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.