Customizing the Power of Encompass

Customizing the Power of Encompass

Creating a Unique User Experience

The Encompass Platform is designed to allow for the addition of new capabilities and functionalities. We work diligently to bring our customers a state-of-the-art, fully integrated solution, however, we recognize that all businesses are distinct and no two are alike. That's why we encourage distributors to take advantage of the exceptional power of the Encompass Platform, using it as a building block on which you can create solutions that are specific to your business.

The Encompass Services Team is committed to bringing one-of-a-kind solutions to the different challenges distributors may face. Whether you are looking to create a new dashboard tailored to your operations or automate a repetitive process, we can build it for you. We will cultivate a unique user experience for your team and help your ideas come to life!

Encompass Customizations are localized to the distributor we make them for, so we can truly cater to your unique business. We are able to create customizations for third-party integrations, managing inventory, market analysis and more. An example of this might be taking something standard, "out of the box" like our pick productivity reports. If your warehouse management team wants to run a specific statistic we can bring that in with a custom fusion report. Or, if you are downloading files and uploading them to a third-party application for payroll or reporting, we can create an API to take out those manual steps. Another use case could be when your sales team looks at Encompass Mobile, are there pages and buttons they don't use? Or items you wish they could see - let us help build your sales execution experience.

Let's take a look at a brief Q&A with VP of Services, Bill Kraich:

What is a common customization?

"The most common form of customization is when a distributor wants to take an existing Encompass feature and uniquely optimize it to their way of doing business. It's not always routing or sales or customer facing type of work, the most common use is to take a feature we already have and make it more powerful. A real-life example of this in action is how to manage supplier billbacks. Many distributors use reports and spreadsheets to create billback invoices for suppliers but everyone does it a little differently. We can help you automate this process and save time and money."

How has customization saved distributors time and money?

"For example, a customization we built presented multiple sales reports in a mobile-friendly format to display data to retailers and allow sales reps to make a greater impact while selling. This saves time by gathering reports and putting them in one place. The other benefit is that the sales rep is able to make a bigger impact in the market."

Have you customized anything in your role at Encompass?

"I have created a customization on the Encompass Mobile App which allows me to do what I need to do on my phone, anywhere in the world. This makes accessing the things I need to do my work clear, concise and organized. We can help distributors do similar customizations in Encompass Mobile, whether it's linking out to your payroll or HR application or putting in a button that brings up your KPI dashboard."

What is the most important thing for people to remember when thinking about customizations?

"First, you can really customize anything. Our platform has all of the features and capabilities you need to successfully run your business and make an impact in your market. BUT every market is unique and you can truly customize this platform and use these tools in a way that is unique to your business. Second, you don't need to know the ins and outs of everything in Encompass in order to customize. You can have an idea, discuss it with the services team and have that idea come to life."

The old saying "time is money" is especially true in the distribution industry. If you are looking to save time on day-to-day processes and gain a competitive advantage, you might consider customizing your user experience. The extensibility of the Encompass Platform is here to meet the needs of your business and there is no limit to the number of processes that can be customized, so let's get started!

To learn more information, give us a call at (970)449-8000 and ask for the Services Department or visit the Services Webpage.

We will be hosting a webinar on Customization today, March 15th at 1pm MST. Click here to get registered.