January 2011

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2011.

BAM!

January 29, 2011 in Innovation by Jon Sooy | No comments

One of Emeril Lagasse’s famous quotes from his television show is BAM! (see YouTube compilation below). At Golden Pacific BAM stands for a Brand Account Manager, and there is a very good reason why we call them BAMs! Watching Emeril shout it out is very similar to how our BAM team tackles projects, problems and promotions. The action is quick, obvious and leaves a sense of a job well done. Just like Emeril’s passionate exclamation of the word, our BAM team treats every activity between our corporate clients with the same determination.

In order to be a BAM at Golden Pacific, you must be a fun, multi-dimensional thinker. The BAMs work directly with our clients to maintain the GPnet™ ordering systems by: Overseeing sourcing, coordinating offline projects, implementing shopping incentive programs for GPnet™ users, and consulting on best practices. BAMs also conduct quarterly and annual reviews to ensure that clients are aware of the sales and usage data, as well as what we do to improve the user experience.

Why all this focus on client experience? Simple: We understand that the most important customer is the end user, and want to ensure that we are doing everything we can to make their lives easier. In a lot of ways, our BAMs are like Chefs, coordinating all the ingredients to build a masterpiece: A Happy Client.

Jon Sooy
VP Sales and Marketing

Tags: , ,

4 Cloud Tools for Business

January 18, 2011 in Innovation by Jon Sooy | No comments

My Father always told me to “use the right tool for the job.”

Most of our customers tell us that GPnet™ is the best supply chain management tool they have ever used. Leveraging the power of the internet to control inventory, order products and supplies and manage documents has never been easier. It’s all in one place; a true high tech supply-chain management solution.

We are proud to bring supply chain management to the cloud but what other great applications are there to help streamline your operations? As we all become drawn to the cloud, mobile devices and all the great apps, it is clear that we are beginning to move in a new direction in our quest for the right tool for a particular job. Whether you are a Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, Android or any of the other varietals, there are new tools being developed at an astounding rate. There have been some incredibly interesting innovations in the past few years that are cross platform and I would like to share my top four here:

1) Prezi

One of my favorites is Prezi. My feelings about Powerpoint and other linear presentation applications is no mystery. See Death by Powerpoint. This web-based presentation tool is non-linear and very easy to use. Prezi can be run from any browser or can be downloaded and run on a Windows based machine. Within the last few weeks, Prezi also has developed an iPad app. Rather than list the benefits, here is a ‘prezi’ put together by a happy user (Adam Somlai-Fischer). Click on the little dark gray arrow to click through this short presentation.

Why should you move beyond slides? on Prezi

2) DropBox
Another favorite app is DropBox. Simply download and install this program on any machine (PC, Mac, IPad, Droid, Ubuntu Linux (yes, any machine) and your need to lug around a laptop, flashdrive or external hard drive just disappeared. You get up to 2 Gigabytes of storage for free. Beyond that the cost is modest. What does DropBox do? It creates a folder on all of your devices that is shared in the cloud with any and all of your other systems. So, if you’re working on a project or have files and documents that you use frequently, simply place them in DropBox and all of the systems attached to that folder are synchronized. Even if DropBox is not installed on a machine (internet cafe, friend’s computer) you can access your files on the web by logging in on the DropBox website.

3) Google Docs
Goodbye MicroSoft Office (well almost). I often thought as a child that if everyone in a traffic jam would simply make a coordinated effort and ALL speed up at once, there would be no traffic. I wish the same thing for humanity and the move towards web based office applications. Google Docs (free) and it’s pay version, Google Apps have so many fantastic benefits that I rarely use Microsoft Office anymore. The best of which is the ability to collaborate in real time. What I mean by that is, I can share a document (spreadsheet, drawing, doc) with anyone and we can both be using/working on the same file at once. These documents are online and accessible from any web browser. If there is a downside it’s that the features on Google Docs are not yet as robust as we are used to in Microsoft Office, Open Office, etc. For example, complex formulas within the Google Docs spreadsheet program are not always possible. However, the advantages of Google Docs greatly outweigh the negatives. Maybe if we all uninstall MicroSoft Office all at once we can cut the cord that ties us to a specific computer, simply because it’s where our software resides!

4) Tungle.me
Ever try to schedule a meeting with more than one person? It inevitably ends in 30 emails, phone calls and you end up spending more time setting up the meeting than the length of the actual meeting! Tungle.me is a free online calendar program that syncs with Outlook, Google Calendar, etc. Set up an account, sync it with your calendar, create a meeting and use this great tool to block out times when you are available. Then, invite others to log in and choose the times that work best for them. Tungle.me eliminates so much wasted time that it pays for itself, oh wait… it’s free!

Look out cloud, here we come! I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Jon Sooy
VP Sales and Marketing

Tags: , ,

Baskin Robbins Winners!

January 10, 2011 in Drawings & Contests by Naomi Catalina | No comments

Congratulations to Baskin Robbins franchise owners Pamela and Scott, each winners of a $100 American Express Gift Card to celebrate the launch of their DOCnet system.

DOCnet™ is Golden Pacific’s internal document management and communication website that allows users to easily upload and manage files across multiple categories and make them available for download. Contact us today to learn more.

Naomi Catalina
Designer at Large

Tags: , , , ,