Because Thrive's award winning system will add 5 points to your profit margin by increasing the sales and profits you are currently getting from your inventory investment. 

 

So exactly how does Thrive do this?

 

1. 90% FORECAST ACCURACY DRIVES MARGIN UP AT LEAST 5 POINTS

Every decision that you make in regards to your inventory is based on a forecast (or at least an educated guess) of how much you will sell in the future of each of your products.  Think about it.  If your current system estimates you will sell 5 units of one of your products next month when you really sell 20, you will probably lose some sales.  Vice versa, if your current system estimates 20 units next month and you sell 5, you will have more than you need.  If this keeps up, you may end up with dead stock that you can't get rid of.

 

Yet most distribution companies don't measure their forecast accuracy, and our experience has been that the forecast accuracy in Eclipse and other ERP systems is typically less than 50%.  No wonder companies constantly struggle with the double whammy of out of stocks and dead stock!

 

Thrive's patent pending forecast engine increases forecast accuracy to 90% or more, so you have the products your customers want to buy in stock, and not the ones that no one is buying.  

 

2, PROACTIVE INVENTORY INTELLIGENCE

Through improved forecast accuracy and proactive inventory intelligence, our customers have reduced lost sales by 70%, cut the buildup of dead stock, improved service levels by 5%, and increased turns by 20%.

Please email Rick Morris, rmorris@thrivetech.com for more information.

WHY USE TRACKERS?

Trackers are a method of communicating within the business system. To use Trackers, everyone that might send or receive them must understand how they work. At our company, Trackers are used by everyone that is in Eclipse all day: order writers, customer service supervisors, returns coordinators, purchasing, pricing, A/R and A/P all use Trackers. We use them as a part of our Standard Operating Procedures when product and order information must be communicated - like mis-shipments, nonstock product entry, and pricing requests.

For any issues or questions on a Sales Order, Purchase Order, Transfer or Cash Receipt, you can create a Tracker by selecting a line item, then using [Shift]+[F4].

Trackers are better than e-mails, phone calls, instant messages or any other method because:

• They are quicker to create than an email.
• Trackers automatically have links to the Order#, the Customer# and the Part# with no possibility of mistakes in typing.
• The person receiving the tracker can click on the Order # to open the order. Clicking on the CN# provides access to Customer Maintenance, AR Ledger and AR Inquiry for the customer. Clicking the PN# lets you access Inventory Inquiry, Product Future Ledger, Inventory History Ledger, Product Maintenance, Inventory Data and Sales History for the part number.
• The tracker is permanently a part of the Change Log for the order, so anyone researching the order can see the conversation - it cannot be deleted.
• You have a User Job Queue that shows all your open trackers so you can keep on top of things. When a tracker is "Closed" it disappears from the User Job Queue.
• In the Message Queue you can change the Mode to show Sent items and see all the trackers you've sent.

TO CREATE A TRACKER:

From a line item on the body of a Sales Order, Transfer, Purchase Order, or Cash Receipt, hold down the Shift key and press F4 [Shift]+[F4].

A Call Tracking Entry window opens as shown to the right.

Go to Edit>New Append

In the screenshot I have added a New Append button to my customized toolbar

NOTE: For those of you that already use trackers, but do not start with New Append, the reason we do is twofold:

1. It records in the body of the tracker the user, date, and time the tracker was created.
2. The New Append dialog has a To: field which makes it easier to understand who will receive the tracker.

In the Append Comment window, fill in the To with who you want to send the Tracker to. If there are multiple users, click the multiple button at the end of the To field.

Make the Next Action field the same as the To field.

In the yellow comment area enter the comment you want to send to these users.

When finished, hit [F12] then click  Yes to save the changes.

Back on the main Call Tracking Entry window change the Final Action to the person who can say

"This is done for everyone involved"

Use [F12] to close the tracker window, save your changes and the tracker is off to everyone in the To and Next Action fields.

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN I'VE RECEIVED A TRACKER?

If you are logged in on Solar Eclipse and you receive a tracker there will be a New Tracker Icon in your main Solar Eclipse menu bar, as shown below:

Clicking on the New Tracker checkbox icon will open the tracker and the icon will disappear. 

In Solar versions lower than 9, if you are not logged on when a tracker is sent to you, then you will not have the New Tracker icon, but you can get to the tracker through the Message Queue or the User Job Queue.

In Version 9 of Solar Eclipse, new trackers are displayed at the top right of the main window. It doesn't matter if you were logged in when it was sent - you will always see unread trackers in the toolbar, like this:

HOW DO I REPLY TO A TRACKER, FOR INSTANCE, IF I NEED MORE INFORMATION FROM THE SENDER?

First open the tracker, then to reply you can either double click in the Message area, or go to Edit>New Append.

Fill in the Append Comment window as you would the initial New Append: 

Enter your message, change the To: field to the person you want to receive the reply, and if the Next Action needs to be changed, you can change it here too.

I'VE FIXED THE PROBLEM, APPENDED AN ANSWER, PERFORMED THE FINAL ACTION - WHAT NOW?

To close the tracker go to File>Close Tracker. Any names in the Forward List will receive the tracker as a notification that it has been closed. 

If there are names in the Forward List that don't need to know that the tracker was closed you can delete these names before closing the tracker, so that they are not bothered by unnecessary tracker notifications.

If you don't want to close the tracker, but just want it out of your User Job Queue, you can still use File>Close Tracker then choose Remove Me from Followup.

Another Use for Trackers:
Do you want a notification when an order gets invoiced? Send a Tracker to yourself from the order, adding yourself to the Followup list, and you will get the tracker again upon invoicing.