Bloomfield, Connecticut – Prophesy Transportation Solutions, Inc. (an Accellos division), provider of trucking and logistics software solutions to the transportation industry, has released a case study of its customer Delaware Valley Floral Group. This profile explains how the New Jersey based, family owned and operated company has eased processes by using Prophesy Dispatch.
Delaware Valley Floral Group is a family owned business that opened on September 22, 1959. The company was founded by Robert and Doris Wilkins, grandparents of John Scott Wilkins, Executive Vice President. The company has grown exponentially since its founding. In 1959, the company consisted of only a few employees; now the company has over 400 employees.
The Delaware Valley Floral Group represents several divisions: Delaware Valley Wholesale Florist, Flower Transfer Logistics, FreshBlooms and Transflora. The original location of the company was in Pitman, NJ, but it is now headquartered in Sewell, NJ. They also have business operations in Baltimore, MD, Edison, NJ, Cromwell, CT, Miami, FL, and Oxnard, CA.
Delaware Valley Wholesale Florist has been providing professional retail florists with the finest in fresh cut flowers and greens, floral supplies, and botanicals. Because of Delaware Valley Wholesale Florists’ wide reach, it is able to serve areas stretching from Boston, MA, to Alexandria, VA, every day.
Flower Transfer Logistics is a trucking and 3PL division that was formed about 20 years ago and has been steadily growing since. Currently they own 100 local fleet delivery trucks and 22 tractor trailers that run long hauls to areas in Florida as well as California, Mexico, Texas and Canada each week.
As the Flower Transfer Logistics division grew, management began looking into technology solutions that would help them better run the organization. Before purchasing a trucking solution, the company had been utilizing an in-house ERP system that was primarily designed for warehousing. Though this system was not ideal for the Flower Transfer Logistics trucking division, the staff adapted to it as best they could, in order to do basic billing for trucking. Aside from completing billing within this ERP system, the staff used manual methods like Excel spreadsheets and whiteboards to complete organizational tasks on a day-to-day basis.
John Scott Wilkins was prompted to look for a dispatching solution because he knew that Flower Transfer Logistics would continue to grow and that the manual processes the company had been using would not allow that growth. “We looked for solutions that would offer us the ability to sustain growth and track monetary expenses and cost per mile. We had virtually no capability to do this with our old processes and knew that we had to be able to if we wanted to continue moving forward in the industry,” said Wilkins.
Wilkins had researched a total of six systems, but once he attended a live Internet demonstration of Prophesy DispatchSeries with National Sales Representative, Jay Votzakis, he was instantly hooked. Wilkins explained, “I loved the design and layout of the dispatch board. Everything was simple, clean and easy to understand; which is exactly what we needed.” Wilkins admitted that he realized the other products were too complex for the size of his company and Prophesy seemed like the perfect fit after his product demonstration. Aside from being wowed by Prophesy Dispatch, Wilkins applauded Votzakis for being extremely personal and genuine throughout the sales process.
In February 2010, the Delaware Valley Floral Group bought a 10-user version of Prophesy Dispatch with third party accounting interface as well as modules for IFTA fuel tax reporting, commercial mileage & routing, SQL database, driver management, fuel card interface and document imaging.
Delaware Valley Floral Group implemented the software package with the help of their in house I.T. staff. “The software implementation was done seamlessly; we had no problems at all. The program is self-explanatory and easy to set up,” said Wilkins.
Training and implementation consultant, Kim Manzone conducted the training on the Prophesy Dispatch system and modules. “Training was great. Kim made sure our training was completely customized to fit our business. She did a wonderful job at learning our company’s ins-and-outs in order to teach us the best ways to benefit from the solution,” explained Wilkins.
The Flower Transfer Logistics team was also asked to be part of a pilot group to test and review the new the Prophesy Reconsolidation module. Wilkins was more than willing to test the product, and was thrilled with the new capabilities it offered their company. In April 2010, Delaware Valley opted to move forward with the new Cross-Docking and Reconsolidation Module for Dispatch. Wilkins stated, “The reconsolidation module was a life saver for the company. We hadn’t been offered a module like this by any other software companies that we looked at.” Wilkins continued to explain that the module helps the company manage cross-docking extraordinarily effectively each day.
The results that Wilkins and the Flower Transfer Logistics staff achieved from the dispatch system were remarkable. After learning the system, the company was able to account for loads and overall expenses better than ever before. Along with Flower Transfers Logistics’ contentment with the Prophesy Dispatch product, Wilkins expressed his gratitude with the Prophesy Transportation Solutions staff, “We have been very impressed with the Prophesy staff throughout our experience with them. The company has high-level technical support, training and sales representation.”
Within the last two years, the Delaware Valley Floral Group has made a stronger commitment to warehousing and cold storage as well as e-commerce. The company has also increased its trucking base and will continue to look for innovative ways to grow substantially in the future.
More information on Delaware Valley Floral Group can be found at http://www.dvwf.com/
For more information about Prophesy’s Total Solution for Trucking, email moreinfo [at] mile.com or call 800-776-6706.
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Source: Prophesy Transportation Solutions, Inc.