The magic of the Internet is that to create the most value today, companies no longer need to have the biggest factories, or the most people, or the most money, or the fanciest offices. Smaller and smaller groups of talented people with a passionate commitment to a set of good ideas can do bigger and better things. Business owners in this new economy are challenged with the notion that their job, and the job of their colleagues, is not to out-hustle the competition, but to out-think them, maybe even out-communicate them. That means generating better ideas and creating faster fixes and feedback, more efficiently than anyone else.
Consequently, we have customer information and operational data from multiple sources flowing in with ever increasing volume and speed. We have found web based business process management tools, with their rapid search and retrieval functions, to be an effective way to assimilate and integrate this sea of customer data, from which we derive insights and advantages that make up our competitive edge. These insights include a deeper understanding of customer and partner relationships and key performance indicators. This information must be complete, instantly visible in real time and available to everyone in the entire enterprise.
Davis Controls employs web portal technology that has been enriched with knowledge management and collaborative tools, including e-HRM, e-Logistics, e-CRM, e-Workflow, e-Documents, e-Project, e-Financials and expert search technologies. We use the Internet to communicate all corporate information relating to customers, products and employees, including documents, news and correspondence. Integrated with our ERP and CRM, the HRM, SCM and document management systems coordinate information from all departments into one multi-functional browser-based database, further improving information access and exchange. The one-time recording of data in context, by the employee directly involved, links relevant data to all of the people, products, customers, suppliers, workflows and financial transactions concerned. This empowers everyone in the company to deliver better, more complete service and faster response. Integrating E-business applications with back office systems provides a scalable and flexible infrastructure that is less costly to manage and more seamless to use.
Integrated Event-Management software provides our management team with instantaneous access to sales results by representative and by territory, current accounts payable and receivable details, cash receipts, open quotes, closed quotes through a win/loss analysis and a host of other important information required to make informed decisions and to respond immediately.
Success is measured in efficiency and productivity. Certain other benchmarks, like planning and workflow activities, number of documents created, projects registered, orders entered by sales rep and several other physical measurements are possible and we do them; however, the final test for enterprise-wide buy-in is always whether or not the investment has resulted in improved productivity. At Davis we make the case that the e-workplace environment and how easy we are to do business with, make up an essential piece of our value proposition. These collective capabilities help to make Davis Controls more attractive to buyers of industrial instrumentation looking for reliable solutions to real world problems, as well as to manufacturers of industrial instrumentation looking for a new channel, or a better channel. It seems that ‘How we do it’ has become as important as ‘What we do’.