It’s the holiday season, so I’m focused on buying gifts and hopefully spreading some holiday cheer. For some demented reason, this of course, makes the propeller head in me return to ERP software and usage.

Back in the middle part of November I placed an online order at very popular candle manufacturer’s website for about $150 worth of glass holiday candles. These were gifts for my staff and the variety of Girl Scout leaders and teachers I need to deliver gifts to over the next few weeks. The online order I placed never returned an order acknowledgement. I found this strange, but assumed my spam filter grabbed it and I just didn’t notice it.

Let’s move forward two week when my candles still do not arrive. A quick visit to the manufacturer’s website indicates they are experiencing delays in shipping orders. This is their statement, not mine. When used, their toll-free phone number gives a rapid busy signal. At this point my heart goes out to their customer service department, because they must be receiving an overabundance of angry calls from customers. Left with only email as a method of communication, I send an email inquiring about my order. No response after days of waiting, so I send another email. Again I receive no response.

At this point I give up. I assume my order was never really transferred through their server and that I, in fact, had no order placed. I rally my husband for a trip to the very busy mall so we can purchase candles and haul them home. I distribute my gifts and receive great reviews over the holiday scent I offer my recipients.

Let’s move forward to yesterday. To my utter surprise, the UPS driver arrives and drops off two boxes from the merchant. Had he not dropped and dashed, I would have refused the delivery. After all, what am I going to do with an extra $150 worth of holiday scented candles? I open the boxes to find the packaging slip. Sure enough this is my order placed back in the middle of November. This equates to a one month delivery time, even though their website informed me that all of the items on my order were in stock prior to placing my phantom order. My available options are to call the merchant, obtain an RMA, and ship back my candles at my own expense. Since these are candles in glass jars, this is not going to be cheap. I am less than pleased.

I try to reach the merchant via phone, but alas, I am unable to get through after multiple attempts. As the consumer, what are my options? I have way more candles than I could possibly use prior to their shelf life expiring. I cannot communicate with the merchant, and I cannot just ship the product back and in hopes of receiving a credit. Their poor shipping department is already overwhelmed with outgoing shipments, so obviously an unauthorized inbound return will surely have significant troubles getting processed.

Let with no other recourse, I call my credit card company. I absolutely hate doing this as I do not like stopping payment unless it is 110% necessary. My credit card company concurs that stopping payment is the appropriate action and this will force the issue of communication. The very nice customer service agent searches for the charges. Over the thirty day period since I placed my order online, my card was never processed. Even after shipment and transit time.

Well now I’m really at a loss. I am left to wait until Christmas passes and the staff at the candle company recovers. I am left to hope for an RMA number and for the merchant to accept the charges for return freight. I am left to sit and think.

This leads me to the point of my blog entry. Being the pajama shopping technology junkie that I am, I start to think about the operational issues the merchant must be experiencing and I wonder what ERP package they are using. I wonder what operational or system issues have caused such a great company to spin out of control during the holiday season.

Honestly this is where my husband would call me a geek. I find myself running through their “potential” operational issues that I encountered for just one sales order.

These include:
- Inaccurate available to promise data
- Inability to process and send order acknowledgements
- Inefficient customer relationship management system
- Bottlenecked manufacturing
- Inefficient warehouse picking and fulfillment
- Unattended email and unanswered customer correspondence

I haven’t given up on the merchant for seasonal items. I still love their product and I wish them a quick turnaround for their current woes. But I can’t help but wonder what ERP system they are using, what on earth is going so wrong for them this holiday season, and can I please sell them my ERP software package?

I work for a tier two ERP software developer. Ten years ago I was a real user of our software and now as an employee, I continue to use our product, Enterprise 21, daily. As with other ERP packages, Enterprise 21 is not a perfect ERP application. But I do believe in it and I know it is robust. I know my ecommerce module actually transmits order acknowledgements, my production planning and scheduling process will help relieve bottlenecks, my available to promise and capable to promise truly works, my CRM module helps customer service departments be more efficient, and my warehouse picking capabilities include options for zone, wave, cart, or order based picking. I am confident in my ERP software and I know it works great when implemented properly.

Knowing my software and believing in my ERP software, my heart goes out to the staff at the candle manufacturer. So much so that I will stay loyal to the company for my seasonal products, should they fix this current fiasco. And if they do, I’ll be happy to blog about it and sing the praises of their loyalty to customers such as myself.

A few weeks ago, my sister saw my blog and asked “what’s erp?” I informed her it is E-R-P and not erp. I explained ERP to her in a non-technical way. She had no interest. Okay many people are not interested in ERP software, ERP implementations, or ERP usage. Had she realized how a good or bad implementation could really impact her life, such as in this example, she may have been a bit more interested. Okay, maybe not. I love her and know she is more interested in her eBay account than my ERP product. But in reality, a company’s business management software does alter their customers’ lives. The software does impact those outside the company employees. It can help bring in or drive away customers.

Rebecca Gill
ERP ETC.