Texas A&M Upgrades Supply Chain Lab Curriculum

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 11/14/08

The Industrial Distribution Program at Texas A&M University has upgraded to Selltis Sales 5.0 for use in its supply chain systems lab curriculum. The Industrial Distribution Program has been using Selltis for its industrial distribution course offering since 2002 and recently migrated to the newest version of the company's CRM software. The Selltis Sales platform includes tools to automate marketing campaigns and lead management as well as quoting and providing field service.

The Thomas and Joan Read Center, a part of Industrial Distribution Program, focuses on research and education in industrial distribution. The supply chain lab is accessed by 500 undergraduate, 20 to 80 graduate, and 300 to 500 continuing education students each year. Additionally, faculty members and graduate students use the lab to conduct research for the distribution community as a whole.

"As part of the curriculum, our goal is to help students understand the workflow for making and selling products as well as the technology behind them," said assistant professor Chalam Narayanan. "We approached Selltis to provide an academic version of their software to help students evaluate, test, and apply it within real life scenarios. Our goal is to simulate usage of this CRM software as preparation in guiding their technology decisions as they embark on careers in industrial distribution."

According to Narayanan, students use Selltis 5.0 to create a project and opportunity and then track each one. Students then add a customer code and an opportunity for cash report. "Our students have truly benefitted from the Web-based functionality of this newest version. Before students could only work on their projects within the confines of the lab," he added. "But now, they can complete their exercises from any browser, anywhere to give them a real-time aspect to the software. Plus, the screen layout is so well organized that it makes it easier for students to create new opportunities and projects and view them conveniently on one dashboard."