Inc. Magazine Unveils Exclusive List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies: The Inc. 5000

New York, NY - Aug 24, 2010 – For the 2^nd year in a row, Inc. magazine ranked FSI among the top 5000 fastest growing private companies in America in its exclusive annual Inc. 5000 list.  The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. Music website Pandora, convenience store chain 7-Eleven, Brooklyn Brewery, and Radio Flyer, maker of the iconic children’s red wagon, are among the prominent brands featured on this year’s list.

"The leaders of the companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression," said Inc. president Bob LaPointe.  “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.” 

FSI, founded in 1996 by Ken Marbutt, has continued to grow and expand every year in its 14-year history.  "We are especially proud of this recognition for our growth in these current economic times" states Forrest Marbutt, FSI’s Vice President & General Manager.  "We stick with our core competencies of order fulfillment, kit packing, pick/pack/ship, online reporting solutions, and constant attention to internal process improvements, and our customers have rewarded us for this focus.  We're thankful that the strategy has been paying off these past 14 years."  Not only did FSI crack the top 5000 in the US, but upon further review of the rankings, FSI is within the top 200 fastest growing private companies in the state of Georgia and in the top 10 in the Logistics and Transportation category.

Methodology

The Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2006 through 2009. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2006, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent -- not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies -- as of December 31, 2009. Revenue in 2006 must have been at least $80,000, and revenue in 2009 must have been at least $2 million.   Despite the fact that most of this year’s measuring period of 2006-2009 took place during the latest recession, aggregate revenue among the companies on the list actually increased to $321.6 billion, up more than 50 percent from last year. The effects of the recession are seen, however, in the median three-year growth rate, which dropped to 96 percent from last year’s 126 percent. This year’s Inc. 5000 employ a record 1.4 million people, up from one million on last year’s list. With unemployment remaining stubbornly high, policymakers and business leaders will do well to look to the Inc. 5000 companies for fresh ideas on achieving growth and creating jobs.

About FSI

Founded in 1996, FSI delivers a winning combination of logistical fulfillment, inventory management, pick/pack/ship and custom kit packing assembly for major corporations and agencies. FSI distinguishes our fulfillment services by combining proven logistical fulfillment with advanced technology. The FSI reporting system delivers data on orders, projects and inventory via the web, 24/7 on a user-friendly dashboard.  We help make your job easy!  When You Need Experience, FSI Delivers.

About Inc. Magazine

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. (www.inc.com) is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today's innovative company builders. With a total paid circulation of 712,647, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology.

 

Today we are launching a new feature to “Outside the Box with FSI”. We will be routinely interviewing our employees helping you to get to know our personnel a little better. Our employees are excited about what they do for our clients, and we would love to share some of their views and experiences with you. Today, we will begin with Sandi Callicutt who works in our customer service department. Today also happens to be Sandi’s birthday!

Q: How long have you worked at FSI?
A: I've worked for FSI for 2 1/2 yrs.

Q: What is your role at FSI?
A: I am a CSR, sometimes picker, packer, scanner and phone operator. Anything that needs to be done, don't tell my boss that!

Q: What did you do before FSI?
A: Previously, I worked for a mortgage company as an assistant loan officer to the branch manager. I dealt with people that were either extremely happy or unhappy and stressed out trying to buy a home.

Q: What do you enjoy about the fulfillment business?
A: I enjoy seeing all the new products come through our company. Some are very interesting!

Q: What do you enjoy about customer service?
A: I enjoy working with our customers and feeling like I've made someone happy that day if I can get their order out to them.

Q: What do you think separates FSI from other fulfillment companies? What makes FSI different?
A: I think that the employee's here really care about doing a good job, ensuring that the order is correct, ships ASAP and in the most efficient manner.

Q: FSI has enjoyed some growth (16,000 ft² - 150,000+ ft²), longevity (14+ years), and won some awards along the way since the business began in 1996. What would you attribute FSI’s success to?
A: I would guess employees, management and all the different things we do here: storage, kit building/packing, customer service and handling phone lines for our clients. I don't think we say “no” to any challenge that our customers present us with.

Q: What do you enjoy doing with your spare time outside of FSI?
A: Love spending time with my 2 nieces. They are young, but both can swim - we've had a great summer in the water!

Q: Today is a special day for some reason, isn’t it?
A: Yes, today is my birthday!

