Monday, June 30, 2014

Takeaway From 1-888-JUNK-VAN Consultants Presentation

Dear Mr. Kingo,

As a member of the Executive Board I would like to first and foremost apologize for my absence.  Unfortunately a very big opportunity for franchising the company has risen and 1-888-JUNK-VAN could not pass on it.  But in my absence, I would like to present you with my takeaway from the consultants’ presentation we attended yesterday in regards to our future operational system.

The consultants provided us with well thought out and very well analyzed solutions to our current predicament.  Are current problematic operational system could be corrected with the alternatives proposed to us by the consultants.  Let me start by how well they understood our current business model and were able to pinpoint the problems we have with complete accuracy allowing them to better understand our needs.  Diagrams provided allowed for visual flow of errors, as well as, the acknowledgement of where they are happening and what is causing them.  The provided alternative systems were, Microsoft Access local installation, Microsoft Access Server, Google Docs, a Custom Application, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, and the Platform as a Service (PaaS).  As we were advised, local Microsoft Access and the Server were both systems in which we could potentially continue to encounter data entry errors.  Since that is one of our biggest problems, they were not offered as a solution, as well as, Google Docs.  Both the Custom Application and the ERP would have been too expensive for us to be able to maintain at the moment and the consultants took that into consideration as we are a start-up company.  So as a solution to our problem the PaaS was the best solution the consultants provided us.  It would decrease our data input errors as it would be error free, which in hand would make our customers satisfied and eliminating all the data having to flow back and forward between you, Mr. Kingo, and the data clerk.

There were also very well calculated amounts provided by the consultants, which we might have overlooked.  This program will allow for lost sales to be recovered, estimated to be $37,500, and for you Mr. Kingo it would allow for more productivity with your time towards franchising, which was estimated a productivity loss of $4,706, for a total loss of $42,206.  All though PaaS has a high cost associated into its implementation, the consultants were able to provide us with evidence on how we would be able to save costs to make up for it.  A data clerk could now be eliminated, the program will decrease the wear and tear on the trucks, as well as, gas used as the drivers will not have to return to the customers houses for payment.  We could potentially be increasing our yearly revenue by 35% due to this, and this will include the purchase of iPad’s with data plans which I must admit was a splendid idea overlooked previously.  Our future goals are to franchise and expand into different markets, when we asked the consultants if this was possible with the new system, we were advised it would adapt to any new city expansions.  Allowing us to grow our company into new markets, not only by being able to adapt but as well as saving us a significant amount of costs and producing additional revenue which could be applied to our Marketing budget.

I must say that the presentation was very well presented and I must change the alternative I had originally thought to be the best solution.  The alternative suggested by me was to go with the Microsoft Access Server, which had a lower cost.  But as it was pointed out, we will continue to have data entry errors and a substantial amount of training and customization will have to be done by an outside IT person, which will cost us even more.  The decision to implement PaaS as a program for our Operational current problems was and is the best solution put forward.

With this I must thank you for your understanding of my absence today and for taking my review into consideration when making your final decision today.

If you have any questions, please advise me as I will be more than happy to answer them.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Couto

No comments:

Post a Comment