Conference 7.286::digital

3980.0. "New opportunity in veterinarian pharmaceuticals" by MYHORS::KUSHNER_P () Tue Jul 11 1995 09:24

   The Butler Company is the largest distributor of supplies to veterinarians in
the US.  It has traditionally been an IBM house.

   Currently the operation is run as follows:

      Every branch has an AS/400.  The in-house sales people have dumb terminals
and enter orders in a forms-based manner.  The external sales people call the
in-house people with orders (over the phone).  The in-house people must finish
the external order (the external people very rarely look up parts) and must
enter the order into the system.  I believe that once or twice a day, the
database is updated or updates a database in the home office.  When the home
office connects to a branch computer, the branch resorts to pencils and paper to
take orders.  When the branch's AS/400 goes down (maintenance or frequent
crashes) the branch resorts to pencil and paper.  All orders are printed and the
paper orders are used in the warehouse to pull the order.

   The company wants to join the 1990s.  They supposedly have approached 2
vendors and would like to talk to several others.  I believe they want:

      A notebook for every external salesperson

      Some sort of windowing system for every in-house sales person

      A faster, more reliable database server.

      Lower point of failure (a failure now leaves everybody in a branch without
      compute power, a failure in corporate could negatively impact all work)

   In addition, I believe that they would love to have a www home page (with
links to pharmaceutical companies, animal related home pages, vet colleges,
etc...).  Maybe a paperless office/warehouse setup may be possible.

   The person to contact is:

            Tom Hart
            VP MIS
            The Butler Co.
            1-800-848-5983
            Dublin, OH

   If anybody knows the correct person to contact about this opportunity, please
forward this message to that person, or contact me.

   If Tom wants to know how Digital got involved, please let him know that my
wife, Loren Glowatsky, works for hime and would love to be able to work on a
GOOD system for a change.

     Regards

      Peter

Just talked to my wife, the paperless office wouldn't work.  They use the
printed order to pull products, but then place it into the box as a shipping
list.

    This account is not listed in VTX CAlook, when this is the case, it
    normally goes to NEW BUSINESS for the SBU region. Keep in mind that 
    several other organizations also have sales reps for the area. 
    
    You might want to check with Jodi Burroughs (614) 875-4709 or
    (614)875-3671 from Pioneer - she covers many of the large accounts
    in OH. 
    
    New Business Manager - (SBU) MDM        NEW BUSINESS DEV AND OTH 
    (from CALOOK)                DANIEL BUSSE          @OHF 420-5418      
    
    NEW BUSINESS DEV REGION   HOWARD WOOLF          @MKO    264-3901       
    
    We have two SBU sales people assigned to OHIO -
    Lucille Reid - 264-4304 x7047
    *** Steve Panteliodis 264-4304 x7027 (covers Dublin, OH)
    
    MCS - Name:  RONALD SPADIE
          DTN:  356-6703
          ALL-IN-1 mail:  MTS$::"MMO::RONALD SPADIE"
    
    

I have checked with Jodie Burroughs at Pioneer, she will look into this
opportunity.

Thankyou for helping.

    Quick comment on paper required so you can pick/ship order. You should
    be looking at the whole portable scanner technologies and only generate
    paper when order is complete. There is significant opportunity in
    addressing the whole materials and material handling/order picking
    costs and time in area are discussing.
    
                                JJD