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Success Story
OFFICEXPRESS & Art Supplies:
A Successful Part-Time Business
Coco Mapu, co-owner of OFFICEXPRESS
- Dealership:
- OFFICEXPRESS & Art Supplies
- Industries:
- Office Supplies
- Art Supplies
- Owners:
- Leagailalii "Coco" Mapu
- Kevin Branson
- OFFICEXPRESS Uses:
Software for growing office dealers
OFFICEXPRESS & Art Supplies is a small office and art supply store that services small businesses in a four-neighborhood area of San Diego.
They also have an e-commerce site and draw a considerable amount of business from DOD eMall, a government-contracting site serving the Department of Defense. Both owners—Leagaioalii "Coco" Mapu and Kevin Branson—are current DOD employees. They run OFFICEXPRESS during their off hours.
They have been in business for 15 months (as of 11/19/09) and have always used Britannia and Britannia E-commerce for their business system. Kevin’s brother-in-law also has an office supply business and trained them on BritLink in his business, so they went with Britannia when they opened their brick-and-mortar. They initially ran the business out of their home, e-commerce only, using Network Solutions.
Upgrading to Britannia Version 5
We eventually want our store to run itself. That is our goal. With Britannia, we feel we can do that.
In August of 2009, OFFICEXPRESS & Art Supplies upgraded to Britannia Version 5.
Coco Mapu cannot enthuse enough about Version 5. “When we heard about Version 5, we were like, ‘Hurrah!’ The transition from V4 to V5 is unbelievable. It’s so much easier to use. With V4, everyone depended on me because I knew the key strokes.
“I love being able to fax and email invoices with one click," he continues. "The invoice automatically goes to the buyer after we accept the order. I like that functionality.With Britannia, communication is key. Each stage talks to the next stage, and we can email our customers easily.”
Easier To Build Orders
I also love Britannia E-commerce. It’s so easy to read…It's so versatile.
“We do a considerable amount of business with DOD eMall," Mapu explains. "Those orders go straight to Kevin’s Blackberry (since they have to be encoded) and we input them into Britannia Version 5.
“When I build an order, I can see our cost and our GP percentage shows automatically," he continues.
"Overall, Britannia V5 has cut our time processing orders. We are much more comfortable with it than with Version 4. Version 5 helped us to be able to execute all the DOD eMall orders in August and September, which is our peak time for those orders.
“I also love Britannia E-commerce. It’s so easy to read and web-based. And I can log in from multiple computers, even from home. It’s so versatile.”
On Choosing Britannia for Their New Business
Says Mapu, “For our business, that was the best move we did. It’s been very responsive for us—the training, the system and the people, especially Jacki O’Brien and Will Bourne! Without Will's attention to detail and technical expertise, we would not have the V5 know-how necessary for our small business."
Mapu and Branson intend to keep running their office supplies business on the side. "We eventually want our store to run itself. That is our goal. With Britannia, we feel we can do that.”
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