Business Management Software Improves Bottom Line Performance

Feb 4, 2008

While many decorated apparel companies have harnessed technology to improve their production performance, many have yet to apply technology to their business management processes, though they're certainly looking for a competitive edge.

"Due to offshore and even local competition, companies are trying to find a way to increase their performance and thus their bottom line," explains Andrew Boyea Jr., director of sales and marketing, FastManager, West Palm Beach, Fla. "They are looking for ways to squeeze every penny in profit out of their sales dollars."

For any company — large or small — desiring to streamline its processes or put in place the right processes from the start, one answer is business management software, which, as Boyea puts it, helps "you take control over your business instead of your business taking control of you."

Boyea is not alone in touting the benefits of business management software. In an Imprinted Sportswear Show seminar last year, Selena White, sales consultant for Norcross, Ga.-based Wilcom America Inc., which developed the Business Advantage software program for the decorated apparel industry, noted that a high percentage of shops still use yesterday's business practices. They handwrite orders, make notes on orders, utilize file cabinets, rely on paperwork rather than digital technology and depend on memory to determine business direction, she said.

Business management software can help you maximize your efficiency, reduce downtime, reduce errors, allow greater time to focus on sales — and increase your profits, she added.

According to Boyea, among the biggest trends from a "new product" standpoint in the decorated apparel industry today are the business management software applications that have come on the market. "In comparison to just a handful of years ago, the industry has seen a vast growth in the number of companies who now carry such software applications," he says. However, many of these products were not created from the ground up with the particular needs of the decorated apparel industry in mind.

Some, says Boyea, "are just cleaned up renditions of internal 'home grown' system. The others are just 'last-ditch efforts' created by larger software companies trying to offer up anything just to get something on the market."

While Boyea doesn't offer guidelines for distinguishing one software package from another, he does say that FastManager by JCW Software LLC was created to totally integrate and automate all business management functions of a decorated apparel business. And he offers the following short list of FastManager features for prospective buyers to use as a benchmark:
•    The ability to create quotations, sales orders and work orders quickly and easily and then e-mail or print them directly from the program
•    A user-controlled pricing module that can aid in eliminating misquoted jobs
•    An automated scheduling module that tells you right away if a job can be produced or not, and if so, when
•    The ability to produce work orders containing all relevant production data plus actual thumbnail images of the proposed embellished image to avoid costly production mistakes
•    The ability to prepare invoices and reports with just a click of the button.
•    The ability for QuickBooks users to seamlessly transfer all financial data from FastManager with just a click of a button
•    User controls for all elements of the program that allow your employees to access, view or edit only what you want them to.

FastManager and Wilcom America Inc. will be among several companies, including Precise Software LLC, ShopWorks and T-Quoter/Direct2Shirt, demonstrating business management software solutions at ISS Orlando Feb. 8-10, at the Orange County Convention Center. — R.L.

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