Q: Got any big plans for your special day?
A: I'm going out tonight to a dinner club with friends that should be fun. Hopefully, I will win the lotto tonight.

As a provider of fulfillment services at FSI, we certainly have our opinions and strategic positioning about why someone would use our fulfillment services over any others. But an independent source, Business Knowledge Source, helps explain a question that comes before “Why FSI”, namely, why someone should use a fulfillment company in the first place.

Before we get into what Business Knowledge Source has to say, let’s first cover why FSI’s clients use a fulfillment services company. Many of our clients do so because fulfillment is not their core business, and using FSI for their order fulfillment, inventory management and kit packing allows them to stick to what they do best. There’s a lot more that goes into fulfilling an order than simply pulling something off of the shelf and shipping it. Our clients stick to what they do best, and they trust us to be their fulfillment experts.

Managing fulfillment takes space (square footage) and personnel, both of which are expensive. Businesses who handle their fulfillment internally must commit to a fixed amount of space whether they need it consistently or not. Likewise, they'll hire a fairly fixed number of employees to handle the fulfillment whether they need them all day or not. Whereas with an outsourced fulfillment provider such as FSI, businesses pay only for the space and personnel time that is actually needed. Our employees are receiving inventory, pulling orders, packing orders, shipping orders, kit packing, handling returns management (and don’t forget your customer service reps) for many clients, but our clients only pay based on the number of orders that they have – not every employee that is needed for all aspects of the fulfillment process. And because we have streamlined systems and significant economies of scale, we can provide these services with far greater accuracy and with less overall cost.

Anyway, those are some of the reasons why our clients use a fulfillment company. Here’s what the independent source of Business Knowledge Source had to say about why you should use a fulfillment services company.

http://businessknowledgesource.com/blog/_what_is_a_fulfillment_service_and_why_should_i_use_one_021971.html

Internet Retailer is reporting great news for e-commerce sales growth in one of their latest articles. Hopefully that’s a good sign of the economy rebounding. Check it out at http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/08/17/e-commerce-sales-grow-14-q2. That’s great news for FSI’s clients where we handle their order fulfillment services for their pick/pack/ship orders. We handle inventory management and order fulfillment for both B2B and B2C clients on a daily basis. The types of inventory could be for product fulfillment, POP displays, books, apparel, literature, games, toys, food, building materials, just about EVERYTHING! Whether you’ve got a shopping cart and need FSI to receive your orders, or you need FSI to provide you with a shopping cart, let FSI handle that headache for you!

ATLANTA (July 22, 2009) – FSI is selected by Cobb Chamber of Commerce to the prestigious Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year for the 3rd consecutive year! After nomination just a few short months ago, candidate companies undergo an intense application and judging process. FSI was chosen in the Top 25 ranks by a panel of judges composed of Cobb business and community leaders. Companies are judged on product/service innovation, growth, financial strength, employee benefits, overcoming adversity and community service outreach.

Ken Marbutt, FSI’s President/CEO and Forrest Marbutt, VP & General Manager were presented with the award at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s First Monday Breakfast in June at the Marriott Northwest in Atlanta. Forrest Marbutt notes, “As the saying goes, we believe there is a recession going on, we just choose not to participate.” We put a heavy focus on streamlining our processes in every aspect our business. All departments were tasked with finding ways to save money without diminishing FSI’s services.


Pictured are the Cobb Chamber Chairman Rob Garcia, Forrest Marbutt
and Ken Marbutt of FSI and Eric Moran of AJC Media Solutions.


Be sure to check out the video!

Top 25 Small Businesses of the Year - FSI from Balanced Video Solutions.

ATLANTA (June 25, 2010) – FSI recently displayed at the 2010 Cobb Chamber of Commerce B2B Expo. We met a lot of great local businesses and saw a lot of friends and clients who stopped by our booth. Topics and demonstrations included FSI's custom kit assembly, product, literature and promotional order fulfillment, and we also had the opportunity to show off the latest in our online capabilities with our online reporting and catalogs. Check out FSI's VP / GM being interviewed at the show.

Click here to access the podcast on iTunes, or click here to view the file in your media player.

