Blinco Systems’ 3rdwave Solution Tailor-made for Distributor of Military Apparel
Compuware Magazine, May 2000

"With 3rdwave and UNIFACE, we meet our global sourcing and local distribution requirements in one package."
Anthony Prossi, Manager for Information Technology, Rothco

Rothco earned its stripes as the nation's leading supplier of military and outdoor products and apparel by providing clients with the highest level of customer service. Annual double-digit sales increases prove the success of the Rothco business philosophy of going beyond the call of duty on behalf of customers.

To keep the company on the path of strong growth, Rothco elected to update and integrate its order processing and management information systems. The company searched for a solution that puts customer service first by providing accurate, rapid and customer-centered order processing. Equally important, the company required an enterprise application that provides transparent views into the supply pipeline and other critical business information in real time.

For its solution, Rothco turned to Blinco Systems Inc., a Compuware business partner based in Toronto, Ontario. Blinco Systems used 3rdwave, their enterprise solution built in the Compuware UNIFACE development environment, to create a complete enterprise-wide distribution application for Rothco.

A Multifaceted Business

With headquarters in Smithtown, New York, Rothco is recognized as the foremost supplier of military clothing, police uniforms and related goods. The company imports and exports products, domestically and internationally. Rothco imports approximately 40% of its product line and exports 30% of its goods from its warehouse.

Sales representatives typically take orders by telephone. To maintain the company's standards of customer service, reps need to know what's in stock, quote up-to-the-second prices, see and describe special incentives, and access profiles of preferred customers. Rothco must also meet domestic and international trade regulations.

The importer-exporter also handles currency exchange rates and conducts daily business in various languages.

Further complicating operations are U.S. export restrictions on military equipment. To prevent the sale of restricted items, reps need to know which items can be shipped to which countries. Rothco complies with government auditing regulations by documenting each shipment from the time the order is placed, through every stage of processing until it is delivered.

The Business Challenge

"We need to take and process a large number of orders very quickly in order to achieve the sales volume levels we have targeted in our strategic plan," says Anthony Prossi, Manager for Information Technology, Rothco. "We could not find pre-made software that met the specific requirements for our business and our processes; there aren't any off-the-shelf solutions around. We needed customized software."

For Rothco, the solution would have to make order processing faster, easier and more accurate. Critical business applications--domestic distribution, import, exporting, inbound tracking, inventory control, accounting and finance -- would need to be seamlessly integrated.

The solution, moreover, would have to increase Rothco's order-fulfillment ratio and meet the company's exceptional "order-to-shipment" target. Customers expect the goods they order to be in stock and shipped within three hours of placing their call. Rothco requires meeting that goal 99%+ of the time for most of the items in its catalogue. To increase order fulfillment without increasing inventory levels, Rothco needed to provide complete visibility into its warehouse at the SKU/lot level. If an item is not available at the time of ordering, Rothco places the item on backorder, planning to ship the backorder with a +99% level of fulfillment against the committed date.

Applying the Right Technology

After a year and a half reviewing products from over 30 companies, Rothco chose a solution built using Compuware UNIFACE to tap the productivity gains inherent in enterprise application integration.

"We learned that very few software vendors have an understanding of domestic business and global sourcing and distribution," says Prossi. "You have to really look at them to see that they fit your needs and ask if they have enough knowledge of my business to deliver what I need. Blinco Systems, with 3rdwave and the Compuware UNIFACE development environment, has been able to customize software to fit our needs and business processes."

Blinco Systems is recognized for delivering solutions that provide tight integration with existing business information systems. Their flagship products, 3rdwave and 3rdwave Logistics, are built in UNIFACE, the Compuware technology used by more than 400 Compuware Business Partners worldwide to build, renew and integrate strategic worldwide applications.

"The component-based architecture of UNIFACE enables 3rdwave to quickly create robust and stable information systems designed expressly for our clients' business models," says Ned Blinick, vice-president of Blinco Systems. "Rothco is very customer-focused -- the ability to get products ordered and out the door was the most critical factor.

"Every one of our clients' businesses is unique. We approach each project in a fundamental way: We do not mold their businesses to suit our software. We mold our software to suit their businesses and processes. UNIFACE is a strong plus for us because its business modules are very adaptable. We don't have to re-invent the wheel for each customer, simply re-size it, so we are able to very quickly design a prototype."

Choosing Blinco Systems’ 3rdwave gave Rothco a complete enterprise solution that provides full import/export functionality, rapid order entry capability, high levels of visibility into the supply chain and detailed reporting for government compliance auditing. The Rothco solution integrates front-office with warehouse processes to support order-picking and packing to meet the three-hour "order-to-ship" objective.

A straightforward graphical interface provides views with full customer profile, with multiple "ship to" and "bill to" selections. Users also see online accurate SKU-level inventory availability for order fulfillment, including on-the-fly color-size allocation, customer-specific online multilevel pricing and real-time credit checking. The solution provides total pipeline visibility from P.O. placement through inbound shipments into the distribution warehouse, product support and country compliance requirements and full domestic and export shipping documentation. The solution also integrates with third-party carrier document software, as well as with accounting and financial activity, to provide real-time account positioning. "

Quantifying Service Level Performance

The improvements in productivity and customer service can be quantified, Prossi reports. Each Rothco customer service representative (CSR) is able to process over 1,400 SKU lines in an eight-hour day. During order entry, the CSRs validate the inventory availability of each SKU, check customer-specific pricing for column categories, and ensure that customer credit is within tolerance--all under 30 seconds with almost 100% accuracy.

Online validation ensures that Rothco meets its high standard of 99+% available to ship (ATS) ratio with almost 100% invoice accuracy. What makes the process even more remarkable is that Rothco is able to promise an "order-to-ship" window of three hours, Prossi says. To complete the proactive customer order cycle, inquiries on order statuses are immediately addressed with accurate real-time order tracking information until the order reaches the customer's door.

Future Opportunities

UNIFACE also serves the company's strategic direction, Prossi says. Incorporating the Universal Request Broker Architecture (URBA) standards, UNIFACE provides the ideal framework for developing, deploying and integrating business-critical applications. Combining flexibility and strength, UNIFACE-based applications like 3rdwave can be adapted quickly to meet the needs of business in a rapidly changing competitive and technological environment.

"We needed software that is flexible enough to meet our needs and strong enough to stay with us when we build on it in the future," says Prossi. "With 3rdwave and UNIFACE, we meet our global sourcing and local distribution requirements in one package. We are now able to see the entire pipeline from any position within the operation. We have been able to broaden our product base. What's more, we've improved our support for our customers."

For related information, please go to:
3rdwave Retail
3rdwave Fashion
3rdwave CGD (for consumer goods distributors)
Rothco Case Study