Summit Tree Stands
Julie Giles
Category - Best use of technology

Summit Tree Stands has been in business for more than 25 years, and for most of that time handled its wholesale business the old fashioned way, with fax and mail purchase orders, paper invoices, and manual shipping manifests. But when its business hit a boom period in 2001, manual processes weren't enough to handle the onslaught. Giles brought in a Software as a Service EDI system that let the company comply with its largest customers immediately while allowing its smaller customers to come onboard as needed.

Julie Giles came to Summit Tree Stands in 2004 and her first task was to get the company set up with an EDI system in order to comply with Dick's Sporting Goods EDI mandate. According to Giles, "I asked our corporate office, but they didn't have anything in place we could use, so I was on my own."

Giles viewed a webcast provided by Cabela's as part of that company's enablement program, and things started to fall into place for her. In order to accomplish the company's initial compliance mandates without adding systems, equipment, and staff, Giles decided to use a Software as a Service offering that gave nearly immediate results because the provider already had EDI connections in place with the companies she needed to connect with.

Summit Tree Stands has thousands of customers, ranging from the smallest hunting equipment shop to the largest retailer. The company now has EDI connections with its six largest customers including BigRock, LLBean, Gander Mountain, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Academy Sports. "One reason we have been able to connect with these companies is that our EDI provider takes responsibility for communicating with them and setting up the connections. Without that kind of help we couldn't afford to be as well connected as we are," explains Giles.