Jiffy Products of America, Inc.

As officials at Jiffy Products of America, Inc. (www.jiffyproducts.com) worked to grow their company, they also paid attention to the benefits of growing the technological side of business operations. Jiffy, located in Batavia, IL, is the distributor of plant propagation products, such as plant starter kits and peat pots. In the past seven years Jiffy has significantly increased its sales volume and, because of technological strides made with Macola Software, has been able to sustain that growth without adding to its employee base.

Jiffy's previous system had inherent deficiencies that needed correcting. Among those was the need to integrate inventory and billing. Installing Macola enabled Jiffy to eliminate its islands of information and, instead, integrate those applications. Explains Jiffy President Daniel M. Schrodt, "Before implementing Macola Software's integrated modules, our billing, reporting of sales and bookings were always —best case scenario— two days behind schedule."

Sales analysis reports lacked timely information, and because of the lag time in processing, Jiffy could only bill customers every other day instead of daily.

Armed with a desire to conduct business in a more timely manner, officials selected Macola Progression Series 6.0. Company officials gravitated to Macola because of the software's reputation, ease-of-use and customization support. The customization support was a particular plus since Jiffy's billing requirements necessitated some very specific custom modifications for shipping picklists and bills of lading.

Since that time, Jiffy has converted to Macola Progression Series Version 7.5 – in under two weeks!

The ability to bill customers daily, combined with information from Macola's Inventory Management package provides Jiffy with "real time" inventory levels and demand on those inventories, thus giving Jiffy officials the ability to better manage their cash flow and purchasing procedures. And, because of the improved timeliness and accuracy of the sales analysis reports, Jiffy's marketing department can react in a proactive manner to changes in the marketplace.

Because of these improvements, says Schrodt, Jiffy has decreased overtime in the customer service department by 20 percent, and performing a check run takes less than half the time it once did. Adds Schrodt, because of Macola's full integration capabilities, Jiffy now closes its month-end books sooner with more accurate accruals. Best of all, perhaps, is the financial savings Jiffy realizes. He explains, "Not only have we seen a reduction in employee overtime costs, we're also enjoying a savings in MIS consulting time."

Macola modules installed are Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Inventory Management, Customer Order Processing, Purchase Order and Receiving, Bill of Material Processor, Master Scheduling, Job Costing, and Standard Product Costing.

In addition, Jiffy also is using the IPS (http://www.ipsonline.com) shipping system. This third party product has made Jiffy totally compliant with all of its vendors labels. The value this adds has made this a good third party alliance.

Jiffy's sister company in New Brunswick is using Progression Series 7.0 and its other sister operation, Jiffy South America is considering using Macola Progression Series 7.0. Soon the Illinois location will start transmitting purchase orders to Canada.

For a company whose main goal is to promote growth, Macola has been the perfect solution.

Macola Software