The Challenge

Sequel School & Office Supplies is one of those beautiful mom-and-dad businesses that have managed to survive for half a century. Established in the 1970s and passed on to the next generation, Anna and her brother Dan have not only kept Sequel School & Office Supplies alive but have transformed it into a thriving business through technology.

Today, Sequel School & Office Supplies have a growing ecommerce arm of the business that distributes stationary supplies and books to schools and offices. With Commerce Cloud, they have been able to focus on growth and have plans of opening up retail stores and pop-up satellite warehouses.

“Before Commerce Cloud, we didn’t have time to focus on growth. We now have the time to focus on strategic thinking and feel like we have no limitations. If COVID-19 had happened on our old system, we would not have made it through due to costs and the inability to work from home.”

The Challenge: Inability to Focus on Growth and Compete in a Cloud-Based World Using Legacy IT

As Anna and Dan became more involved with the day-to-day operations of the business, they started to realize it was being held back by the old technology they were relying on.

While the AS400 platform they were using was a solid platform in its time, it struggled to innovate and adapt; effectively reducing the ability to compete in a cloud-based world.

Inefficiencies in Inventory Management and Order Fulfillment

Anna and Dan were spending a lot of their time on manual inventory management and fulfillment. On peak months, they had to hire additional labor and warehouses and spend up to two weeks sorting packaging and arranging shipping.

“Pallets on pallets on pallets of inventory to sort through. We used to hire additional warehouses and labor to finish packing for a school. This process took two weeks to sort, label and arrange shipping”.

It’s safe to say the old IT system was slow, inefficient and “horrendously expensive to maintain.” Any changes to the system had to go back through the original supplier which meant delays on all fronts.

Aside from that, it was difficult to build customized reports and the owners couldn’t rely on the data from the system and use it to make purchasing decisions.