Nazdar/CCI playing games

[GraphicDisorder]

I totally get why but they discontinued the CCI DC products and won't carry the new WR14 emulsion. Still sucks. Peter are you there?

Still waiting for them to fix their website. Peter said they are working on it, uh thats hard to believe. Nazdar is huge and wildly successful and they charge a premium for their supplies yet they cannot invest in a practical web site.

in a big company like that, converting the web site with all the different product is a HUUUGE undertaking. You are talking synchronizing the warehouse management so the orders can be picked, tracking entered, inventory status updated and so on. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, think multiple locations with same product, accounting, billing. . . On a cheap end, this is a $100k project and I have seen them run into seven figures for very large companies.

Peter said they are working on it and I am sure they are, but when you have to create a program to talk to several different departments and several different databases within each dpt, it takes time. From what I remember he said they were months away from having it up.

pierre

I see huge companies daily with live inventory even companies smaller than Nazdar. I could probably list ink supply companies ad naseum that have excellent web sites and they are smaller than Nazdar. Wether they are working on it or not I still find it hard to believe it would take this long.

I don't find it hard to believe at all.  My online store changes DAILY and took us weeks just to get the very small amount of products set up compared to a company like Nazdar.  We used to do a lot of online store design/maintenance a few years back, one site had 1000's of products many with many options each, it was a like a ecosystem, changed daily.  The time involved was HUGE.  It choked our business even for awhile.  We basically bowed out of several deals and are moving more away from web all the time.  It's a time killer. 

It's a huge project to do something like that, assuming they are going all out.

Look at sites like Sanmar, NES, Alpha their dynamic inventory makes Nazdar look like a mom and pop. Nazdar has the money and resoources so I do not believe it would take them years to implement a decent practical web site. Hell Lance Calibrated has a similar amount of products and he is a one man show.

Which all took those sites tons of time to build.  It's not like they had a meeting one day and the next week they had a site done and things where all automatically updating.... 

I assume Nazdar has the resources as well, but that would be just a assumption as well wouldn't it.  What resources a company has or doesn't have or how they use it is always very much context driven to many other things going on out there.  The web site may not be their number one focus right now.  So resources may be pointed differently from how you or I would.  Doesn't change my point.  Peter says they are working on it, then I believe it.

[Screened Gear]

I totally get why but they discontinued the CCI DC products and won't carry the new WR14 emulsion. Still sucks. Peter are you there?

Still waiting for them to fix their website. Peter said they are working on it, uh thats hard to believe. Nazdar is huge and wildly successful and they charge a premium for their supplies yet they cannot invest in a practical web site.

in a big company like that, converting the web site with all the different product is a HUUUGE undertaking. You are talking synchronizing the warehouse management so the orders can be picked, tracking entered, inventory status updated and so on. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, think multiple locations with same product, accounting, billing. . . On a cheap end, this is a $100k project and I have seen them run into seven figures for very large companies.

Peter said they are working on it and I am sure they are, but when you have to create a program to talk to several different departments and several different databases within each dpt, it takes time. From what I remember he said they were months away from having it up.

pierre

I see huge companies daily with live inventory even companies smaller than Nazdar. I could probably list ink supply companies ad naseum that have excellent web sites and they are smaller than Nazdar. Wether they are working on it or not I still find it hard to believe it would take this long.

I have to agree is Inkman. Websites are not built like Pierre said anymore. They are all templates and have backend programs that are just dropped in. They just copy and past the shopping cart and inventory and so on, nothing is programmed anymore. Now for the front end design and customizing the drop in boilerplate stuff, that is where the money comes in. Most companies will never pay for the customization. Even Ryonet uses a company called Online Stores or something like that. Its just a template website that would just drop all your items in. In this industry if you don't have a website that takes orders you are losing a ton of sales. A website like Ryonets can be had for less than a few thousand. You will have to put the time into adding items. The cost to pay someone to add items will add up but that is just your day to day running of your business.

[JayzTeez]

My supply company has a website but you can't order online.  how bad is that these days.   

