A client who recently read a very powerful white paper written by Greg Collins and Cal Popken asked me to explain the term ‘Tributary Supply Chain.’

So, I shall paint a picture.

Imagine, if you will, a canoe on the shoulders of a mighty river. Picture this boat as it gently travels atop the fast running and bountiful waterway. It can’t help but trust its’ provider as it bounces playfully along on it’s journey. The river and the canoe are a great analogy for how we should picture our customers, our business, and how the success of the latter relies heavily on a very long list of tributary products and services. As it applies to a restaurant, the customer enters your door and is counting on a safe and pleasant journey. They want to trust that the river that is to carry them through their experience is equipped to do so. Certainly any disruption can and will disturb the balance that we work so hard to maintain.

For example, if a river has a poor supply of water, the canoe will bump around violently because the water cannot protect it from pronounced boulders or other dangers.  A river’s tributary supply is critical to ensuring that the canoe comes out unscathed by hazards.

Your customers don’t begin their experience by traveling from your small wares provider through a warehouse, loading docks, delivery trucks but rather they start their journey at the widest part of the river. Their ride is wholly dependent on the waters from upstream. If tributary items such as small wares, uniforms, paper goods, pop materials, POS supplies, etc are not flowing efficiently into your river, then the canoe will experience bumps from your teams inability to deliver the promise of a safe journey.

Too many businesses rely on themselves to keep the river flowing. For many small businesses this is possible but as we grow and add more locations, it becomes very difficult to keep that river running smoothly by ourselves. Recognizing that the management of your tributary supply system is an essential part of your growth is critical. It’s is an important step towards a bold and healthy waterway.

Jon Sooy
VP Sales and Marketing

IMHO & FWIW, TXT MSG ABV MNS, KNIM? (Translation: In my humble opinion and for what it’s worth, text messaging abbreviations makes no sense, know what I mean?)

Yes, texting is a real time saver, and the primary way many people (such as my 15-year-old-daughter and her friends) communicate. However, the more I see it, the more I worry about the lack of great, expressive written communication that we come in contact with.

Luckily the antidote to this lack of prose in our daily lives is simple. Make time in your day to read. Read newspapers, magazines and books; even if you can devote only 15 to 20 minutes a day. In our fast pace world of communication it is easy to fall into the habit of trying to just glean the facts from the words you’re reading. When reading for pleasure, take the time to relish the pictures created by the words. Take note of the way the writer turns a phrase. I’ve often borrowed phrasing and style from favorite authors as a way to express myself more clearly. The beauty of a well written piece is that you can lose yourself in the narrative. You can truly empathize with characters that have completely different experiences from your own. Something as simple as this can make understanding the perspectives of other (co-workers, customers, family members, strangers, etc.) easier, improving your interactions.

My personal reading passion is history. To try and keep from reading only history, I make a point of asking people I respect and like what they have enjoyed reading lately. This practice has lead to some great finds that I would not likely have picked up on my own. Sometimes I find these recommendations actual move to the top of my favorite-reads list.

So text away if that is the best way for you to quickly communicate, but remember to read, too. Through the (well-) written word you can release the stress of the day and expand your experiences without leaving your comfy reading chair.

TMOT, IRMC. (Trust me on this, I rest my case.)

Gail O’Roke, CDC
Vice President, East Bay Division

What sets our employees and partners apart from our competition? Our employees are creative, passionate, enthusiastic, optimistic and enjoy having fun in the work they do for our customers. This positive attitude results in a more energized and fulfilling work environment. Each one of them takes a “whatever it takes’ attitude toward completion of their goals. They take the initiative to be in control and own it. They act with our customer’s best interests in mind and with a sense of urgency. Each one addresses issues with solutions. They believe in innovation and take pride in their work.

These are the values that have become our culture. We will continue to strive to do what we do well and be the best. We will continue to pursue new creative solutions to our customer’s problems. This is the formula that has worked for over 34 years.

Kevin Austin
President and CEO

After ten years of offering supply chain management services, much has been learned about how ROI can be maximized by implementation and management of the proper system. The differentiators between those experienced vendors who have learned these lessons and those who have not innovated are clearly defined and apparent.

Download the whitepaper Second Generation Supply Chain Management-08.01.11 to learn about what we call “Supply Chain Management 2.0”.

Cal Popken
COO

Tripit - Available on all major platforms, this great app helps you organize your travel plans. Flight, hotel and rental car information is all in one place. You can add maps, directions and even share you itineraries with others. Even for the occasional business traveler, this is a must have app. More features here on the Tripit website.

Expensify - Available on Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Palm. This app has an incredible number of features. Highlights are the ability to scan receipts and how easy it is to create an expense report. You can also import data from your credit card. For the full rundown of capabilities, visit the Expensify website.

Evernote - Available on virtually every mobile device (not to mention every operating system). Evernote will keep all of your notes synchronized across multiple devices. I am also a Livescribe user and all of my handwritten notes taken with my Livescribe pen are saved to my Evernote account. I don’t know how I ever lived without it! On the road and forgot that contract? If you saved it in Evernote: no problem! Evernote Website.

Dropbox - For all those files that are not in Evernote. The Dropbox application places a folder on your system and everything you put into this folder is synchronized across whatever devices you wish to include. It works on Android, Windows Mobile and the iPhone. Sort of like Evernote, you can easily access documents and files on the go! Basically, any important documents you have on your computer are now in your pocket. The program is free up to 2 gigabytes and above that there is a small per gig charge. Dropbox Website.

