
The Results
“We’ve already realized significant gains in employee efficiency
and accuracy when processing orders,” noted Fong. “The
upgraded online system has streamlined the ordering process
for our wholesale customers and promises to open up many
opportunities for us to expand into new markets. We believe
that the improvements will result in more satisfied customers
for the long haul.”
Asked to comment on AKA Consulting’s involvement, Fong said
“Alex Kleyff knows our AccountMate system inside-out and knows
what applications integrate best with it, so he was totally prepared
to recommend the ideal e-commerce solution for us. He also did
a tremendous job of orchestrating the implementation of the new
WebStore system.”
About the Customer
Popular Imports is a South Plainfield, New Jersey-based
manufacturer of top-quality giftware, home décor and collectible
products. They conduct business world-wide and via their
e-commerce ordering system. www.popularcreations.com.
About AKA Computer Consulting
AKA Computer Consulting is located in the New York City Metro
area. AKA supports many diverse industries, providing solutions
and services to manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, importers
and exporters. AKA offers a wide array of services, including
seamless integration of AccountMate software. The website
address is www.akaconsulting.com.
About Third Party Software Provider AppFinity Software Corporation
AppFinity Software is dedicated to the design, implementation
and support of e-commerce solutions that leverage existing
technology investments and minimize ongoing IT costs. Their
solutions are fully customizable and can integrate with most
existing commercial Web sites and AccountMate accounting
software. The website address is www.appfinity.com.
About AccountMate Software Corporation
Since 1984, AccountMate Software Corporation has provided
customers with powerful and flexible accounting and business
management software. AccountMate provides the most stable and
technologically innovative modifiable accounting solutions for the
mid-market. The accounting systems are sold by the module which
enables customers to acquire the software they initially need and add
modules as their business needs increase. The availability of source
code makes this software highly modifiable so that it can be adapted
to any changing business environment.
AccountMate accounting modules are available for Microsoft SQL,
Express, MSDE and LAN. These different versions enable your
business to evolve from a single user system to a powerful and
sophisticated multi-user SQL database network. AccountMate’s
software can help manage global operations with multi-currency
capabilities and a built-in translation engine for multi-lingual
businesses. A wide variety of independently developed programs
are also available to further tailor AccountMate software to specific
industries. AccountMate products are sold worldwide through
authorized resellers. The website address is www.accountmate.com.
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