Trish McEvoy

The Company: About Trish McEvoy

Trish McEvoy is a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of fine cosmetic products. Trish McEvoy distributes its makeup line through large department stores — such as Saks, Nordstrom, and Nieman Marcus — in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as through smaller, boutique retail establishments. 

The Situation: Aptean Distribution ERP

Over the past ten years, as Trish McEvoy significantly grew its product-line presence at larger department stores, existing company systems became strained, and new process compliance requirements developed. Manufacturing, which is outsourced and is often done overseas, required tighter management of forecasting and planning to ensure that the right products would be manufactured and made available at the right time. 

By implementing a new enterprise-wide system, Trish McEvoy sought to increase visibility into sales and profitability performance, as well as inventory status. Through a distribution-focused system, it hoped to improve inventory planning and availability. By enabling EDI, it hoped to streamline transaction processing and meet compliance requirements to reduce chargebacks associated with vendor violations. 

Through a business associate, Trish McEvoy was introduced to a consultant who helped evaluate three potential systems. Ultimately, the Aptean Distribution ERP system was recommended and selected due to its enterprise-wide distribution focus and ability to meet Trish McEvoy’s needs. 

“The solution presented by Aptean had full-functionality to meet the needs of our distribution environment,” said Rob Leonardo, chief financial officer at Trish McEvoy. ​“The Aptean Distribution ERP team understood our business and needs, and we felt confident that the system would address our business requirements.” 

The comprehensive Aptean Distribution ERP solution enables Trish McEvoy to integrate all aspects of its operations, including sales, customer service, purchasing, inventory planning and management, EDI compliance, shipping, invoicing, and financial management. The comprehensive executive information system provides real-time insight into business performance at the product and customer level for improved sales and profitability analysis and better business control. 

The Solution: Aptean Distribution ERP

Within the first 18 months of implementing Aptean Distribution ERP, Trish McEvoy experienced dramatic improvements in its business operations. And, several years later, it remains very pleased with the system’s ability to meet its current and evolving needs. 

Sophisticated distribution resource planning tools enable Trish McEvoy to see, analyze, and plan for product demands. With product lead times as long as 5 to 6 months and products that go in or out of demand very quickly based on consumer references and seasonality, proper planning and forecasting are critical. 

“Purchasing is largely driven by customer input and sell-through data,” said Leonardo. ​“Through improved inventory forecasting and planning that integrates customer buying trends and other customer-driven inputs, we are better able to match inventory availability with customer demands and reduce out-of-stock situations.” Improved on-time product delivery has earned Trish McEvoy a reputation with retailers for being the fastest shipping supplier in the cosmetic industry. 

System integration with a third-party EDI transaction network has enabled Trish McEvoy to better meet department store EDI compliance requirements. The system’s ability to track and refute chargebacks based
on business rules has improved chargeback visibility and recovery. ​“We have reduced chargebacks by 98% since implementing Aptean Distribution ERP — those are dollars returned directly to our bottom line,” said Steve Schweighofer, director of distribution at Trish McEvoy. ​“Retailers look for ​‘soft targets’ with their chargeback processes, and once we had the evidence to dispute their claims over and over, they stopped hitting us,” continued Schweighofer. 

The Results: Aptean Distribution ERP Implementation Benefits

The enterprise-wide system has dramatically improved Trish McEvoy’s visibility into business performance. ​“We don’t take physical inventory anymore because, with Aptean Distribution ERP, we run at 99.9% accuracy,” said Schweighofer. Customer shipment status, sell-through data, product and customer sales and profitability, and more are visible in real-time. ​“Previously, we would constantly receive calls from Nordstrom, Macy’s and other retailers about order status; but, now we never get any calls,” continued Schweighofer. 

The use of integrated wireless handheld devices through Aptean Distribution ERP Wireless Warehouse has enabled the company to gain efficiencies in warehouse picking and replenishment. 

With significant historical data now in the system, daily, weekly, and year-over-year comparisons and trends
are immediately available for business performance analysis and to aid in future planning. Trish McEvoy looks forward to continuing its relationship with Aptean. ​“If you just call Aptean with your questions or problems, they will usually have different ideas and recommendations for solving the issues,” said Leonardo.