| Monthly Newsletter |  |
November 1999 |
What: " Technology in the Car Rental Industry "
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This month's guest speaker is Angela Margolit,
President and Chief Executive Officer of Bluebird
Auto Rental Systems (BARS). BARS develops
and supports turn-key computer systems for the
vehicle rental industry. They provide state-of-the-
art performance solutions for vehicle rental
operations worldwide. Their software is the first
to address the exclusive needs of the auto/truck
rental industry. Sales literally "flew" in the
window; hence, the name "Bluebird" was coined.
With programmer/analyst beginnings and a Master's Degree in Information Systems. Angela's background was tailor-made for a career in computer systems sales. In 1988, Angela instantly proved it to Bluebird Systems as she was named Rookie of the Year and Sales Rep of the Year in her first year with the company. Not only could she inspire confidence and build trust with her obvious people skills, she also possessed the expertise to answer the technical questions. Angela brings these same qualities - including several years of experience in the auto rental industry - to the table as President and CEO of Bluebird Auto Rental Systems. A master troubleshooter and problem solver, Angela's hands-on approach to management makes her highly efficient and ever aware of what needs to be done. With a commitment to customer support |
and to staying on the cutting edge of technology,
Angela's strong leadership is guiding BARS and
its customers into the next century.
Bluebird Auto Rental Systems (BARS) is a provider of cost-effective, turn-key computer systems to vehicle rental operations worldwide. Founded in 1993, BARS was born as a result of the purchase of the auto rental division of Bluebird Systems, based in Carlsbad, CA. BARS offers a wide variety of fully integrated software and hardware products, all designed to increase the efficiency and profitability of any vehicle rental operation. BARS is committed to keeping pace with technology in order to continually offer the most advanced line of products possible, as well as providing fast, effective Hot-Line software support and on-site hardware maintenance. Bluebird Auto Rental Systems is a privately held company headquartered in Parsippany, N.J. with U.S. regional sales and support offices located in San Diego, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Dallas, TX; Lubbock, TX; Lexington, KY; and Tampa, FL. International offices are located in Toronto, Ontario; London, England; Bahrain; and the Island of Guam. |
Please join us for this very interesting presentation!
When: Tuesday, November 9, 1999
| When:
6:00 PM Networking 6:30 PM Light dinner 7:30 PM Presentation |
Where: Afton Restaurant Hanover Road and Columbia Turnpike Florham Park, NJ 07932 (973) 377-1871 |
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> From the Oranges: Take I-280 West to Eisenhower Parkway. Go about 3.6 mi (Livingston Shopping Center on left) and turn right onto South Orange Avenue which becomes Columbia Turnpike. Go about 1.8 miles. Afton, a low white "home", is on the right. > From the Northeast: Take I-80 West to I-287 and follow North directions. |
> From the North: Take I-287 South to Rt. 24 (exit 37). Shortly after exit onto Columbia Turnpike toward Morristown Municipal Airport. Go about 2.2 miles. Afton, a low white "home", is on the left. > From Jersey City: Take I-78 West to Rt. 24 West. Bear right onto Columbia Turnpike toward Morristown Municipal Airport. Go about 2.2 miles. Afton, a low white "home", is on left. |
How:
RSVP by November 6, 1999 by calling Dorothy Deremer at (973) 655-4166 > or (973) 239-8903 or by sending an email to her at
deremerd@mail.montclair.edu to reserve your place. You may make your
payment when you arrive at the restaurant. Please be aware that NNJ AWC assumes that when you make a dinner reservation, you are responsible for the cost whether or not you attend. The fee for the dinner and the presentation is $20 for members and $25 for non-members.
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We use the Internet as a tool for buying a book,
balancing a checkbook, making travel
arrangements, and investing in stocks. When it
comes to grocery shopping, however, most of us
still hop in the car and go to the local supermarket.
Louis Borders, one of the founder of Borders
Books, along with Amazon.com and Netscape is
hoping to persuade us that the Internet is also a
tool for grocery shopping.
The Internet research firm, Jupiter Communications, claims the average American visits a supermarket 2.2 times a week. Currently less than 1 percent of the $440 billion in supermarket sales is from the online grocery business but interest is increasing. Online grocery shopping has unique customer concerns. Shoppers don't want spoiled food, late deliveries, or large surcharges. Shoppers like to wander around the stores, touching and smelling what they plan to buy. So the convenience of online grocery shopping will require some changes in customer culture. One powerful example, developed by Louis Borders, is at http://www.Webvan.com where Webvan is the largest of the new online grocery shopping systems. Webvan presently serves only the Bay area. It depends on an immense and unique computerized shopping machine in a 333,000 square foot warehouse with more than four miles of conveyor belts. After the order is robotically filled and eventually delivered, |
sometimes a day later, the frozen items are still
frozen.
