Manufacturer Averts $300,000 Upgrade and Enhances Customer Service
The Company
The firm is a leading manufacturer of outdoor power equipment; including riding mowers, garden and lawn tractors, chipper vacuums, chipper shredders, tillers and snow throwers. The company concentrates on the high-quality, premium segment of the market. They are located in Port Washington, Wisconsin, and have been in business for over 75 years.
|
“The ability to track orders online and relay valuable information to customers and warehouse personnel is greatly enhanced.” |
The Challenge
The Customer Services Manager told ESI that his order entry staff required an inordinate amount of time to research and enter orders. He explained that the old text-mode order entry system did not provide adequate interactive editing capabilities. They wanted the ability to process “real time” orders and easily revise them when necessary. The MIS Department was searching for a client/server development tool to build an application with a Windows-style GUI interface; allowing field-level communication with the host database for immediate validation and verification of entered data.
In addition, the firm’s production and
development activity was quickly approaching the capacity limit of their A
Series hardware and they faced the probability of a $300,000 upgrade. The MIS
Manager explained that they required a solution that would allow their staff to
develop and test A Series applications in a PC environment. In turn, this would
allow them to off-load the majority of development activity to a much less
expensive platform while providing advanced text editing capabilities, faster
compilations, PC debugging tools and a portable development environment for
laptop computers.
The solution
After a lengthy search process the firm decided on ESI’s solution because it generated a Windows-based, client/server application and offered an alternative to upgrading their A Series. ESI’s solution allowed the firm to extend their A Series applications using their existing COBOL skills.
The result
The firm’s customer service personnel are able to enter orders more efficiently with better, more complete information. The ability to track orders online and relay valuable information to customers and warehouse personnel is greatly enhanced. In addition, the firm moved all development activity to the PC platform. All A Series applications were easily transferred to the new environment and an estimated $300,000 hardware and software upgrade was indefinitely postponed.