by Willy Franzen on February 20, 2009

When I interned at Orvis, I got to take a trip to their distribution center in Roanoke, VA. I learned a lot about the company on that trip, and I got to experience one interesting situation. At the time Orvis had a new product – a kangaroo skin hat – that happened to be illegal in California. Unfortunately they didn’t realize that kangaroo products were illegal in California until after one of the hats had already shipped. Apparently every violation of this law comes with a very steep fine. It was understandable that there was a big fuss about this, and somehow the company was able to track down the package before it crossed the California border. Now imagine that your company faces this problem every day. That’s what it’s like for wine retailers – every state has different restrictions, regulations, taxes, and other hoops that you need to jump through to ship wine. That’s where Boulder, CO based Six88 Solutions comes in. They produce software called ShipCompliant that makes it much easier for wine companies to stay in compliance with the law.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
Colorado,
customer service,
entry-level jobs,
sales,
shipping
by Willy Franzen on October 9, 2008

Did you know that the invention of the portable clock was mainly driven by the need for ships to measure longitude? I bet that you didn’t. I did because I was forced to read a book called Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
during the summer before my Sophomore year of high school. For most of nautical history, one of the most challenging problems facing mariners was figuring out where they were at a given moment. Now companies like Veson Nautical provide software solutions that “allow users to manage and share information efficiently across Chartering, Operations, Trading, and Accounting departments—streamlining workflow, cutting costs, and optimizing profits.” If Christopher Columbus had software to optimize profits, he certainly never would have “discovered” America.
Read the full article →
Tagged as:
engineering,
entry-level jobs,
Massachusetts,
quality assurance,
quality engineer,
shipping,
software development