For Western Belting, Gates PowerPro^SM is everything it was designed to be.

The 84-year old Denver, CO, industrial belt distributor has used Gates new Web-based ordering system for about nine months, and was involved in the Beta version.

Greg Bussey, Sales manager, says his internal sales people had a very short learning curve when PowerPro was first introduced to Western Belting.  “The user-interface and screen navigation made it so easy for us to learn, that it seemed second nature from the very start.”

Bussey adds, “Our customers love the direct shipment feature and the late afternoon cutoff time for shipping the same day.”

Western Belting’s Purchasing agent, Lois Miller, uses PowerPro up to 10 times a day to process and check orders.  “I like the speed of the system.  It demonstrates to our customers that their immediate needs are important to us,” she says.

Lois says the screen-to-screen navigation is logically arranged.  “It makes my job a lot easier and I can get a lot more done in my day,” she asserts.

She says her customers are happy when “I can check product availability at several of Gates warehouses, and consolidate an order so that it can be shipped from one warehouse, in one box and with one shipping charge.”

Graeme Wood is a Western Belting Inside Sales representative who is either on the phone or at the counter.  “I have to juggle a lot of orders one right after the other,” he says, “and PowerPro makes me more efficient.  Anyone in this business will tell you ‘efficiency is money’.”

“I am comfortable knowing that once the order is in the PowerPro system, I am done with it, and I can move on to the next order,” Wood states.

Gates PowerPro is an exclusive timesaving, e-procurement system that allows Gates distributors to order products 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  This helps Gates distributors provide improved product availability for their customers.

After log-in, the distributor checks stock availability from multiple, nationwide Gates warehouse inventories, places the order in a convenient shopping cart, picks the preferred shipping carrier, and enters any special shipping instructions.

The distributor then verifies and approves the order, and receives confirmation and order numbers.  The order number can be used to track shipping online at any time. Gates PowerPro allows distributors to have the order shipped to their location or directly to the customer.
 
Gates PowerPro can be accessed with any standard 128-bit enabled Web browser, and from any Internet-connected computer.

For additional information, distributors should visit Gates Web site at www.gates.com/powerpro, or contact their Gates Industrial Sales Division representative.