RICHMOND, VA, September 15, 2000.

Watkins Incorporated, a leading manufacturer of personal, home and health care products has chosen Potomac Systems to replace their resource planning and financial reporting systems.

Watkins Incorporated, founded in 1868, markets its products exclusively through the efforts of over 70,000 independent sales associates in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. The Watkins business model, much like that of a well-known, door-to-door cosmetics company, places incredible demands upon the manufacturing and resource planning areas of the business. Volume based compensation plans, product promotional strategies and other incentive programs cause significant fluctuations to the supply and demand of organizational resources.

Because it uses an actual calendar month-end and a multi-level sales compensation plan, Watkins is challenged with managing these rapid changes in supply and demand occurring as a result of promotional and calendar influences. The solution requires both people and systems to be robust and flexible for a quick response to changing conditions.

"As we did our homework and evaluated systems, Potomac's name continued to surface" said Jim Yenish, Watkins' vice president of operations. "But it was a visit to a long-time user of Potomac's CompassCPA software that convinced us to award them the contract."

To develop the application, data extraction programs are used to gather information from existing legacy applications and to store it on Potomac's ClearPath host. Potomac then develops functions that match "business rules" established during client interviews and generates the application. The Watkins team uses unique user codes and passwords to log onto Potomac's host, and to "test drive" the software to confirm that it matches the original system design.

"The Watkins project is a great example of how CompassCPA can be adapted to fit a complex model as if it were created from scratch" said Potomac vice president, Bill McDonald. "In the years to come, we'll help Watkins stay in the forefront of their fast-changing market by providing customized solutions at an affordable price."


Questions?  Want more details?  Contact:

sales@potomacsys.com
804.423.5300

 

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