DOW Electronics amps up distribution network and boosts sales

DOW is a family-owned, full-service technology distributor started in 1959 that has been serving the needs of independent retailers for 57 years. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, DOW currently has seven stocking distribution centres and showrooms providing next-day delivery at ground rates to retailers in the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. DOW handles a full range of products in the following categories: satellite television and broadband, 12-volt auto/marine electronics, consumer electronics/custom integration, voice over IP (VoIP) services, and major appliances.

DOW takes partnerships seriously. After all, good partnerships with its retail customers are what make DOW successful. When it was time to select a new technology partner, DOW had very high expectations, especially after a false start with a consulting firm that ineffectively implemented Microsoft SharePoint for an internal file-sharing and collaboration tool.

“We didn’t approach that project the right way, and we learned from it,” says Joseph Csobanczi, vice president of IT at DOW Electronics. “There was a lack of definitive project management, and we were not given the opportunity to have buy-in to the full capabilities of SharePoint.”

To manage its business, DOW was using a legacy in-house system that Csobanczi and his team developed and customized over 30 years, and it just wasn’t keeping pace with growing demand and the speed of business at DOW. “As we expanded and brought on more territory, vendors, products and clients, we needed a more robust, user-friendly system to manage growth, vendor relationships, and e-commerce sales,” says Csobanczi.

The selection process

Steve Decker, senior vice president and general counsel for DOW, was named the internal project manager for the software selection. “Our list of requirements included an improved customer portal, a robust e-commerce platform and an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to provide a backbone for both of those solutions,” says Decker. Additional requirements included integrating vendor requirements, managing customer territory alignment, contracts and incentive payments, distributing co-op marketing money, and automating the return-authorization process.

DOW brought in three companies during the selection process, one of which was DXC Eclipse, a practice within DXC Technology. “From the very beginning, we felt very comfortable with the folks that presented on behalf of DXC Eclipse,” says Decker.

Based on DOW’s requirements and customizations, DXC Eclipse recommended Microsoft Dynamics NAV™, Microsoft SharePoint, along with Digital Vantage Point NAV-to-NET for the e-commerce portion of the project.

Microsoft solution

Microsoft products were a very big part of the decision-making process at DOW. “We knew that we wanted our new ERP system to be integrated easily with other Microsoft products already in use at DOW,” says Csobanczi. “We are a Microsoft house, and with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, the interface for our employees is much more intuitive than our in-house legacy system. The training on the new system was seamless. Once a role is set up for an employee, the interface and log-in for all of our systems is managed through NAV. Our employees learn Microsoft at school, and they use it at home, so the interface is intuitive when they begin to use the system at work.”

DOW, along with DXC Eclipse, carefully managed the implementation process from the very beginning. Decker maintains that the difference between DXC Eclipse and the SharePoint project with the previous consulting partner, which had limited success and limited user buy-in, was that DXC Eclipse really pushed project management from the very beginning. “We knew that this was a critical project, and we could not afford to fail — we witnessed other companies in our industry change ERP systems and lose their ability to ship products for weeks because of a catastrophic go-live,” says Decker. “It was crucial that we avoid downtime at all costs by getting a commitment from our employees up front. If you don’t have commitment, it’s not going to be a success. We made sure that we had complete buy-in from our employees in each functional department of our business.”

DOW named “NAV leaders,” or subject matter experts, from each key department — accounts payable, accounts receivable, overall accounting, shipping, receiving, purchasing, sales and warehouse management — who were involved in every step of the implementation process. These team leaders had a clear understanding of what the new system would do for their department, and how they would be using it to complete their job. “They were trained, ready to train others, and prepared for anything that [might have] come up as we began pilot testing.”

Csobanczi worked with the DXC Eclipse team on the technical development side and attributes his success to following a prescribed system-development cycle. “You cannot take shortcuts during development,” says Csobanczi. “You must finalize and clarify your initial requirements, and until it’s crystal clear, you can’t move on and continue the development cycle. In our case, we did it by the book, and it was a very successful project.”

Due to rigorous project management on the part of DOW and DXC Eclipse, go-live went off without a hitch — DOW experienced no down-time. “With DXC Eclipse, we never really missed a beat after implementation,” says Csobanczi.

In fact, within 9 days after go-live, DOW released over 2,200 sales orders, and processed 388 co-op marketing claims, along with reporting that had previously not been available to the retailers.

Immediate efficiency improvements

DOW immediately began to see efficiency improvements after go-live. “The e-commerce platform is much more robust than our previous solution — products are presented in a much better fashion online, and we are selling twice as much e-commerce business this year over last year,” says Decker.

Csobanczi adds, “We have positive feedback from our retailers related to the opportunity to place orders 24x7 and about the fresh look and feel of our new websites compared to the legacy, out-dated sites.”

“On the ERP side, sales order entry, inventory, shipping and receiving have all seen efficiency improvements,” says Decker. “Furthermore, we have been able to reallocate employees and experience growth without adding additional employees or overloading our salespeople.”