FSI Team Participates in Dallas Dash 5K to Benefit River of Life

Just show us a good cause and the team from FSI is off and running again! FSI sponsored a team of 30 runners for the 2010 Dallas Dash 5K on June 12, 2010 to benefit Dallas First United Methodist Church’s River of Life Mission Project. River of Life, held every July, hosts 120 youth and over 150 adult volunteers who divide into teams to work on various construction projects in the community. Building wheelchair ramps, roofing, painting, and other household projects for the elderly and financially disadvantaged families gives River of Life participants a hands-on way to contribute to those in need. River of Life changes the world one shingle, 2x4, hammer, nail, blister, deck post, sunburn and prayer at a time!

There were individual award winners among the FSI team as well as special recognition during the awards ceremony for FSI having the largest team participating. Thanks to all who spent their morning giving, it will go a long way in helping others…and isn’t that really what it’s all about?

If you’re going to do something nice for others, maybe something that might hurt “just a little”, then why not do it together amongst friends, right? FSI recently made another group visit to donate blood at the local Red Cross donation center. It’s becoming quite a routine for FSI employees to do their part of giving back to the community by donating together. Your body can donate every 56 days, so we make it a point to schedule our next appointment as close to that 56 days as possible. Did you know that (from www.redcrossblood.org):

• Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood.
• More than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day.
• A total of 30 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S. (2006).
• The average red blood cell transfusion is approximately 3 pints.
• The blood type most often requested by hospitals is Type O.
• The blood used in an emergency is already on the shelves before the event occurs.
• Sickle cell disease affects more than 80,000 people in the U.S., 98 percent of whom are African American.
Sickle cell patients can require frequent blood transfusions throughout their lives.
• More than 1 million new people are diagnosed with cancer each year. Many of them will need blood, sometimes daily, during their chemotherapy treatment.
• A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.

Pictured above are FSI’s Betty Stringer, Beth Williams, Forrest Marbutt and Graylin Crawford. Also, pictured is Forrest’s 4 gallon pin he recently earned. That’s a minimum of 32 donations, or at least 5 years worth of routine donating every 56 days! Come join us for our next donation, or make an appointment for yourself today at www.redcrossblood.org.

If there is one word related to pick and pack fulfillment that I always get asked about, it is accuracy. "Linda," they say, "how can you guarantee the accuracy of your pick and pack fulfillment service?"

• "99.9% pick and pack fulfillment accuracy? Wow, that’s unheard of. How does your team do it?"
  
  
• "I’m concerned about getting the highest levels of pick and pack fulfillment accuracy. You know, our product line has lots of variations. Are you sure you guys can handle this?"

Yep, I’ve heard it all before. The questions are common. There may be many variations on how the questions are asked, but each new client is concerned about the same thing…getting the most from their pick and pack fulfillment program.

Accuracy in pick and pack fulfillment is a huge concern to our clients. And they are right to be concerned. The last thing they need is to have orders ship out incorrectly to customers. The last thing we want is to be responsible for pick and pack fulfillment mistakes.

At FSI, we strive for complete pick and pack fulfillment accuracy. We also realize that people are human and that mistakes happen. So we settle for our 99.9% pick and pack fulfillment accuracy rate. Our pick and pack fulfillment team is so talented and dedicated that they are able to meet the demands placed on them, no matter how high the volumes or short the deadlines. We have backed them with a state-of-the-art bar coding system that enables them to be sure they are selecting the proper size, color and quantity of each item they package for shipment. Their jobs are challenging, but they do them well and always make it look easy.

If you have questions about how FSI can impact pick and pack fulfillment accuracy for your company, simply contact us at info@fsifulfillment.com.

FSI is honored to be named as one of the Top 25 small businesses by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. Since 2008, FSI has been chosen in the top 25 based on a wide range of factors including financial strength, an ongoing and tangible commitment to community involvement, and numerous criteria published by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

With an almost unheard-of order accuracy rate of 99.9% and a sales growth of 13.9% during one of the roughest economies ever to hit the fulfillment world, FSI certainly is proud of some key accomplishments. Like everyone else, we have had to find creative ways to streamline our operations and have found a number of ways of doing so without negatively impacting service, but we strongly feel that these investments in a down economy will continue to pay dividends, especially as the economy begins the inevitable rebound.

FSI expresses deep gratitude to the stellar Clients and employees who continue to make FSI the fulfillment provider of choice for a growing number of America’s best companies.

