In 1998, Allied Office Products thrived by offering a wide variety of office supplies, including coffee makers. The distributorship's printing sales, however, were small beans.
Today, it's a different story. Allied's Printing Division is a perk to the company's pocketbook, generating more than $35 million in annual sales. The Clifton, N.J.-based firm, which is a major player in the office-supplies market, has expanded its offerings to include custom print-on-demand documents, promotional products, forms management, warehousing and fulfillment services, furniture and more.
Allied expanded on most of these capabilities when it acquired approximately 15 small to medium-sized distributorships in 1998 and 1999. The company, which employs nearly 1,000 people, operates 13 offices from the New York City metro area west to Chicago, south to Virginia and north to New Hampshire.
The Single-Source Goal
"We're poised to offer clients much more than toner cartridges, computer supplies and beverage products," says Stuart H. Friedman, corporate vice president of Allied's Printing Division. "We want our customers to have one—and only one—vendor for everything they see in their offices. We go to market as an authentic single-source provider."
That's exactly what Allied's chairman and CEO, Howard L. Brown, envisioned when he and a group of investors purchased the firm in 1998. Aided by a management team with significant office-products industry experience, Allied adopted the tagline "oneSolution," a reference to the firm's ability to offer more than just office supplies.
"We don't tell customers, 'This is how you have to do things if you want to do business with us,'" Friedman says. "I've never found two customers to be totally alike. Everyone has special needs."
Although Allied is a $300 million company that sells to a bevy of large organizations, the distributorship embraces smaller customers, too, Friedman says. The firm's mantra may be "oneSolution," but Allied's employees know a solution that works for one client doesn't necessarily work for all clients.
| "Our new e-business infrastructure is having a tremendously positive impact on our operations."
Ken DesRochers
Vice President of E-Commerce
Allied Office Products
Clifton, N.J.
|
"If a customer has a legitimate idea, we hardly ever tell them we can't do it," Friedman says. For instance, one of Allied's clients stores all of its promotional products in the distributorship's 267,000-square-foot warehouse, which is adjacent to the company's headquarters in Clifton. A New Jersey-based commercial bank that operates more than 100 branches recently elected to have its online orders routed to specified managers for approval. "Flexibility is an important concept for any company looking to grow," Friedman says.
Technology is an important concept, too. In Allied's 30-member information-technology department, employees are trained to present demonstrations of the distributorship's proprietary internet-ordering system to prospects. "Allied has grown very rapidly in the past few years through acquisitions, and our online strategy has been integral to that success," says Ken DesRochers, Allied Office Products' vice president of e-commerce. "If your customers can't order, approve and manage their procurement online, you don't get their business."
The Power of AskAllied.com
In the competitive office-products industry, as in the document management industry, slick online procurement systems are in high demand. Many end users want personalized pricing and integration with their internal accounting and financial systems. Others demand systems that include online shopping carts, custom catalogs and the added feature of negotiated volume pricing. Allied provides these capabilities on its proprietary internet-ordering system, accessible via the distributorship's web site at www.askallied.com.
Using customized logon security features, Allied's clients can view approved product catalogs, place orders and check order statuses. When customers place orders, pick tickets are printed in Allied's warehouse for next-day delivery. A client who orders multiple products, such as T-shirts, folders and 3-part forms, can receive those items in the same shipment. Users also can create personal "favorites" lists of frequently ordered items.
"Our new e-business infrastructure is having a tremendously positive impact on our operations," DesRochers says. In the first six months after launching the system in 1999, Allied enrolled 2,800 customers. The company's average web order is $14 more than an average order placed by traditional means. "Our goal is to move as many of our customers over to this system as soon as possible," DesRochers says. "Today, a rep can handle an account volume that previously would have required three or four reps."
Best of all, DesRochers says, the online-ordering system enables Allied to conform to the customer's procurement preferences, not vice versa. "That makes our solution easier to adopt, and that's helping us win and keep happy customers," he says. The system is configured so that management can set parameters that allow specified users to see only approved items. Orders can be routed automatically to management for approval, giving management control over procurement costs.
Allied's current site is an upgrade of its previous site, which didn't integrate with the distributorship's back-end system. The firm had to create and load custom pricing catalogs for each customer every quarter. Allied enhanced its site in June 2000 by implementing Macromedia ColdFusion and JRun technology. ColdFusion accelerates web development with integrated database and debugging tools. JRun combines a suite of visual tools with a standards-based server to provide developers with a way to design, program, edit, debug and maintain Java-based programs.
The Value of Personnel
Most companies as large as Allied rely on technology to streamline internal processes, but the distributorship also puts a premium on customer service. When Friedman discusses why Allied is succeeding in an economic downturn, he's quick to mention the firm's salespeople. "We're a salesperson-based company, and we understand that our success depends on the relationships they grow with their customers," he says.
Friedman says one of Allied's biggest challenges is adding seasoned salespeople as the distributorship expands into new geographical markets. When Brown, the firm's chairman and CEO, looks to acquire a distributorship in a city where Allied already is established, he targets a company with an aggressive sales force.
But even when office-product and printing companies attain the right personnel, Friedman says, it's often difficult to train employees on new technology. "Today, salespeople must offer more than a smile," he says. "Everyone's giving good customer service. Orders are in today and delivered tomorrow. That's not unique anymore. The key is knowing how to make suggestions and knowing when to listen. I think those are things we do very well."
Just as Allied listens closely to its clients, the distributorship expects the same treatment from its own vendors. "We like to use both national and local vendors to keep a balance," Friedman says. "We've added a lot of vendors over the years, but if a company shows it's not a player with us, or can't come through in an emergency situation, we have others lining up to take that business."
Brown says Allied's goal over the next three years is to grow into a $500 million company. "No matter how big we get in terms of revenue," Friedman says, "our focus will continue to be the level of value we're providing. We're not trying to be the biggest company in the industry; we're trying to be the best."
Darin Painter is managing editor of Print Solutions. Email him your
comments at dpainter@PSDA.org.
