Jerry Bragalone and Kevin Riddle, Warehouse Manager and Team Leader, Freudenberg-NOK General Partnership

Jerry Bragalone and Kevin Riddle of Freudenberg-NOK General Partnership, agree that it would be nice if their customers wanted every order shipped exactly the same way, without scheduling or packaging requirements.

But the world doesn’t work that way, they concede, and neither should their business system. And now, thanks to a successful QAD implementation led by a FNGP cross-functional team involving the Milan, Ohio Distribution Center staff and Corporate Information Technology team members working together with PICS, it doesn’t.

“We have to manage orders the way our customers want us to, not the other way around,” said Bragalone, who is the warehouse manager at the company’s distribution center in Milan, Ohio. Riddle, a team leader at the same location, explains: “Some customers send orders months ahead of time, and some want same-day delivery. And others require special labels on packages within these packages. We have to be able to do that for them—and then some.”

“The packaging programs in MFG/PRO were good, but they didn’t suit us,” Bragalone said.
“We needed functionality that went above and beyond what most people need, and PICS helped us build it," he said, referring to the containerization functionality in QAD.

The system could support the container/packing structure but fell short in several other key areas.

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Terry Rossi has been a part of the Explore experience for more than a decade and truly understands the needs of QAD users. In this article, he discusses what he has seen over the years and talks about how you can make the most of your experience at the conference.

Q) For how many years have you attended Explore?
We first began going to QAD Global Conferences in 1992. Rich and I were driving forces in the turnaround of QAD’s support organization as their business exploded.
Our first Explore as PICS was in 1995. We had a small client base at that time, but we used Explore as a way to meet face to face with customers and prospects.

Q) How should QAD users make the most of their time at the conference?
Attend all the sessions you can and make the most of the Solutions Expo and Meal Roundtables. You can spend quality time with our consultants and developers at both of these places.

Q) How has the conference evolved since you first started attending?
Today’s Explore is a much better experience for QAD customers and for PICS. Explore has different tracks that allow QAD users to maximize their time and participate in sessions that are pertinent to them. We use the conference as an opportunity to meet with current and future customers, listen to their business challenges and offer suggestions about how we can assist them.

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Meet Chris Dompert, Senior PICS Consultant

There are many consultants with hands-on experience with the software packages they implement. Others have a long history of industry experience. Others have an extensive background in technology & programming. Very few have all of these attributes—and that’s what makes Chris Dompert, a seven-year member of the PICS team, so unique.

Dompert began his career in the Electro-mechanical Engineering field for a data communications company and worked his way up to Manager of the Design Department. When the company needed to implement new technology to improve operations, Dompert developed systems for engineering, document management, bills of materials, purchasing and inventory control. Soon afterward, he became MIS manager and began working with QAD software, implementing the system through the company’s data communications, musical instruments and contract manufacturing divisions.

After that project was done, Dompert realized he found his niche. “I began looking to transition to an ERP implementation consulting career,” he says. Fortunately, he found PICS. Since beginning his PICS career, Dompert has led well over a dozen implementations, many of which have been extensive and complex.

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