[blue moon]

I totally get why but they discontinued the CCI DC products and won't carry the new WR14 emulsion. Still sucks. Peter are you there?

Still waiting for them to fix their website. Peter said they are working on it, uh thats hard to believe. Nazdar is huge and wildly successful and they charge a premium for their supplies yet they cannot invest in a practical web site.

in a big company like that, converting the web site with all the different product is a HUUUGE undertaking. You are talking synchronizing the warehouse management so the orders can be picked, tracking entered, inventory status updated and so on. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, think multiple locations with same product, accounting, billing. . . On a cheap end, this is a $100k project and I have seen them run into seven figures for very large companies.

Peter said they are working on it and I am sure they are, but when you have to create a program to talk to several different departments and several different databases within each dpt, it takes time. From what I remember he said they were months away from having it up.

pierre

I see huge companies daily with live inventory even companies smaller than Nazdar. I could probably list ink supply companies ad naseum that have excellent web sites and they are smaller than Nazdar. Wether they are working on it or not I still find it hard to believe it would take this long.

I have to agree is Inkman. Websites are not built like Pierre said anymore. They are all templates and have backend programs that are just dropped in. They just copy and past the shopping cart and inventory and so on, nothing is programmed anymore. Now for the front end design and customizing the drop in boilerplate stuff, that is where the money comes in. Most companies will never pay for the customization. Even Ryonet uses a company called Online Stores or something like that. Its just a template website that would just drop all your items in. In this industry if you don't have a website that takes orders you are losing a ton of sales. A website like Ryonets can be had for less than a few thousand. You will have to put the time into adding items. The cost to pay someone to add items will add up but that is just your day to day running of your business.

I was not talking about building the website, the issues is to have the back end programs communicate with the shop management. I have no idea what Nazdar is running in the background, but I know of plenty of companies that have proprietary software running different aspects of the company and making all those talk to the back end of the web site can be a chore. A good friend of mine, makes $200/hour converting the databases and communications protocols to talk to web pages like that.

In the end, Peter did agree that their site needs to be updated and he said they are working on it. I am also sure that they are doing it as fast as it is possible and they must be aware of the fact that they are losing money by ppl going other places to shop that offers the web services they do not. I like doing business with them so I just call in the order, no big deal . . .

pierre

[Screened Gear]

You are right the customizing does add up. Depending who you work with the cost can be minimal. You are talking about redoing the whole way that the company does business, not just a website you can order stuff on.  Many times programmers can set up a system that works so well the company can fire many positions because the the website and back-end programs run so smoothly that that you really only need a shipping person to do everything. When an order is made on the site it prints out a package slip and a shipping label. You just need some one to fill the box and slap the label on it. All the accounting is automatically entered and inventory is adjusted. I have heard companies have auto reorders on products set so when inventory gets to a certain level their suppler gets a email with the needed reorders. Its very smooth and makes life easy.

[blue moon]

You are right the customizing does add up. Depending who you work with the cost can be minimal. You are talking about redoing the whole way that the company does business, not just a website you can order stuff on.  Many times programmers can set up a system that works so well the company can fire many positions because the the website and back-end programs run so smoothly that that you really only need a shipping person to do everything. When an order is made on the site it prints out a package slip and a shipping label. You just need some one to fill the box and slap the label on it. All the accounting is automatically entered and inventory is adjusted. I have heard companies have auto reorders on products set so when inventory gets to a certain level their suppler gets a email with the needed reorders. Its very smooth and makes life easy.

that's exactly what I am talking about! And the bigger the company, the harder it is to make those changes.

pierre

[inkman996]

My problem is Nazdar has items I purchase but they are not on either the web site nor the catalog. I guess it takes to much time to add your full line to your web site. No biggie, I can open up Tech Supports online web page and find every item they sell.

Strangely I actually agree a lot with Brandt when it comes to the phone, I prefer to either have an accurate catalog or online store I can peruse at my leisure and decide what I need, being able to do this allows me to spot things I forget I need to get. I can't do that on the phone since I am not seeing what is available.