Join FSI at the 2010 Cobb Chamber Business to Business Expo
Thursday, May 20th 4:00-7:00p.m. at Cobb Galleria Centre

ATLANTA (May 7, 2009) – Fulfillment Strategies International (FSI) invites you to visit us at the 2010 Cobb Chamber Business to Business Expo at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Known as the premier Chamber sponsored business-to-business exposition in the area, this annual event is held for the promotion of local businesses and corporate networking. More than 150 companies showcase their products and services to over 1,000 attendees at the Cobb Galleria Centre from 4 to 7 p.m. Open to the public, this event keeps participants on the competitive edge with networking, idea sharing, product introduction and service solutions attracting executives at every level. The EXPO is FREE to attend.

FSI is in Booth #216 to showcase examples of our work as well as a visual presentation of capabilities including custom kit assembly, product literature, and promotional order fulfillment. View our suite of on-line client support systems and meet the FSI team. Come by between 4:00 – 7:00p.m. and register to win a Guitar Hero 5 game bundle including software and guitar in the format of your choice. FSI will perform a drawing at the end of the event for one lucky winner!

Then stick around for the After Hours cash bar and complimentary hors d'oeuvres on the Business Expo show floor beginning at 5 p.m.

Information Contact:
Linda Williamson, FSI
678.391.5980
lindaw@fsifulfillment.com
www.fsifulfillment.com


For More Expo Information:
http://www.cobbchamber.org/cwt/external/wcpages/chamber/business-to-business_expo.aspx

75,000 product samples in 7 days!

Does that sounds like an impossible product fulfillment services task? For some companies it might be. For FSI, it is just another day at the office. Our product fulfillment services team hit the ground running the day we got that order. This is just another example of how our team pulled together to meet the needs of our clients and achieve product fulfillment services success.

Here’s how this product fulfillment services story unfolded:

• It supported a major product launch at a national meeting held in Las Vegas.

• FSI product fulfillment services received the order to prepare 75,000 product sample packages.

• From start to finish, we had 7 business days to get the packages ready to ship to Vegas for the show and to accommodate residual show orders.

• The result: A total product fulfillment services success story. All of the packages were assembled, packed and shipped in time for the client’s needs. They arrived on time, in pristine condition and the client was thrilled!

At FSI, this is pretty much standard operating procedure for product fulfillment services. Most of our product fulfillment services run on very tight timelines. With very specific delivery dates, event dates or launch dates, there just isn’t a lot of wiggle room associated with product fulfillment services. In order to make sure that we are able to meet the needs of our all of our clients, and more importantly to exceed their expectations, our product fulfillment services team works very hard to partner with our clients throughout the whole process. Working closely with our clients to plan each milestone, and ensure on time delivery of each component of the package guarantees, product fulfillment services success.

To experience your own product fulfillment services success story with FSI, contact our sales team at info@fsifulfillment.com.

FSI wishes to bid a fond farewell to a truly great Client, Guitar Hero, with whom we have enjoyed a great relationship. Guitar Hero has decided to shut down their eCommerce store, which means that they will no longer need FSI to fulfill their orders for them. Guitar Hero (formerly RedOctane), initially awarded FSI with the fulfillment of all merchandise sold through their popular eCommerce site. Once they got a good feel for our responsiveness and ability to streamline key portions of the customer experience, they extended our relationship to include the handling of sizable warranty programs.



One enabling feature was FSI’s ability to bring together key pieces of data at different stages of the warranty/replacement process and make it available to their Customer Service teams in a way that previously was not possible. This enabled their CSRs to be able to resolve a far greater percentage of support requests while the customer was on the phone – all by logging into the FSI Enterprise reporting portal. (By the way, can your fulfillment provider do that?)

Guitar Hero was an account we were particularly proud of due to the multiple levels of integration that showed off FSI’s technical capabilities particularly well. But even more importantly it highlighted the terrific job our Customer Service and Warehouse teams did in handling rapidly changing volumes, with volume spikes during the holidays and throughout the year during new product launches. It wasn’t unheard of for the Warehouse to be greeted on Monday morning with a stack of packing slips 4,000 sheets high, all of which had to be accurately picked, packed, and shipped same-day. At least there were only about 400 different products to deal with.

But I digress. Guitar Hero was recently acquired by Activision, and the decision was made to eliminate the eCommerce site and focus strictly on building the business in retail channels. So the next time you purchase a cool Guitar Hero product, it’ll have to come from a reseller rather than be shipped from FSI. They will be missed!