Astrid Task - This is an Android only app but there are similar apps for other platforms. I just found this great app a few weeks ago and it’s beauty is in it’s simplicity. The feature rich alternative available on most other devices is “Remember The Milk.” Astrid is a simple task manager/to do list app that can be used as a stand alone or you can set it to synchronize with your Google tasks (which of course can be linked to your Outlook tasks). I was always tied to my Outlook tasks, now I have my list of things to do with me at all times. Available in the Android Market.

Are you an App Addict? What are some of your favorite apps?

Jon Sooy
VP Sales and Marketing

The nature of general office supplies is that each individual item is not a high-ticket expense. From years of studying various procurement processes employed at a wide-range of customer organizations and of creating improved systems, it is possible to conclude that the time taken to selecting product, ordering product, receiving product, occasionally returning product and paying for product can be considered a high-ticket human resource expense.

Here are some tips to keep those processing costs down:

• Avoid general shopping in mega-catalogs. The average office supply catalog is well in excess of a thousand pages. Although this tool can be helpful when looking for the occasional specialty item, purchasers can be overwhelmed when looking for general office supplies.
• Establish a reasonable listing of frequently ordered items with good value brands selected for each product. For instance, most office supply dealers carry 14 brands of binders? One of those brands represents the best value binder. The other thirteen, to varying degrees, represent less value.
• Work with a single-source whose pricing and service you trust. If your organization is shopping a number of suppliers, looking for the best price possible on an inexpensive item, the time spent comparison shopping completely erases the small gains in product price.
• Establish cost center sub-accounts with your supplier. This allows for easy and accurate allocation of costs. It also ensures that packages are delivered clearly marked for with the appropriate department name.
• Insist on summary billing. Processing many relatively small invoices each week is a drain on accounting personnel time. One monthly bill, if well prepared by the supplier, can save hours of work each month.
• Work with a supplier that has a great on-line system that is easy to use and allows for site customization that is tailored to your company’s needs.
• Work with a supplier that has a solid customer service team. Your organization specializes in your field, not in office supplies. Rely on the expertise of people who understand the products. Your customer service team should always be available for questions.

Using these simple principals we’ve created hundreds of procurement programs, saving our customers thousands of dollars each year in time and in product costs.

Gail O’Roke, CDC
Vice President, East Bay Division

Having good telephone skills helps build stronger relationships with everyone! Whether the call is incoming or outbound, the following can be applied to virtually every call. The way you handle your phone is as important as a face-to-face meeting. So take the time to go over some of these basics. Here are my favorites:

• From beginning to end, show that you care about the person you are talking to. You don’t need to act overly excited about your phone conversation. Just have a positive attitude. It is contagious.
• Even though you are on the phone, the other person can sense a smile from you.
• Your tone and voice inflections will create an impression and help the person on the other end understand what you are telling them.
• Say “Hello!” (or good morning, good afternoon, etc.) Have a warm greeting or opening. Welcome people into the conversation. Don’t make them feel as if they are an interruption.
• It is not always easy to keep calm, especially if the customer is angry about something you have no control over. If a customer is complaining and angry, let them vent. Most likely they aren’t mad at you personally. Ask them questions to show that you care. Don’t add to their aggravation. You might ask them to repeat the problem just to make sure you understand. Be a good listener.

The most important strategy is to apply the golden rule: treat others as you wish to be treated!

Laura Thurston
CPO – Chief People Officer

At the same time that the Big Box stores are down 30%, our wholesaler tells us that their top 150 independent dealers are up 22%. What can be the reason for this? I believe it all has to do with the value proposition. Independent companies like ours can deliver a better value to our clients including higher levels of service, flexibility, innovation, and technology solutions. This drives down our client costs and puts us in a position of a partner to our client.

In today’s business environment, it pays to team up with a company that understands your company’s problems, needs and objectives. This results better relationships based on delivering programs and solutions. I believe this is the new “normal” and is why Golden Pacific Systems has grown in a down economy.

Kevin Austin
President and CEO

In a few of my public speaking engagements on technology, I have used the example of scanning regular bar codes  in retail stores with my cell phone to find out if I find and item for less money at another store. In fact, in a bizaar coincidence, eBay did an Internet commercial to this effect and the actor here (Casey Robertson) happens to be a personal friend:

As our mobile devices become more and more sophisticated, the possibilities are almost limitless with regard to our ability to access information. QR Codes are one of the first mobile innovations that begin to bridge the gap between a brand and our ability to access to more information about that brand. Additionally QR Codes fit very nicely into the concept of engagement marketing (as opposed to interruption marketing) in that we, as the consumer, choose what information to access.

Here is some more data to support the idea that QR Codes are here to stay (taken from Print Solutions, June 2011 issue, page 26):

I think QR Codes are like many other great innovations that are just starting to take root. There is skepticism, disbelief and confusion about how they work and how marketers might use them. But, remember what people said about Facebook and Twitter when they made their way into the mainstream. I heard comments like ‘It’s a fad’ or ‘it’s just another MySpace’ or ‘it’s for kids, not business.’ Don’t be left behind with QR Codes because even if they do evolve into a different form down the road, understanding their potential now will put you ahead of your competition.

Jon Sooy
VP Sales and Marketing