Q: Chris, you’ve been at the helm of Varsity for almost a year now.  How are things going?

A: I think quite well.  I took over the helm in the depth of the recession and financial industry crisis, a very hard set of conditions for businesses to weather–our customers and prospects, and us too. The fact that we are a small, agile organization backed by the strength of our parent company, Constellation, Inc. has really helped us keep the business viable.

Like most, if not all, business software companies, we did see a slow-down in new sales. However, for some companies, the downturn has been an incentive for them to improve their shipping competency.  In 2009 we welcomed a number of new customers to the Varsity family, including the well-known retailer Billabong, Bunn (the producers of Bunn-o-matic coffee makers), and Mobis (the parts distribution joint venture of Kia/Hyundai).

Q: I noticed that some of the largest parcel shippers in the country are Varsity customers. What impact has the recession had on their shipping volumes?

A: We have seen a major slow down of economic activity and shipping volumes, as our customers know all too well.  The carriers have been impacted as well. FedEx and UPS, with their high fixed cost structures, definitely had their problems in the last quarter. Our focus has been on supporting our customers in these trying times and preparing to serve them better.

We have been able to adjust to the tougher conditions and redeploy resources to other tasks (or even across other subsidiaries of our parent company—a real source of major flexibility). Read the rest of this entry »

Save these dates!  Next Varsity Technical Training Classes are November 16-20, 2009

Varsity held its second on-line training sessions during the week of October 17, 2009.  It was an overwhelming success with over 70 students attending different classes on a variety of subjects.

Classes are scheduled in different time slots on different days, so students only need to attend what they need to.  This new approach to training has been very popular and eliminates the time and cost of traveling. It also allows targeted training right in your own office (where you need to attend to your business at hand).

Best of all—it’s free to all Varsity customers on maintenance!

Get ready for the next online training coming up in November on the 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.  We’ll be getting the training schedule out as soon as possible, so you can plan which classes you would like to attend.

If you have any questions in the mean time, please check in with Amanda Carter (acarter@varsitynet.com).

As always, we are pleased to update you with highlights of our current product development!   For more details, Varsity customers can visit the Online Customer Center or contact their Varsity account representative.

ShipSoft 2.7 Upgrades Continue:  Customers are continuing to upgrade to our latest release ShipSoft 2.7.  There are many advantages to upgrading, such as access to additional functionality, including the combined UPS Domestic and Export CCK with more contract services, including “Paperless Invoice” for international shipments.

Release 2.7 also allows access to the TransData datamart and allows you to take advantage of our new ShipView Plus promotional offer, also featured in this newsletter. Read the rest of this entry »

Between now and December 31, 2009, Varsity and NGS are extending a special offer to Varsity ShipSoft® customers, smoothing the way to cost saving data analysis using ShipView Plus.

• 90 day free trial:  You can see your data accumulate daily over the trial period and try out the full capabilities of the ShipView Plus analysis tools.  ShipView Plus will be pre-installed with all new ShipSoft 2.7 builds-you just need to get the trial license key.  No fees, no commitments.
• Lower price offer: We have cut entry-level pricing by more than 50% to meet the needs of a wider range of businesses.  The one-time (non-recurring) license fee for a single ShipView Plus license is now only $6,000.  The full scope of ShipView Plus capabilities, a much lower price.

ShipView Plus is compatible with ShipSoft, starting at Version 2.7.  This offer is available both for customers already on ShipSoft 2.7 and for customers who will be upgrading to 2.7.  For the latter group of customers, being able to put ShipView Plus to work for you is one of a number of key benefits associated with upgrading to ShipSoft 2.7.

For more information or to take advantage of these promotional offers, please contact:

Diane Pham at dpham@varsitynet.com or 650-392-7907.

ShipView Plus Dashboard

Roberto joined Varsity Logistics in 2003 as a Senior Field Engineer. Working in the field, Roberto had the opportunity to work side-by-side Varsity clients all across the United States. Helping customers is what Roberto loves to do.  “Because of the travel and dedication required, my job choice became a way of life, not just a job.”

Roberto’s commitment to his job is recognized by Varsity customers, who are quick to acknowledge his role in optimizing their shipping operations.  In January 2009, Roberto became a Director of Professional Services where he now joins fellow Professional Services Director, Tom Reber; both oversee the success of every Varsity installation and upgrade. Read the rest of this entry »

“We wanted to drive order accuracy and increase peak day throughput.  The Varsity Shipper Solution helped us increase our volume from 2,000 to over 30,000 orders per day.”

- Jon Petticrew, Vice President of Operations ODW Logistics, Inc. & Dist-Trans Co.