More details of the plans are freely available on the web such as http://www.edge-online.com/news/activision-closes-red-octane

Team in Training (TNT) is an organization that trains participants for endurance events, such as, marathons, triathlons, adventure races, century rides, etc., and the participants in turn raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in exchange for this training. FSI’s Vice President & General Manager, Forrest Marbutt, has participated in several of these events in the past raising thousands of dollars for the cause and has been supported by FSI in his efforts. Even when Forrest is not actively participating in an event, FSI continues to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by continuously sponsoring a current TNT racer.

FSI’s current sponsored TNT racer is Joanna Berentsen. Joanna and Forrest got to know each other through a previous TNT event when they were teamed up together in an adventure race (each team of 3 must complete the entire race together). Joanna’s current race is the St. Anthony’s Triathlon. Want to make a real difference? Join the fight to find a cure by donating directly to Joanna’s fundraising page at http://pages.teamintraining.org/ga/Augusta10/jberentsen. Or even better, sign up for an event today at www.teamintraining.org!

See below where Joanna (wearing a hat) is helping Forrest scale the 14’ wall in their previous adventure race just before their team finish in close to 5 hours.

Check out a recent article in Atlanta Business Chronicle discussing a growing trend for companies moving their headquarters to Atlanta (http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2010/03/08/story1.html). There are many reasons for this that are mentioned in the article, mainly the less expensive office space and labor, as well as the proximity to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Most of these reasons are the same ones that our out-of-state and international clients select FSI as their fulfillment company of choice. Most of them select Atlanta first as their location for meeting their fulfillment needs, then they select FSI among the potential candidates of fulfillment companies in town. Keep all of this in mind the next time you are needing to look for a source for your kit packing and pick/pack/ship needs.

Have you ever wondered what the FSI order fulfillment services team does to get your orders fulfilled and shipped out? Never had a chance to take a tour of the FSI order fulfillment services facility, but always wanted to get a peek at the behind the scenes action? We’ll admit that our behind the scenes might not be as glamorous as the Oscars, but we still think it is pretty interesting how our order fulfillment services team gets so many orders organized, boxed and shipped in just a matter of hours. The order fulfillment services team works hard to manage the many variables that would make most of us crazy. Here’s a look at just a few of the things that order fulfillment services addresses in a typical day:

• The volume of daily order fulfillment services varies dramatically. Mondays are the busiest days and can see order fulfillment services volumes climb to literally thousands above other weekdays.

• FSI uses bar code technology to ensure order fulfillment services success. Bar codes are used in every step in the process from receipt verification, to order selection, to shipping. This ensures that the order fulfillment services team gets each order packed and shipped accurately.

• Did you know that order fulfillment services must have morning orders picked, packed and shipped early so that the afternoon batches that soon follow can be processed on time?

• Our order fulfillment services receiving area checks in materials and makes certain that they go from dock to stock within 8 business hours.

This is just a small portion of the order fulfillment services that the FSI team tackles each day. Working together in perfect harmony, our team is able to meet deadlines and keep our clients happy. If you would like to schedule a tour of our Atlanta-area facility, give your sales representative a call. We would love for you to see the order fulfillment services team in action!

At FSI, we strive to get every order shipped out correctly and on time.  We’re not afraid of boasting that our order accuracy rates are 99.9% or higher every year, and when you’re dealing with high-end Clients with over 12,000 different items in 18,000 bin locations, that’s saying something.  There are endless things that can potentially go wrong with an order.  For starts, each order must be entered correctly with the correct quantity of each item. The correct shipping method must be selected, and in many cases there are custom routing guides, custom packing slips, and custom processing requirements. 

Even before an order is entered, inventory has to be received correctly and stocked correctly.  And all inventory is not the same, even if the item looks the same.  Is the item sold in eaches, packs, kits, or cases?  Maybe it’s sold in all the above and the client needs 3 Cases of Packs of 3 shipped to 3 stores in 3 states.  Get’s very confusing, doesn’t it?  After all of that, the order still has to be shipped on time.  We count all of those categories to arrive at our 99.9% order accuracy rates.  For those clients who’ve been working with us, you’ve grown accustomed to counting on our high order accuracy rates, and our CSR Team has a significant hand in helping make sure this all happens.  Bar coding and other technology investments play a huge role in helping meet these high order accuracy rates, but another big reason (other than our top notch CSR Team) is that our employees are incentivized to meet these rates each month.   Which brings us to our announcement.    

