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Despite a centuries old tradition to deliver toys wherever to
whoever, the North Pole reports that it was time to get help. The
global population explosion just pushed us past our limits says
Santa elf spokesperson Tank Merriweather. We like to spend all of
our available time making toys. Yet the increased challenge of
managing our inventory on a global basis demands we seek a better
alternative. As predictable as Christmas is, we still could
not forecast with the accuracy of old. Leaving kids empty handed on
Christmas just wasnt acceptable. Plus Santa now had high
blood pressure, said Tank. You may have noticed his cheeks look a
little redder, but make no mistake, his ho ho ho was sounding like
no no no as Christmas Eve approached. We had to do something
fast.
As a result, the elves began a worldwide search for the most
comprehensive, easy-to use, accurate forecasting and inventory
management solution. While Santas elves are credited with having
inventory management expertise given the miracles of past years, it
turns out that modern inventory management solutions just seemed too
complex. The famous reindeer team was also aging. Trying to cross
multiple mountain ranges with a fat man and a higher ration of heavy
electronic video game consoles was darn near impossible, said
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Heck, even my nose is augmented by
solar power. It was time for Santa to get help too.
In an effort to get the whole story, we asked the elves what they
looked for in the perfect inventory management solution. They
created this list:
- 1. The solution has to be easy to use. Were so tied up with
making toys, diverting our time is not an option.
- 2. Were a non-profit so cost is a concern. It has to be
affordable.
- 3. It needs to be reindeer compatible backward or forward.
We asked Santa what he thought as he and Mrs. Claus just returned
from their alternative summer job, as spokespeople for Falstaff
Beer. Yeah, my natural attributes are great while bellying up to
the bar but when my reindeer have to take off and they see me
coming, I can just feel their dread of being able to get me and all
those gifts off the ground. Until we discovered RockySoft, I thought
the only solution was switching to a lite beer. Wow, that was
scary.
Santa Claus assigned a team to research what was out there. It
was a difficult assignment because reindeer dont usually know a lot
about technology, said team members Dancer and Prancer. As luck
would have it, we were given the gift of knowledge after taking
RockySofts easy Inventory Management Benchmark
http://www.rockysoft.com/benchmark.cfm.
It illustrated where we could make significant improvements in our
current methods of predicting the childrens holiday
requests.
Their test ran us through a bunch of cool questions. Funny, we
never called it Inventory Optimization, Demand Management, Supply
Management or Measures and Alignment but now that we understand
those terms, applying them is almost as much fun as making a
Chartreuse Elmo.
One such area was using RockySofts Demand Manager (DM) to
control the amount of inventory investment we had on hand, and to
improve our ability to fill all the childrens requests. We
realized there was an issue when we kept having lots of leftover
toys from one year to the next, and as all you parents know, last
years toys just dont cut it. On the flip side, we didnt
want to run out of those popular requests. Prior to
implementing DM, we just used tally marks and estimates, and there
was always that one elf who wanted to make a whole bunch of extras
on a hunch. This is exciting said Santa. Until now the best
thing we had going was parents everywhere having full confidence
none of our toys are made of lead, still something I am proud of.
Yeah, we use pixie dust but no harm there, except when that
Peter Pan guy got into some.
RockySofts Exception Signals proved to be a life-saver for
predicting what would be in high demand, such as Shrek 3, Island
Princess Barbie, Razor scooters, the Xbox 360, you know, all the new
and exciting toys and games that are all the rage with the kids this
year. With all the toy recalls going on, we knew what we
wouldnt be delivering this year and were able to plan accordingly
and reduce our on-hand stock of those products said
Merriweather.
When asked why they chose RockySoft, the entire North Pole team
chimed in as one voice to say that the RockySoft team worked with
the passion of elves, they responded like reindeer and the
management team won the trust only given to people of the North
Pole. CEO Larry Watson also suspected that his family tree and
Santas were connected somewhere in the past. We just think alike.
We seem to be driven by the same values, says Larry. Giving the
gift of satisfaction is a business basic for us too. Santa
gives gifts that children have been pining for, and we give a gift
that most operations professionals are searching for.
RockySoft VP of Business Development, Jeffrey Porter says There
are people who do not believe in Santa, just like there are people
who do not understand the intangibles associated with a more
effective inventory management solution. But there is no arguing the
spirit of Christmas and how we feel when we get into that spirit.
That may be the best gift of all. It certainly has a strong parallel
with how excited we get when our clients businesses soar as a
result of our help.
Tank also mentioned that attending the RockySoft User Conference
in October was as much fun as he had in, oh, three centuries. I dont
get out much, but now I know what Ive been missing said Tank.
We realize that for the non-believers out there some of the facts
in this account may seem a bit suspicious. But there is no doubting
that every RockySoft customer has experienced the gift of
confidence, great savings and zero frustration about the importance
of Inventory Management for their business. Finally, an enlightened
Santa says as he flies off Ho, ho, ho. Happy Holidays. |
