Tecpro Epilogue

This Epilogue was written in October, 2003, after a telephone interview with James Neary, MD Tecpro. It's purpose is to review progress since the original Case Study, which was produced in the first quarter of 2002.

General Update

According to James Neary MD of Tecpro, "The introduction of eBusiness in Tecpro was the first part of a journey of 1000 miles".

Since implementation, Tecpro has been working to reduce its reliance on hard copy documents and reduce the amount of paper that is used in the organisation. For example, all requisitions are now raised electronically, authorised electronically and then sent by email, electronic fax or, in the worst case, by normal fax. On receipt of goods the delivery note is scanned onto the system and the hard copy is destroyed.

Tecpro's web presence has also made it easier to streamline orders coming in from the US (8 hours behind) and the Far East (7 hours ahead). The system allows customers in those geographies to order parts (such as Field replaceable units) electronically. The ease of access to lists of these parts and their stock levels, has meant that this particular area of Tecpro's business has grown by around 40% since the introduction of the new systems.

In the time since the initial case was prepared, Tecpro has also implemented Goldmine, a CRM (customer relationship management) which was integrated with Intact, the organisation's MIS system. Entries into the system used to be made three times. Now they are only made once and the information is shared by the two systems. This saves time and, more importantly, reduces potential errors in data entry. The integration of these two packages gives the management team at Tecpro a much better quality of customer information.

Whenever there is a customer interaction, notes of that discussion are stored in Goldmine, offering the sales team a powerful tool when they next interact with that customer. For example, when travelling to a customer, a member of the sales team can dial into the system to see what orders are in production or invoices are outstanding.

Available Measures of Success

Through the implementation of the new systems and the increases in efficiency they have delivered, Tecpro has been able to reduce headcount and, therefore, cost. Before implementation the organisation was looking to increase administration staff from four to five people. As a result of the new system the organisation was able to actually reduce headcount by one - an annual saving of around €38,000.

Additionally, around 2000 pieces of paper a month have been removed from the organisation and, by making processes in the stores area more efficient, 25-30 per cent of the storeman's time can be spent adding value on other jobs.

Engineers drawings that were sent to suppliers in hard copy are now distributed electronically. The organisations MIS system holds drawings of all 17,600 parts supplied by Tecpro and those drawings can be accessed directly by customers or suppliers. Not only does this reduce the time taken to distribute drawings but the central distribution model means that there are less problems associated with version control. "The only drawing that can now be accessed is the most up-to date version. Each time a supplier finishes with a job, they must destroy that drawing and download a new one the next time", commented Neary.

Changes in views the of business and issues

A customer satisfaction survey was undertaken in June 2003. The results of the survey showed that many of Tecpro's clients were unhappy with the organisations response time when processing RFQs (Requests for Quotation). Now, with the new systems, every time an RFQ is received it is electronically recorded and responded to within 24 hours. New systems and processes have also increased levels of service and fundamentally changed the way in which Tecpro deals with its customers. Feedback from customers, as a result of the introduction of an eBusiness strategy and a review of the internal processes, has been far more positive than before.

Changes in work practices/business model

The reliance that Tecpro now has on its electronic systems meant that the organisation had to introduce new back-up processes. Data is now backed up twice a day, once every four hours and then, once a week, on a Friday evening, the entire system is backed up onto a 180GB hard drive that is taken off-site.

The introduction of a central repository for information now means that files of paper in the factory have been replaced by a PC on a trolley that can be moved to where it is required. In addition to reducing the staff's reliance on paper (which could be out of date) it means that the status of a job can be checked at any point in time.

Initially, many of these process changes were seen by staff on the shop floor as being unnecessary. Now, as they have become used to them, the staff have started to see the benefits that can be delivered as a result. A suggestion box is now being put on the shop floor to collect ideas from staff on how processes can be better further improved.

The system also helps Tecpro to meet the stringent process requirements put upon them by ISO 9001:2000, a standard which the company recently attained. Additionally, the new systems allow the management teams to track the cost of jobs in production allowing for real time tweaks to ensure the lowest possible cost whilst maintaining levels of quality.

Future developments.

Development of a VPN (virtual private network) that can be accessed from outside the company when sales staff are on the road. This will allow staff to dial in through whatever means are at their disposal - wirelessly via a GSM card in a laptop, via a dial up phone line or, for the more adventurous, via the Internet using WiFi. Previously, the organisation had to have different servers and access points depending on the type of technology that was being used to dial in. "Security is a major concern for us so before any of this can happen we have to be sure that our hardware and software firewalls are in place", commented Neary.

Researched and written by Scott McInnes, Freedom Marketing.