K-12 School System

THE NEED:

School education comes in many different flavors, and it has to! To engage and nurture as varied a group of people as school-aged children are, educators must constantly explore novel thoughts, tackle subjects from different angles, and do their best to make learning irresistible.

Now THAT is a hard job. But an extremely important one.

As part of their ongoing quest for engaging and original teaching material, educators work with educational supply companies like the one that Dianna Bock works for. "We operate a custom solutions department. Our clients come to us with very specific ideas for educational kits they want to assemble, purchase, and use with their students. It's then our job to go find all the pieces, and enough of them."

To keep educators and their students moving forward, Dianna had to secure reliable sources of just about everything that might go into a kit like that: paper, writing utensils, calculators, rulers and other measuring tools, notebooks, posters, art supplies, and much more besides.

To Dianna, that seemed a perfectly straightforward task. Unfortunately, she wasn't counting on the obstacle in her path.

THE CHALLENGE:

Dianna's first approach to her supply needs was to copy her company's. Internally, her education supply organization used one of America's big-box office supply stores to keep printers toned and copiers papered. Since they also supplied educational products and were already part of Dianna's purchasing system, the fit was obvious.

What wasn't obvious were the supply chain snarls the big-box store had to deal with, until they reared their heads and started delaying Dianna's orders.

"I can wait on my own supplies," said Diana, "but I couldn't simply sit there and wait on thousands of scissors, or hundreds of compasses."

Dianna's frustration — and that of her clients — mounted with each delayed or backordered product. With teachers' resources stretched thin around the country, she understood how vital it was to get every customized kit correct and fully-stocked. The last thing busy educators needed was a supply company that offered more questions than solutions.

The long school years kept Dianna sweating as she raced to fill orders through an unreliable system. Even the summer break was no picnic, of course, as teachers reconfigured their curriculum for the new year. It seemed that no matter what she and her company did, Dianna and her colleagues were trapped in a barely adequate supply chain and a long way from any kind of meaningful help or service.

THE SOLUTION:

"In 2019, I was searching for rulers or calculators, I'm not sure which. I found On Time Supplies, and once they came through that first time, they were my ‘go-to' after that for sure." Dianna may not have remembered the exact product she was looking for when she first solved her supply chain problems, but she did remember the experience. That's why she found herself purchasing from On Time Supplies over and over again.

Thanks to deep, established relationships with suppliers capable of keeping our inventory full, not only does On Time Supplies carry the products Dianna needs, but also the quantities. When you're trying to order a couple thousand rulers at a time, that's vital.

"On Time Supplies is easy and quick," as Dianna put it simply. "They are quick to respond to quote requests, they're easy to work with. You'll get what you need and you get good pricing. That's why I've been using them for years."

Because her organization is purchasing so many items at once, and usually has shipments coming in from multiple corners of the world at once, Dianna relies on our customer service experts to stay on top of every parcel and sort out problems quickly. When issues with mismatched packing slips would have otherwise waylaid an order, our team stepped in and got everything moving the right direction again. "We use a unique billing process with On Time Supplies, and even that was a snap to set up," said Dianna.

That ease of access — and ease of availability, shipping, pricing, etc — were lifesavers and game-changers for Dianna and her company. The big-box stores had grown a little too big for their needs, and much too inflexible. On Time Supplies ships the same quality, quantity, and variety of products as any other office supply retailer, but we do it with service and simplicity those organizations can't match.

THE SUCCESS:

"I've become known as the ‘Master Problem Solver' around the office, because I'm so resourceful," Dianna admitted. "On Time Supplies makes that easy." For someone who works at a business devoted to providing resources of all kinds to America's teachers, that's a big compliment.

That's exactly what On Time Supplies enabled for Dianna and her company, though. When even the largest chains of office supply stores couldn't fulfill their one-of-a-kind (and vitally important) orders, On Time Supplies provided the depth and breadth of resources they needed.

But simply having inventory and a way to order it wouldn't have been enough. With so many shipments from so many places at once, Dianna relied on On Time Supplies for service and support to make sure everything showed up on time and in the correct amount. As every completed custom educational kit went out the doors each day, Dianna could see the fruits of her relationship with On Time Supplies.

As her words above indicate, though, it's not just the satisfaction of a job well done that has been so thrilling for Dianna. It's the recognition she's earned from respected colleagues for finding and utilizing a powerful tool in the service of making their whole company better.

Not only is it great to get things done — and done easily — but it's even better when you can look good doing it! On Time Supplies was Dianna's secret weapon for checking all the boxes.