Transmitting Stock Orders Electronically
It is in the best interest of suppliers and their customers
for the customer’s stock orders to be transmitted electronically to the
supplier. In days past stock orders were transmitted by fax or called in over
the phone. In both situations there
were chances for typing errors in the stock orders and there was a labor cost
typing the order at the supplier. However, even stock orders transmitted
electronically can cause problems. It
seems as though suppliers have at least one slight difference in the format
that their computer will accept. Thus, the customer’s computer system must be
modified so that their stock orders can be transmitted electronically. We find
our self devoting a substantial amount of time making programming changes so
that our customers can transmit stock orders electronically.
Labels: Removing Sources for Errors, Transmitting Stock Orders Electronically
Help Selling Up Parts
The September 2012 "Consumer Reports" has an article titled "Make your car last 200,000 last miles". They headline following the owners manual on schedule maintenance and periodically inspecting the car for potential problems. Most import they recommend "Don't skimp on parts". You may know that is the right thing to do but having a consumer advocacy group recommend it carries maximum credibility. One would do well to keep a copy of this magazine near the counter and hand it to customers seeking to buy cheap parts.
Internet Vulnerability for Your Computer
As I continue to read about the computer viruses Flame and Stuxnet I am more and more concerned about the internet in the USA. We aren't the only ones that can make computer viruses. There are lots of very talented computer hackers in this world. Anybody with money can hire them. If the USA and/or Israel can cause so much havoc in Iran, just imagine
what a well financed group with similar capabilities could do against
the internet in the USA. I have always thought that if Osama Bin Laden had really wanted to hurt the USA, he should have attacked the internet rather than World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. Probably most auto parts stores in the USA must have the internet to buy, get price updates or find specialty applications. More and more stores need the internet to even do daily tasks such as selling or running received on accounts. Any computer that is used directly or indirectly for internet access is vulnerable to computer viruses or worse. A computer virus can corrupt your data or even render your computer useless. That is bad enough but think about a talented computer hacker that sets out to destroy you. They can clearly put data on your computer. Suppose that they load child pornography on your computer and by an anonymous tip tell the local police about child pornography on your computer. The next thing that you know you are in jail as a convicted sex offender.
Beat The System
It seems as though everybody in the parts business is being squeezed from manufacterers down to jobber stores. One of the ways that warehouse distributors have protected themselves is with creative pricing. In the old days warehouse distributors sold to customers at some percentage of jobber. It was easy for a jobber store to figure out where they could get the lowest prices. Now days there is no way to compare prices without comparing prices by part number. The warehouse distributors rightly assume that the jobber stores are too busy to make such comparisons. However, if you want to make more profit, take the time to do price comparisons. Don't do it just once. Your suppliers are not going to make it easy for you. Prices change all of the time. Do it every time that you place or post an order.
Internet Sales to Repair Shops
Who would have guessed 10 years ago that many if not most repair shops would prefer to buy their parts over the internet rather than talking directly with a counterman? In fact now days many repair shops will only buy from a parts store without internet sales as a last resort. As with most things in business, internet sales come at a price. I remember one store owner telling me that he was paying $400 per month for his internet sales at a single store. At that price he calculated that his internet sales were only slightly profitable. Another owner paid about $50,000 in initial charges but was paying about half that monthly price. He also had 7 stores on his system and was ready to install about 14 more. At that rate the monthly charge per store will be about $10 per month. With thousands of dollars a day in internet sales, he was going to recover his initial investment quickly. At MIB we hope to be able to offer the 2nd system at a greatly reduced initial cost.
Labels: Internet sales, repair shops
Inexpensive Mobile Workstations in Your Store
Among other things remote workstations can be used for taking inventory, checking in stock orders and checking prices. In the past it was inconvenient and expensive to have remote workstations in a store. With the advent of wireless networking you can have a wireless workstation in your store for little or no added cost. All you need is a laptop computer and a wireless router. You can walk the aisles and correct obvious errors with no extra steps. As the need arises you can work the counter, work in your office or surf the internet for difficult applications off the same workstation.
Labels: laptops, mobile workstations, wireless workstations
A Customer's Computer Died
A long time customer's store POS system computer died the other day. The computer was probably 15 or so years old. The customer had bought his MIB software outright when he purchased the system. He purchased telephone support as needed. The last time that he needed telephone support was seven years ago. He probably only needed support a couple other times in the last 15 years and as a result was careless with his backups. Sadly his backups were no good. On the plus side, he removed his hard drive from his old computer and shipped it to us. It was easy to get his data off his old hard drive. He was going quickly with our latest software and the new computer that he bought locally. All was not perfect because his other workstations were not working. It turned out that he had two bad cables to his workstations. Finding the bad cables required plenty of hair pulling and teeth gnashing. That could have been the reason that his old computer died. Now all of his workstations are going and hopefully it all runs for another 15 years.
Labels: backups, data recovery, Store POS System
