Wausau Supply Cuts Costs 30% With Infor10 Distribution Business

The primary business challenge that Wausau Supply faced was its ability to provide next-day delivery to not only small lumber yards, which had been its major customer over many years, but also a greater number of conglomerates that were purchasing together. Because the company also began to see more competition from "big box" distribution centers, it required some refocusing of strategy to maintain profitability.

Rather than continue as a traditional distributor offering a few product choices, Wausau Supply decided to change its mission and become a value-added-products distributor providing customized building products and features. Following that decision, the need arose to revise the use of its software. The company was using a product that allocated inventory well and allowed the company to build kits on the fly, but it did not have an up-to-date operating system for back office or logistics operations. With 11 distribution centers differing in size and the type and number of products that are stocked, Wausau Supply needed broad-based visibility into its inventory in every location.

After evaluating several products, Wausau Supply chose Infor10™ Distribution Business (SX.e) to meet its needs. According to Mike Stelzl, IT Manager at Wausau Supply, "We had been using Distribution Business in conjunction with TWL on traditional distribution and back office, which worked very well for us. But our goal was to either make them work with our RBC configurator, which we needed for producing custom products, or develop a new back office and logistics program with another vendor to work with the configurator. When all the features and benefits of both options were laid out, there was no comparison. By far our best choice was Distribution Business and TWL for back office and logistics, and the RBC configurator—from the standpoint of rich functionality, ease of use, and lower cost."