[GraphicDisorder]

Strangely I actually agree a lot with Brandt when it comes to the phone, I prefer to either have an accurate catalog or online store I can peruse at my leisure and decide what I need, being able to do this allows me to spot things I forget I need to get. I can't do that on the phone since I am not seeing what is available.

This we can agree on, I will likely never consider any supplier that doesn't have a online purchase shopping cart.  We buy when we need to, which could be weekends, nights, 4am, and I certainly don't have time to chit chat when we order. 

Suppliers take notice, we all make fun of Ryonet, they are doing so well because they have all their stuff online. 

[pwalsh]

I totally get why but they discontinued the CCI DC products and won't carry the new WR14 emulsion. Still sucks. Peter are you there?

Tony:  I can assure you that there are no games being played between Nazdar SourceOne and the good folks at Chemical Consultants Incorporated.  On the water base inks we made a decision to represent MagnaColours a worldwide leader in the manufacture of a "complete line" of water based textile screen-printing inks.  CCI has some very good products but we didn’t feel that they had the formulating experience to provide the full product range, that a company like Magna Colours does.

Not sure where the miscommunication on the CCI WR-14 Emulsion originated but I show this product set up in our system under Item Number CCWR1404 in Gallons and CCWR1405 in five gallon pails.  In addition Nazdar SourceOne is distributing eight additional different CCI emulsion products to include: DCM-LV,DXP, HD-RED, HXT(Red or Blue),PFX-HV(Red or Blue),& WR-25.  Please let me know if want to buy some of the new CCI WR-14 emulsion, and I’ll get a SourceOne Account Executive to contact you to discuss volume and pricing.

[Screened Gear]

This is what I like about this forum. Manufactures, distributors that are on here to answer questions and help set us straight about their offerings. They are not here to push new products. Pwalsh does a great job at this.

[pwalsh]

To All:  I appreciate the high level of interest, the many comments, and the constructive criticism regarding the Nazdar SourceOne website.  For the record I have never tried to defend the SourceOne website as being state of the art, and have readily admitted to, or agreed with others observations of its shortcomings. 

I have also communicated on this and other forums and in direct communication with our customers that we are committed to improving the web experience for our customers.  And, while there is no doubt that improvements are needed I think that people would be surprised at just how many visitors we enjoy and how much business we transact conduct on the current clunky site.

I also want to take this opportunity to reach out to those board members who defended my integrity.  It’s Ok for people to be disappointed at how long this process is taking, I know that I am.  But you can believe me, when I say that the project is underway. In fact I’m attaching a project outline that defines the different processes that our team has been working through on this project.  It’s a little more complex than going to a third party to buy a pre-packaged web solution. 

[GraphicDisorder]

It’s a little more complex than going to a third party to buy a pre-packaged web solution.

I guessed it would be and glad to hear it is.  I have faith. 

Good luck with it Peter!

[tonypep]

Thanks for responding Peter. Some apologies in order. "Playing Games" was an unfair term. My grumpiness must have got a hold of me. I did mention that I get why you discontinued the CCI WB products it just sucked for me. If I want to purchase them I now have to ship from Cali which is a deal breaker. My Nazdar rep is working on a possible solution so kudos to her. A CCI rep informed me about the WR14 and obviously that was a miscommunication.
With regards to the website I'm just old school and like to call and talk to a person primarily to determine availability and which location an item will be shipping from.
(Sorry Brandt I know you'll be grilling me on that!) That said if I had checked like Duane did I would have seen that you do indeed carry the WR14 product so there you go. I will always continue to do business with Nazdar I find them to be very responsive and they certainly carry most of what I need.
Regards tp

[GraphicDisorder]

With regards to the website I'm just old school and like to call and talk to a person primarily to determine availability and which location an item will be shipping from.
(Sorry Brandt I know you'll be grilling me on that!)

No grilling, but a good website should have it's availability and where it will ship from.  That should in fact save you time over a phone call if the site is built well.  I agree though, not all sites are and need work there. 

[Prof_Yaffel]

If you ever have trouble getting product from Nazdar why not try Ryonet? They have most of the CCI stuff under their own brand