Impressions Marketing Group

"Would I buy Global Shop again? You're absolutely right I would!"

Ted Stout, Technology Manager, Impressions Marketing Group

You know, it’s not easy finding a good store fixture these days. Often, your only choice is between lifeless metal stacking slats with no character, or flimsy wood structures made overseas that are always delayed for one reason or another. But, don’t tell Impressions Marketing Group that you can’t find a well-made, stylish, and on-time store fixture today. Located just outside of Washington, D.C., in the heart of the Mid-Atlantic seaboard, Impressions is a premier manufacturer of store fixtures, décor, and graphics—and they always do it on time. The secret to Impressions’success? According to Ted Stout, technology manager at Impressions, a great deal of credit can be given to their ERP software provider, Global Shop Solutions.

"Global Shop Solutions has really helped us bring our on-time delivery to 99%," states Stout, "and this in turn has helped us tremendously in terms of customer relations. In fact, our on-time delivery is what saves our business so often. On-time delivery is key—it’s really at the top of our list." For Impressions, anticipating customer demand is something of a science where JIT meets precedent. That is to say, on-time delivery at Impressions is a product of knowing their customer and knowing themselves. It’s a factor of an inventory management philosophy enhanced by the strength of their Global Shop software. Impressions is able to build a lot of their stock to inventory because they are able to refer to customer purchase histories and interface them with accurate forecasting via Global Shop reports. According to Stout, "The cocktail of data that we get from Global Shop helps us make the decisions that enhance our on-time delivery. What’s really great about our Global Shop software is the way we can use the Supply and Demand tool in combination with Forecasting, all in the same Inventory module."

Impressions started out as a local business-to-business décor shop, expanded into custom sign work, and is now a massive milling operation distributing décor, signs, and store fixtures nationwide. From what was once a garage-based shop, today is a manufacturer with over 500,000 sq. ft. managed between two plants. Along the way, over 12 years ago, they discovered the robust value offered by Global Shop Solutions ERP software systems.

As Stout remembers, "At the time, we were considering three other software systems in addition to Global Shop. What we were looking for was a user-friendly inventory control system that would work on many levels. When we saw Global Shop, we knew right then and there that it was exactly what we were looking for in inventory control. Also, the fact that we could gather our costs together in one place was not lost on us—it was something their competitors simply couldn't do. That and the ease of use of Global Shop really sold us. I might add that every one of their competitor’s demos crashed on us at some point every time we tried to use them!"

Choosing Global Shop Solutions as a strategic company move proved to be a good one for Impressions. With a very large data stream moving through the company everyday, Impressions has benefited most from the cost control - both direct and indirect - they now have. Their Global Shop system, in particular, is an aide in adding more profit to their bottom line. It’s certain that, more than anything else, Global Shop provides Impressions the ability to see the overall picture of their costs and adjust quotes and bids accordingly. Having such a robust reporting capability via their Global Shop ERP system is what appeals most to Stout. "We discovered the fact that we can push an enormous amount of data through Global Shop, and in turn the real time analyses we get out of the system makes us better at renegotiating contracts and prices and, of course, bids," Stout observes. "Because of Global Shop we can say to everyone, ‘We know our costs.’"

For Stout, knowing costs is vital to making the right decisions in everything they do, and all the difference between their operation and that of their competitors.’ Stout observes, "In particular, Global Shop has helped us take control of our indirect costs. I can create nine indirect routers every month for our various areas—Admin, Production Admin, Production IT, etc. Also, if an employee is not logged onto a job, then they’re logged onto something else we can track. In terms of indirect, we publish metrics through Global Shop every single day based on productivity and on-time delivery, and estimated versus actual. For us, it’s an enormous wealth of the right kind of data that helps our shop managers make good production decisions."

Impressions is a manufacturer that distributes large orders of their products nationwide. Between the increasing task loads for sales order generation, purchasing, shipping, and the myriad other considerations, being a lean, just-in-time shop is paramount. The logistics involved in the manufacturing process for Impressions are complex, and for this reason relevant and timely business intelligence must constantly inform how they work in the present, and anticipate the future needs of their customers. According to Stout, "Inventory, Shop Floor Control, Sales Orders, and Quoting are the modules that we use nearly every minute of the day in Global Shop. It’s just incredible the amount of data, speed, and thoroughness we get when producing reports through Global Shop. Also, we just acquired the Quality module for the software and we’re expecting great things from it."

Throughout Impression's sprawling plant, lean cells function through Global Shop’s easy-to-use processes in Auto Purchasing, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, and Sales Analysis. "We’ve implemented our new Global Shop GUI system to replace all of our barcodes, and we’re also putting in the Wireless module that we expect will make us even more efficient in all that we’re doing." For Stout and Impressions, Global Shop ERP software is the means to the very important end of realizing clear and accurate communication between vendor and purchaser.

Again, knowledge in business is power in business, and the more complete the knowledge, the better are the decisions that can be made to achieve objectives. Impressions uses Global Shop Solutions to build up accurate and actionable data, and in turn, is able to maximize productivity based upon the robust output of that data collection. This is precisely where they are able to know themselves completely, while also knowing more about their customers.

"People are always asking us about our Global Shop system," Stout relates, "and invariably the question comes up, ‘Would you buy Global Shop again?’ My answer: ‘You're absolutely right I would!’ Yes, I would." When filtered down to its essence, the story of business success between Global Shop Solutions and Impressions is one based in the strong bonds that have developed over the last dozen years. As Stout sums it up, "There’s no doubt about it that we’ve considered Global Shop as our partner. They’ve helped us succeed in our business endeavors because of the individual attention they have always given us—whether it’s a crucial service problem or the simplest technical question. When it comes to the personal touch, the organizational relationships that Global Shop has with its customers are definitely unlike the impersonal attitudes taken by the mega-corporation software providers. Global Shop and Impressions—we’re very comfortable with each other."