Earnest & Associates

E&A is pleased to introduce QuickQuote (.pdf), an innovative solution collaboratively developed by E&A software consultants and drywall industry professionals. QuickQuote helps drywall distributors who often struggle with manually adjusting price changes for commercial construction projects extending over long periods of time.

“During my years as a commercially oriented materials supplier, I have tried many different methods of quoting materials to my customers,” said D. Jay DeFoor of DeFoor Drywall & Acoustical Supply who worked closely with E&A on the project. “All of them required significant thought and time to manually prepare, and none of them resulted in something that I could rely on as being competitive, consistent and accurate, let alone look professional in their presentation to the customer. Pricing reliability and consistency are two of the things that just could not be accomplished manually and nothing that I came up with was integrated into my system for future pricing of the deliveries to the jobsite,” he continued.

QuickQuote solves this problem by allowing managers to setup their project’s pricing and future escalators one time in QuickQuote’s specially-designed workbook. Drywall distributors gain a competitive advantage by providing more timely and accurate estimates of material costs to their customers.

How it Works

QuickQuote manages the exchange of information between Infor Distribution Business (SX.enterprise) and QuickQuote’s specially-designed workbooks. Price escalators are used to increase (or decrease) future pricing. End users can easily make a price adjustment to a select groups of items with a single click of the button. When the customer accepts the QuickQuote, the pricing records are imported into Infor Distribution Business on a job-specific basis. All of the relevant purchases including accurate pricing information for the project is saved to the QuickQuote.

Features

  • The QuickQuote header is branded with the customer’s logo and contact information including contactor name, job name, quote date, quoted to and quoted by
  • Pricing can be populated manually; by markup percentage or dollar amount; or by customer-specific pricing
  • Items and price types are validated against the master database to ensure accuracy
  • Price escalators calculate future pricing based on the price in a selected column
  • Price adjustments can be made by dollar amount or percentage

Benefits

  • Rapidly and accurately deliver columnar quotes to customers
  • Vastly decreases the amount of manual effort required to maintain price sheets for commodities such as dry wall, insulation, steel studs and accessories
  • Provide more timely and accurate estimates of material costs to commercial contractor customers
  • Improved management control of pricing tables helps protect gross margins and profitability
  • More consistent pricing to customers—no matter who initiates the quote!

To learn more, contact your friendly representative at E&A.

Marisa Betancourt Over one hundred customers have met recently in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey, North Carolina and Maryland to participate in their local E&A User Groups featuring Infor technologies.  E&A User Groups are intended to help keep E&A’s valued customers up-to-date about their enterprise software, related technologies and industry best practices.

Tim Earnest and Bill Briggs opened the general sessions with a review of E&A ROI, an innovative tool designed to boost the inventory to cash conversion cycle.  Guest speakers included Avalara’s John Osman who discussed his company’s sales tax solutions, Tom Colton from Matrix who talked about cloud computing, and David Danziger of Financial Transaction Services of Western Pennsylvania who spoke about electronic payment processing. Breakout sessions focused on how end users can get more from their Infor10 applications including Infor10 Distribution Business (SX.enterprise), Infor10 Distribution Express (FACTS), Infor10 ERP Express (VISUAL) and Infor ERP TakeStock.

Tim Plotner Infor graciously supplied guest speakers for both the general and breakout sessions at various events, including Marisa Betancourt (eStorefront and FACTS product manager), Chuck Mingrone, Tim Plotner (FACTS lead developer), Merri Rich (Road Warrior representative) and Joe Romo.

Additional destinations for E&A User Groups in 2012 include Virginia, Ohio and Massachusetts. For more information and to register, go to www.earnestassoc.com.

Earnest & Associates is pleased to announce its 2012 User Group series for Infor Distribution and Infor Manufacturing end users.  The annual event brings together hundreds of end users interested in getting more from their Infor software and related technologies and services.  Meetings will be held in close proximity to E&A's local offices in Atlanta, Georgia; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Greensboro, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; and Williamsburg, VA from March through May, 2012.

The General Sessions feature opening remarks by E&A president Tim Earnest followed by Bill Briggs' presentation of E&A ROI, an innovative solution for quantifying and improving the inventory-to-cash cycle.  Breakout Sessions explore issues pertinent to end users of Infor ERP products including Infor10 Distribution Business (SX.enterprise), Infor10 Distribution Express (FACTS), Infor10 ERP Express (VISUAL) and Infor ERP TakeStock.  Guests include representatives from Avalara, Financial Transaction Services, Infor and Matrix.  Special guest speaker Howard Coleman is scheduled to appeared at the Baltimore event to discuss how lean distribution represents a change in thinking for most distributors.

"Our customers support local user meetings because they are most interested in improving their competitive positions, not expending time and money on travel," said Tim Earnest.  "E&A has put together a high-value agenda that demonstrates how information technology can help our customers improve their competitive positions and boost the bottom line."

E&A is one of the largest professional services firms in the U.S. dedicated to supporting Infor ERP solutions.  E&A is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland and employs over 70 people in ten offices located in the eastern, southern and midwestern U.S. 

Howard ColemanE&A is pleased to present the renowned distribution industry consultant, Howard Coleman on April 17, 2012 at Turf Valley Resort & Conference Center in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Howard proposes that radical changes for wholesale distributors and their supply partners are pushing them towards adopting a different approach to managing their product inventory and supply chain costs. Howard’s presentation discusses and challenges the ingrained perceptions in our DNA about supply chain management. The main premise debates the merits of “Push vs. Pull Replenishment” and unlocks the ideal of “sell-one, buy one” inventory/supply chain management.

Howard will bring into focus a strategy for supply-side inventory/supply chain management that is driven by “actual demand” versus forecasts; while providing the opportunity for truly collaborative relationships with suppliers to emerge.

Topics to be covered:

  • A brief history of “Lean” and its transition to distribution
  • A “basic lean thinking tenet”
  • Push vs. Pull – What’s the difference?
  • Challenging old assumptions – the change in thinking
  • Some new answers to some pretty basic questions
  • The impact on inventory and supply chain management
  • The effect on suppliers – the “win-win” and alignment of interests
  • What should you be doing now?

About Howard Coleman

Howard leads a team of senior consultants who have provided thought leadership to wholesale distributors for over 24 years. Howard’s monthly newsletter is sent to over 6,500 executives and middle managers. Howard is an in-demand speaker at industry events and manages several prominent discussion groups on LinkedIn. He has contributed dozens of articles to industry trade publications and blogs including The Informed Distributor.

E&A customers who register to attend the E&A User Group to be held on April 17 will have the opportunity to hear Howard speak.

To register, contact Tom Birdwell at 410.766.6076 x309.

FACTS Notes Categories by Bill BriggsThe E&A Forum is where end users can exchange ideas and information in a peer to peer (P2P) environment. The forum is open to all E&A customers who have a Preferred Professional Services Agreement (PSA) in effect with E&A.

Accessing the forum is easy:

  1. Go to www.earnestassoc.com and select Resources then Forum from the top nav bar.
  2. Click on Register if you have not already registered for the forum.
  3. Complete the form and click the Register button.

Note that your request must be approved by an E&A administrator. This is a human process so there will be a delay in our response to you. When you do receive the email confirming that your request has been approved, please follow the instructions to login to the forum.

Categories in the Forum include:

  • Infor10 Distribution Business (SX.enterprise)
  • Infor10 Distribution Express (FACTS)
  • Infor10 ERP Express (VISUAL)
  • Infor ERP TakeStock
  • PDS

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