FSI’s CSR Team met their order accuracy incentive each month for the entire year of 2009.

After pulling this off, we felt that we needed to celebrate a little more than the usual monthly cash incentive.  We put up a banner in the warehouse to commemorate this feat, and then we took the CSR team out for lunch at Gumbeaux’s in Douglasville.  Thank you Mary, Karen, Tora, Sandi, Tammy, Beth and Hope for your ongoing contributions to FSI’s success.  We’re already looking forward to seeing next year’s banner!

 

What would you do if you came into work Monday morning to find that you had literally thousands of things on your to do list? Turn around and walk out? Run for cover? Some Monday mornings at FSI, our warehouse fulfillment team faces work volume that is literally thousands higher than the normal workday. Instead of hanging their heads and wondering how to get it done, the warehouse fulfillment team digs in and gets moving.

How do they do it? How can the FSI warehouse fulfillment team manage such fluctuations in work flow and volume? Well, to be honest these spikes can be a challenge, but our warehouse fulfillment team is always ready. With ongoing preparation and the proper alignment of resources, we are able to continually exceed the high warehouse fulfillment expectations our clients set. FSI’s warehouse fulfillment team is skilled at adapting to new challenges, and our proven processes support any volume making it easy for us to adapt to Monday spikes, as well as the seasonal variations that inevitably arise.

When it comes down to it, it is the combination of our warehouse fulfillment staff and superior technology that makes these successes possible. Our warehouse fulfillment barcode technology guarantees quality in every process from receipt verification to order selection and shipping. Ensuring that each of our warehouse fulfillment associates is fully trained in their specific functions, and has a back up ready to assist during high volume times, makes it possible for us to meet tight deadlines and fulfill thousands of orders on those crazy Monday mornings.

At the end of the day, whether it is a busy Monday or not, the key to warehouse fulfillment success is a dedicated team of professionals working together to get the job done. Our team’s attitude of “Yes we can!” is one of the main reasons that FSI continues to achieve warehouse fulfillment success!

FSI has long been known for providing its customers with the best online order processing services.  Our clients know that when partnering with FSI for online order processing, they will receive superior customer support and attention to detail.  The FSI team is committed, not only to meeting our client’s online order processing needs, but exceeding their expectations for online order processing services. 

At FSI, we pride ourselves on having assembled the best online order processing team in the business.  Members of the FSI team are committed to providing our online order processing customers with the high level of service and support they have come to expect. But at FSI, we are so much more than just the best company for online order processing.  We are also an online order processing company committed to giving back to the community. 

You see, at FSI, we firmly believe that giving back to those in need is a vital part of our business.  We encourage all members of the FSI team to find organizations and causes that inspire them.  FSI team members have supported a wide variety of charitable organizations and participated in many activities over the years.  

A popular choice for many of our employees is supporting the Make A Wish Foundation.  In the fall of 2009, members of the FSI team participated in the 2009 Make A Wish 5K Run.  Another popular event for our employees is the Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure.  Our employees are also active in many organizations in the communities in which they live.  The River of Life Project, News for Kids and Helping Hands are just a few of the many community-based organizations that our employees support each year.   

We are so proud of their commitment to the community and to helping those in need.

It is hard to believe, but today FSI turns 14.  So much has changed since  Hoyt and I founded FSI in 1996. There were so many Clients that were looking for a new kind of fulfillment company, and FSI was created to fill that need.  Today, companies still need top-notch fulfillment services, and we are honored to be the strategic fulfillment partner of choice. 

It has taken a lot of work and the best efforts of a diverse group of people, but I am proud of our Team and pleased with the technology and solutions they have created to serve some really great Clients. But I am also excited about projects currently in the works that will continue to raise the bar as we continue to grow and increase our service offerings. 

So on that note, thanks to everyone on our team for all their contributions, and to our Clients who rely on us each day. Happy Birthday, FSI!

 

 

There’s a great article in this month’s issue of Multichannel Merchant magazine entitled "Managing Your Fulfillment Folks" with tips on how to manage your fulfillment employees. If you are going to take on the task and risks of managing a warehouse, then there are important things to know about hiring the right people, training them well, keeping up with the inevitable employee turnover, establishing expectations on production and order accuracy, managing incentive programs, and so on. You can do all that in addition to managing your main line of business, OR you can outsource those challenges and let an expert like FSI manage them for you!

