Successes in 2009 for Junction Solutions
In our on going series of highlights of successes in 2009 I had the opportunity to speak with Jeff Marker, Sr. Vice President – Multi-Channel Retail for Junction Solutions and he had the following insights about their successes this past year.
Jeff elaborated on how despite the economic challenges of last year that Junction had its most profitable year since its inception this past year with several notable new deals and implementation go-lives. Jeff also stated that Microsoft Dynamics AX got a lot of recognition in 2009, and was recognized as the leader in the middle-market ERP space by The Gartner Group in its May 2009 Magic Quadrant report. See chart below:
Junction Solutions had some forward moving companies sign on to their Microsoft Dynamics JunctionMCR solution last year such as:
- Arthur Middleton Capital Holdings, six unique divisions with both B2C and B2B requirements
- Rejuvenation, America’s largest manufacturer and leading direct marketer of authentic reproduction lighting and house parts with B2C, B2B and Retail
- Americas Gardening Resources (Gardener’s Supply) with B2C, B2B and Retail
- The Teaching Company with B2C and B2B
And earlier this year signed Taylor Corporation/Everglades Direct a large B2B conglomerate that provides business and personal communications products, technologies and services.
In addition to the above signings in 2009 several other multichannel retail companies completed their implementation and went live:
- Burpee Direct
- Peet’s Coffee
- Musicians Friend with the remaining brands and locations which also included integration to High Jump WMS
- Holt’s Cigar
- Football Fanatics
Some of the key enhancements in 2009 to the JunctionMCR product that propelled the success of their clients included:
- PA-DSS Certification
- Velocity Report for Slotting
- Expanded directed putaway and replenishment
- Wireless warehouse support for adjustments, cycle counts, picking, cart picking, putaway, and replenishment
- Days on hand reporting
- Additional Installment / Deferred Billing options
- Continuity enhancements – consolidation, MRP demand profile, schedule synchronization
- Embedded customer statistics
- Mass price updates
- Initial web store integration with JunctionEOD
The following planned new functionality for JunctionMCR is scheduled to be released in the second quarter of this year:
- Expanded web store integration with JunctionEOD
- Microsoft Dynamics/AX for Retail POS support
- Direct store delivery mobile application as well as headquarters support
- Promotions rules and conditions for advanced pricing logic
- Additional Pick list sortation options
- Barcode generation integration with Seagull Scientifics’ BarTender product
- Pick list locations – Case pick / Alternates
- Promotional inserts during picking
- New Inbound and Outbound logistics features
- Shipping import/export documentation
- Open to buy budget additions
- Landed cost
- Support for Merchandise planning and store replenishment
- Enhanced personalization options
- RFM scoring enhancements
- Microsoft payment service integration
- Gift and stored value card
- Retail workflow
- Business intelligence enhancements
These are exciting times for Junction Solutions as their functionality and user community continues to expand. Companies are always looking to add functionality and push their vendors to keep them ahead of their competition. With a number of this past year’s enhancements and the ones planned for this year Junction Solutions is doing just that.
For those companies who have been waiting to replace their existing applications with new expanded functionality there are many choices for you to leap frog your competition; don’t let them get the jump on you!
Paul Sobota is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a consulting firm established in 1983 focusing on warehouse, systems and inventory management. To learn more, visit www.fcbco.com.
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