With headquarters in North Brunswick, netgrocer at http://www.netgrocer.com appears to sell selections of only non-perishable products. Items for purchase are groceries, health and beauty products, gifts, music, and electronics. Because netgrocer is the first nationwide online grocer, they claim their pricing is better. netgrocer uses FedEx delivery services to the 48 contiguous states. From Ottawa, Ontario, TeleGrocer is Canada's most experienced and largest online grocery shopping located at http://www.telegrocer.com and found across Canada. TeleGrocer requires membership of its shoppers who then receive shopping software, complementary ISP support, and money back or replacement guarantees. Orders are processed within 4 hours and distributed from locally affiliated supermarkets. The service does not have a warehouse of its own products. They claim their prices are 15% to 30% lower than other online grocery shopping. The experience of a woman IT worker from Seattle is typical. "The produce is better than anything I would pick out myself. Just the sanity it saves me from trying to find a parking spot at the supermarket is enough to keep me buying online." We can all identify with the promise of using this tool to improve our choices, provide convenience, and save time. |
Dorothy Deremer, President NNJ AWC
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For the October meeting, three members of the
Walklett Group, Tracey Sisko (Regional ERP
Practice Manager), Elizabeth Scott (Marketing
Director), and Bob Christie (Account
Representative) joined us for dinner at the Afton
Restaurant and a very comprehensive presentation
of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
process.
Tracey's presentation included the main components of ERP, how to implement it, and how to do it successfully. Tracey stressed the importance of planning the process, performing a comprehensive (realistic) assessment to determine if the business is ready for ERP, assessing risks, and deciding what is a 'best-fit' package-wise. Once planning is complete, she stressed the importance of communicating the benefits of ERP to the organization and obtaining executive and employee buy-in. It is also important that the team selected to implement ERP is optimally staffed, has clearly defined roles and |
responsibilities, has the ability to make rapid
decisions, and uses a proven methodology.
Deployment options (Global, Phased) can be
selected based on best case scenarios and
expectations. Post implementation must not be
ignored as it provides an opportunity to evaluate
the project and its return. It also is a forum for
education and a repository for lessons learned.
Tracey concluded with an overview of a recently developed deployment option, Application Service Providers (ASP). ASP represents externally provided, packaged, IT applications on a contract basis and provides the opportunity to try ERP without the large investment of time and money. Research indicates that ASP will be the business option of choice by 2003. We all found this presentation to be very enlightening, informative and enjoyable. |
Send the message. You will receive a confirmation message via e-mail informing you that you've been added to the list.
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Our membership year runs from July through June. Benefits of membership include reduced rates at meetings, a directory of all current members with their areas of expertise, fliers for our monthly meetings and copies of national publications. Our monthly meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month, running from September through May, but excluding December.
The cost of membership is $45 for an individual or $25 for a student. |
If you are interested in membership, please call Deb Smith at (973) 492-0392, contact her by email or Print out the application form from this website mail mail it in,
Our policy for prospects that are added to our mailing list when they attend a meeting or ask to be put on the mailing list, is to send out flyers to them for three months. After that time, if they have not joined, they will be dropped from our mailing list. |
| Classified Policy: Members may submit 1/4 of a page of classified ads in each newsletter at no cost. If more space is desired, the cost will be $10 for an additional 1/4 page, $20 for | 1/2 page or $40 for a full page. Submissions for extra sections must be camera ready and can include job openings, job candidates, software for sale or similar related ads. |
| The deadline for submissions is three weeks before the next meeting. The meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month so the deadline is the second to last Tuesday of the month before the next meeting. If you have any information | that you would like to contribute to future issues of this flyer, in the existing sections or if you have an idea for a new section, then please contact Susan Lansburg at (201) 828-4248 (daytime) or (914) 429-1390 (evening). |
| Office | Member | Residence # | Business # | |
| President: | Dorothy Deremer | deremerd@alpha.montclair.edu | 973-239-8903 | 973-655-7239 |
| Vice-President: | Sr. Irma Kessler | ikessler@webspan.net | 973-290-5072 | 973-290-4158 |
| Secretary: | Vivian Isenberg | visenberg@ups.com | 973-835-4835 | 201-828-7207 |
| Treasurer: | Cynthia Davis | cynthia.davis@medec.com | 201-327-7572 | 201-358-2209 |
| Chapter Representative to Nat'l AWC: |
Ginny Knackmuhs | ginny.knackmuhs@medec.com | 201-848-1441 | 201-358-7328 |
| Membership: | Deb Smith | dnscom@aol.com | 973-492-0480 | 973-492-0392 |
| Programs/Meetings: | Anne Marie Geib | diamondlady@nac.net | TBA | 888-743-7238 x151 |
| Publications: | Susan Lansburg | slansburgl@njcmail.ups.com | 914-429-1390 | 201-828-4248 |
| Press Releases: Public Relations |
Beth Maher | bethhms@aol.com | 201-436-5785 | 212-454-2735 |
Remember: Bookmark our Web Site: http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~deremer/awc/awc.html
NNJ AWC |
Questions or Comments? Send to: Web Coordinator Sister Irma Kessler at kessler@liza.st-elizabeth.edu Tuesday, October 26, 1999 |