FSI has 14 years of experience in managing a workforce capable of executing our Clients’ diverse and demanding order fulfillment and kit packing jobs. We’ve learned at lot in those 14 years and have gotten quite good at it. Of course, this article just touches on the labor aspect of managing your own warehouse employees, so there’s also a lot to be learned on order management systems, IT infrastructure, online shopping cart and reporting systems, etc., but those are things that FSI has gotten quite good at as well. Let us do what we do best for you while you do what you do best in selling your product and growing your business.

 

I recently watched an episode of Ace of Cakes where they made a life-sized motorcycle out of cake.  Needless to say, it was a challenge that the whole team had to come together to meet.  It got me thinking about all of the interesting kit packing projects that the FSI kit packing team has tackled.  Some of those kit packing projects have taken our days from average to extraordinary in a matter of moments.  Here is just a peek at some of the super cool and unique kit packing projects we have been lucky enough to be involved with over the years.

• Special kit packing for special audiences.  We have completed some really cool kit packing projects for some amazing events over the years.  We have worked with the press corps and the Screen Actors Guild to put together packages to introduce new television shows. We have also assembled kit packing projects to prepare for the Oscars.  These were really unique opportunities for everyone on the kit packing team.
• Giving back to those who give so much.  At FSI, our kit packing team was so proud to prepare over 60,000 kits for new recruits to the US military.  These keepsake kits welcomed them as they began their training to serve of our great country.  With so many members of the kit packing and FSI team knowing and loving someone in the military, this kit packing project had special meaning for many of us.
• Game on!  Many of us think of games as something for kids, but our kit packing team spends quite a bit of time working on packages for game events for adults.  From the X-Games to the Olympics to golf tournaments, our kit packing team always seems to be building a new and exciting package for adults at play!

I can’t wait to see what kind of wonderful kit packing projects will be heading our way over the next few months.  If your company has a kit packing project on the horizon, let us know how we can help!

 

Three feet of snow. Downed power lines and an entire city paralyzed. Business owners trying to carry on with some semblance of normalcy. As the nation shook its head in wonder at the recent snowstorms that at times defied comprehension, FSI remained open for business with only minor adjustments in the fulfillment process. So when someone pointed out to us that there’s a benefit in having a fulfillment center in an area known for its mild weather, we had to agree.

FSI has always been located near major shipping hubs, including UPS and FedEx, our proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta and port in Savannah, has resulted in our ability to offer superb shipping options since 1996.

Granted, no one selects a fulfillment partner based on the weather, but in light of the recent severe weather we were thankful for the opportunity to continue on even as our out-of-state friends and family remain snowed in.

 

Fulfillment Strategies International – FSI, is pleased to sponsor the American Marketing Association’s Atlanta Chapter 2010 AMY Awards for the 3rd consecutive year.  The 2010 edition of the AMY Awards gala will recognize companies and individuals who have made their mark on the Atlanta marketing scene during the previous year and stood out above the rest. AMY awards will be presented for 10 different marketing categories, and two Marketer of the Year awards will recognize an agency and corporate individual for outstanding marketing achievement. Additionally, Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons will be honored with the 2010 AMY Lifetime Achievement Award.

Held at the historic Fox Theatre on March 11th, this year’s AMY Awards event will be a great opportunity for FSI to salute our industry, our clients and their achievements.  It is clients such as these and the programs we manage for them that drive the FSI team to be our very best!

No retailer likes product returns, but returns happen, and how you handle them dramatically influences the likelihood of customers purchasing from you again in the future. As a recent best practices article in MultiChannel Merchant reports, "there is a direct correlation between flexible returns practices and future customer orders" (click here for full article). And for catalog and Internet-based sales, a well designed and efficient returns process can set you apart in ways that add enormously to the bottom line.

As your strategic fulfillment partner, FSI is positioned to develop and implement a returns process that makes sense for you. As a quality provider of 3rd-party fulfillment services, we of course have a number of different ways to handle returns. Yes, it can be as simple as putting returned items back in stock and issuing an appropriate credit to the customer. But what if you need more?

After reading a related article, "Best practices for returns processing" in MultiChannel Merchant we decided to write a short case study on how we helped one of our Clients handle product returns. The Client in question is a well-known manufacturer of software and video game titles, for which we handle both original product shipments and returns. The volume can top 4,000 orders per day during peak ordering periods, and thanks to a generous return policy, product returns can be as high as several hundred per day. More...