Motorhead Extraordinaire sells American–made storage and workspace products, primarily aimed at auto enthusiasts. The company started out with a traditional "brick and mortar" sales model, but soon felt that moving the business onto several e–commerce websites would prove more successful. Motorhead Extraordinaire chose to run the business with FileMaker Pro 11 and is now a flourishing e–commerce business.

MOTORHEAD extraordinaire sells American–made storage and workspace products, primarily aimed at auto enthusiasts. The company started out with a traditional "brick and mortar" sales model, but soon felt that moving the business onto several e–commerce websites would prove more successful. While e–commerce was the aim, getting there became a challenge when Owner Joe Germann found himself in a chasm between generic business tools and specialized e–commerce solutions—none meeting the needs of his business.

Today, Germann runs his business on FileMaker Pro 11. He uses Script Triggers to set up automated processes that allow him to seamlessly communicate with multiple e–commerce websites and feed Search Engine Optimization robots with meaningful information. Now, he is also combining advanced, real–time reporting in FileMaker Pro 11 to automatically invoke scripts enabling each e–commerce store to generate reports in real–time that show Germann how each store is performing. He's also adding dynamic scripts that set off specific events to streamline order processing and fulfillment.

FileMaker Pro 11 now houses information on 12,000 part numbers, 2,500 customers, sales orders, purchase orders and email campaigns. It is integrated with QuickBooks Pro so that accounting data informs every decision the company makes—without Germann having to jump back and forth among multiple applications. It's a major improvement over the previous solutions MOTORHEAD had tried.

Business Challenge

"We found selling via an e–commerce model tempting but extremely difficult," says Germann. "Our website was rudimentary and the generalized software packages, hosted providers and even the specialized e–commerce companies did not meet our needs. The way products were handled, how customers were tracked and how the entire management systems were contrived were not effective—and the vendors all were aimed at a 'lock into our world' approach."

FileMaker Pro is now the hub of our business.

— Joe Germann, Owner, Motorhead Extraordinaire

Adding to the challenge, Germann used spreadsheets for tracking customers, products and sales information and QuickBooks Pro for invoices, purchases, product lists and accounting. "Our system was completely out of control," says Germann. "We needed to manage hundreds of products, customers, sales and accounting tasks—and each required knowledge from the other to be effective. Yet information–sharing was kluged if not impossible."