Peruvian Connection

In order to stay successful in the ultra-competitive direct marketing industry, Peruvian Connection has to stay on top of their paperwork. That includes importing merchandise and taking and shipping orders to individual customers all over the world.

Peruvian Connection currently has zero IT staff. They needed a forms design solution that would be highly functional but also user friendly for non-technical staff that integrated seamlessly with their ERP Commercialware.

They needed to make the appearance of their output more professional and personalized. Their operation required 3 different versions of invoices, on 3 different sizes of paper, and the ability to print multiple currency symbols and multiple address formats.

Solution

In addition to Formtastic, Peruvian Connection also purchased the Formatter spool file pre-processor, which allowed customers to cut document page counts by 50 – 75% and concatenate spool file data. They are using Formatter to automatically preprocess the spool file before it gets delivered to Formtastic allowing Peruvian Connection to easily move that single line of content back to the first page. This cut back on paper usage while also giving them more dynamic control over how their data appears on the form. The final results were forms that were both shorter and more readable.

They also used it to concatenate address lines using nested tables, which is something that they can do in conjunction with concatenating the body lines and consolidating pages. They were also given the ability to modify forms on the fly without worrying about wasting pre-printed forms. Any edit, ranging from a modified zip code to a whole new presentation of form data, can be implemented immediately without wasting time or physical resources.

Not only did the switch to Formtastic and Formatter save time, it also saves money. Using their old document production system, it cost Peruvian Connection $108.20 to produce 1,000 US version continuous feed invoices. Using Formtastic and Formatter, it costs only $69.42 to produce 1,000 8.5 x 11 invoices. That yields an annual savings of over $6,000, based on production of 600 invoices per day.

Formatter and Formtastic have also helped Peruvian Connection eliminate numerous inefficient processes and expensive hardware.

Fortunately for Peruvian Connection, Fresche’s electronic forms integrated seamlessly with CommercialWare spool file data.

Results

To be very, very honest, I don’t think I understood the flexibility Formtastic would bring to the organization at the time. Fresche came out and spent two or three days training, and it was very good.

Formatter and Formtastic has allowed us to make qualitative improvements to just about every piece of correspondence that we send to customers or vendors. When I’m asked about changing our forms, I always say that I’m sure we can do that.

– Diane Toby, Chief Operating Officer, Peruvian Connection

Tech support was excellent, they not only helped with Formtastic, but they also helped bridge the gap with the AS/400 knowledge. Installing Formtastic was very easy, their sales staff made sure we had all the information we needed ahead of time. I love Formtastic because I like being able to control how things look. I also think the most surprising and unique thing about Formtastic is that I can do what a programmer would do without having to be one. I love everything about Formtastic. I recommend it to everybody I know.

Using Formatter to consolidate pages for our invoice was perfect. I’m not even sure that Fresche is aware of how flexible their tools can be. We can take CommercialWare’s output, put it on any sized paper, and distill it down to only those pieces we want. We don’t have to take all the spool data. It’s extremely flexible. We use note card sized paper through a laser printer and that’s been great.

– Suzie Israel, Graphic Designer, Peruvian Connection