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Success Story
Sun Office Products: Gearing Up to Move to the Next Level
Mike Fikany, co-CEO/COO of Sun Office Products
- Dealership:
- Sun Office Products
- Industries:
- Office Supplies
- Business Furniture
- Computer & Technology Products
- Cleaning & Breakroom Supplies
- In business since:
- 2001
- Annual sales:
- $38 million
- Sun Office Products Uses:
Software for office products & furniture dealers
Next generation Web storefront application
Mike Fikany is a man on a mission: to take Sun Office Products, the dealership he and his two partners founded in Aurora, Colorado, back in 2001, and grow it over the next few years from its current annual run rate of $38 million to somewhere north of $70 million.
An industry veteran with over 20 years’ experience, Mike knows changes will be needed if he and his team are going to meet that goal. That’s why Sun is currently in the middle of an ambitious rebranding effort that will bring a comprehensive new value proposition to the marketplace, starting in early 2011.
He also knows that a strong technology backbone will be critical for his dealership’s future, and that’s why last year he selected the DDMS system from ECi Software Solutions to run his business going forward, after using a different system for the past four years.
A strong technology backbone will be critical for his dealership’s future, and that’s why last year he selected the DDMS system from ECi Software Solutions to run his business.
“Switching to a new system is never easy, but it was something we needed to do in order to be able to take Sun to the next level,” says Mike.
The good news for Sun, as it embarks on an ambitious new growth track, is that there’s already a strong foundation in place on which to build.
Success breeds success
Over the past nine years, Sun has established itself as an expert supplier to the healthcare market. Close to 75% of its total volume comes from healthcare companies, with a special emphasis on the sub-acute health care segment, which are health care organizations serving patients in all areas excluding the acute care medical and surgical hospital segment.
Switching to a new system . . .was something we needed to do in order to be able to take Sun to the next level.
Success, as they say, breeds success and Sun’s outstanding track record of service and value in that market played a major role, says Mike, in securing a breakthrough win recently in the acute care healthcare segment. It’s a win, he maintains, that promises to provide a major boost for the dealership in its drive towards that $70 million goal.
As the culmination of a bid process that began in March 2009 and ran all the way through August 2010, Sun became the first independent office products dealer in the country to secure a national contract award from Premier, Inc., the largest Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) in the United States.
Currently, Premier serves more than 2,400 hospitals and nearly 70,000 other healthcare sites nationwide and its new office supplies contract is valued at some $400 million annually.
A major factor behind Sun’s initial successes with Premier members has been its ECinteractive Web storefront.
Mike knows Sun won’t get all of that business, by any means. The dealership will be sharing the award with the three national big box players and competition will be fierce.
But his confidence in the Sun team’s ability to go out and battle successfully for its own share of the pie comes through loud and clear.
“As it exists in the entire market today, we also perceive that a lot of Premier members are just plain tired of the lack of flexibility and the ‘My way or the highway’ approach that drive the big boxes,” he contends. “Our model is based on service and responsiveness to customer needs and that will come as a breath of fresh air for many Premier prospects. In fact,” he reports happily, “we’re already starting to see new business coming in quite nicely.”
ECinteractive has helped Sun build some of its success
In addition to price and service, a major factor behind Sun’s initial successes with Premier members has been its ECinteractive Web storefront from ECi.
We really liked the idea of partnering with a technology provider that has such a strong installed base and such a strong management team.
“ECinteractive is a fantastic Web site,” says Mike. “It has outstanding functionality and searchability; the S.P. Richards content is phenomenal, and we’ve already received some very good feedback on it from Premier members.”
A feature-rich, easy-to-use online ordering platform is not the only asset ECi brings to the table. “There’s a lot of instability in our industry and we really liked the idea of partnering with a technology provider that has such a strong installed base and such a strong management team,” Mike explains.
"We have no qualms that DDMS can handle the increased volume"
“When we were doing our due diligence on the DDMS system, we heard a lot of positive things from other dealers on their service and support and that certainly factored into our decision.”
The new contract with Premier should bring somewhere between $15-20 million in new business to Sun over the next 18 months, and that makes the appeal of the DDMS system even stronger. “We certainly have no qualms or uncertainty about the DDMS system and its ability to handle the increased volume,” Mike says confidently.
Managing a major volume increase is the kind of challenge any dealer would look forward to, particularly given the current business climate. For Mike Fikany and his team, it’s a challenge they know they can meet successfully.
Put together the technology ECi offers with the support of Sun’s new first-call wholesaler S.P. Richards, and the expertise and experience of a management team that cumulatively represents over 150 years of office products experience, and it’s no wonder they’re excited about what lies ahead.
We certainly have no qualms or uncertainty about the DDMS system and its ability to handle the increased volume.
Their business goals may be ambitious, but already, the path they plan to take to meet those goals is clear and the resources they will need are up and running. You might even say, Sun is shining brightly today and looks well set to shine even brighter tomorrow!
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