Case Study: ODW Logistics Drives Efficiency and Saves Labor Through a Uniform System with Varsity’s ShipSoft

For over 38 years ODW Logistics, Inc. has been a premier provider in the warehousing and transportation solutions industry.  We understand that we are only as good as the value we provide our customers. Driving value differentiates us from our competition. And driving value requires talented and committed people. We believe we have that team assembled. We’ve taken well-trained, great people and built a terrific culture. And our culture is defined by our values: Trust, Team and Balance. In the service business success is defined by our customer’s experience with our people. We don’t have a widget to sell other than ourselves. We sell our service and the culture we create drives our customer experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Hailing from the great Midwest state of Nebraska, Tom has been an indispensable   member of Team Varsity for eight years. This 2007 Varsity Employee of the Year is a Senior Technical Consultant on our Professional Services team.

Tom worked for Varsity in the mid-90’s and returned to us in 2003, after several years as an independent consultant. He has over fourteen years of experience working with AS/400 applications and nineteen years of programming experience. He is an expert in distribution and transportation environments where he has been involved in project design, implementation, and management of distribution and transportation management solutions (TMS).

But that doesn’t fully convey the essence of what Tom does for Varsity and for our customers. Technically, Tom is a high-level project manager for accounts such as Roland Corporation US, Harley-Davidson, Cintas, and Paris Presents. But where his real value lies is not solely in his technical expertise, but in his ability to solve myriad business challenges with the multi-faceted distribution and transportation solutions he architects. Read the rest of this entry »

During the five years she’s been part of the Varsity team, Jennifer Ng has held a variety of positions at Varsity. She has handled such diverse responsibilities as accounting, office operations management, performing software builds, and setting up data libraries.

In 2008, Jennifer was promoted to Compliance Manager assuming responsibility for Varsity’s carrier compliance projects from cradle to grave. Jennifer works with the parcel carriers to obtain, clarify, maintain technical specifications and translate those into actionable requirements for Varsity’s product development team. She is the primary liaison between the carriers and the Help Desk to drive the resolution of carrier related customer issues.

Proactive, hard-working, and a strong communicator, Jennifer is well suited to the job. ”I see it as my responsibility to be a partner with our carriers, so that we can be proactive and ahead of the curve where compliance is concerned. This benefits all parties involved…the carriers, Varsity, and most of all, our customers.”

One of the benefits available to all Varsity clients is a Free Wellness Review. A Varsity Wellness Review is almost less than 60 minutes and can be conducted online. The Varsity Wellness Review incorporates a review of our client’s current Varsity environment including what products are owned, the current release level, a service history review and a review of new features offered within our customer’s current products.  In addition, we can start to identify where there are opportunities for significant, high-ROI, business process management (BPM) opportunities that can be supported by the Varsity software you are already licensing!

The Varsity Wellness Review also includes a review of new Varsity solutions, both those you currently license and those you do not. Over the past two years Varsity has released three new release levels and ten new products that offer many benefits that improve shipping processes and reduce shipping expense.

The final part of the Varsity Wellness Review is a road map of where Varsity is headed over an extended planning horizon. This allows our clients to evaluate and plan for  new Varsity functionality in their environment.  This portion of the review also includes client feedback on how we can improve our solutions and make Varsity a more integral part of their company.

The Wellness Review not only keeps our clients abreast of what is happening with Varsity product development,  but also with the many, rapid changes in the carrier world.  We have found that as a business matures with its use of Varsity, it begins to see new opportunities for achieving optimization and cost savings by leveraging existing or new Varsity functionality in an incremental manner.  Because this is an incremental process, built upon the investments already made in the Varsity platform, the associated efforts and costs tend to  be relatively low and the impacts and ROI very high.

If you are interested in a Varsity Wellness Review call Diane Pham at 650- 932-7979.

The article, “Is IBM Still A Hardware Company?” appeared early this month on the System iNetwork website.  And it struck me as relevant to Varsity Logistics, as the leading provider of shipping and transportation management software and solutions for the IBM i (System i, iSeries, AS/400) platform.

It seems to me that IBM has been a solutions and services provider (not merely a hardware provider) for a very long time.  Early on, when the immature state of technology required investment in–and direct, far-reaching participation in–the hardware business, IBM was there (to serve its customers with “total solutions”).

What always mattered to IBM has been the services and value its customers derived from the myriad solutions it offered.  At Varsity, we have also thought through this question in many contexts as well (product development meetings, strategic planning sessions, etc.).

We discovered that Varsity, as a business, is focused on meeting the needs of a very clearly defined group of customers engaged in shipping and transportation management.  What defines that group of customers is their (as we like to say), “industrial grade” shipping requirements.

This in turn has caused them to invest in the IBM i platform over the years as a way of reliably running their businesses.  Some customers are running old versions of AS/400, some are running the latest versions of the i5 OS on advanced multi-operating system hardware. Read the rest of this entry »