MonarchComputer.com is a wholesale distributor of computer related products, specializing in IBM compatible systems based on the AMD Athlon processor. They have made a niche for themselves in the very competitive computer hardware market by implementing stringent quality control standards, going so far as to achieve ISO 9000 certification for their efforts. Their commitment to quality is 'the main reason for our success,' states Monarch founder Richard C. Harris III on the company's web site.

Business Challenge

But even these high–quality standards can't protect a computer all the way to the customer's door, and from time to time, a system needs to be repaired. This process is nothing new to the high–tech industry, and was nothing new to Monarch either. They actually had a whole team of people doing it.

As the company continued to grow, the manual 'paper and pencil' RMA system started to show its inefficiency. It was time to look for a more robust solution. Darrell Osborne assumed the task.

'We started by looking at Lotus and Microsoft Access,' he explained when asked what products they considered for their solution. But after careful consideration, Monarch embarked upon a FileMaker based solution.

Successful Solution

'Knowledge of the product as well as the ability to easily modify or change layouts, fields and relationships,' were part of the key criteria by which Monarch chose FileMaker, but not the only considerations. 'The biggest advantage is the use of Scriptmaker to automate sorting tasks.'

Upon completion, Monarch's new FileMaker based RMA tracking system began to immediately improve operations. 'Automating tasks performed manually began giving us information we had never even tracked before,' Mr. Osborne explained, 'We can now easily track what vendor a hardware component was purchased from, as well as the customer who returned it.'

Automating tasks performed manually began giving us information we had never even tracked before. We can now easily track what vendor a hardware component was purchased from, as well as the customer who returned it.

— Darrell Osborne