Davis Controls Ltd. - Listen to the Music

 The addition of ABB Measurement Products to our portfolio this year has already produced several pleasant surprises, not the least of which was the recent discovery that the person we hired to serve the important Sarnia market, in addition to being a well-respected authority on instrumentation and control solutions, is also a local Country music celebrity.

It turns out that our very own Dave Scarlett plays bass for Scott Manery and The Barnburners, a band formed in 2005 now working on their third CD.

Scott Manery and The Barnburners have developed a strong following in South Western Ontario and Michigan. With two CD's under their belts already, the band features all original material. One of the best opening acts in Ontario, the band has worked with a long list of top artists including Brooks & Dunn, Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Lee Brice, Josh Thompson, Jason Blaine, Amanda Wilkinson, The Roadhammers, Aaron Lines, The Good Brothers and George Canyon.

Dave has been active in the Sarnia instrumentation market since 1985 and adds a wealth of experience and expertise to our team. He has been with the band since 2005.  When we approached Dave, we knew that he was the right guy at the right time for what we needed to do in chemical valley.  Little did we know that Dave was also a talented musician and somewhat of a local legend. 

             To hear the music, view pictures and watch some videos Click Here
                                            http://www.scottmanery.com/index.html




www.daviscontrols.com

Davis Controls Ltd. - A Look Back At 2013

  As the end of our 80^th year in business successfully draws to a close, a quick look back over the last twelve months reminds us that, just like it was 80 years ago, Davis Controls Ltd. continues to be a corporate family consisting of individual domestic families and community households, each with their own story to tell.  There would be no Davis story to tell if it weren’t for the hundreds of individual, sometimes very personal stories that have contributed over the years to our corporate life.

The following announcements are just a few of the headlines posted to our HRM – NEWS page this year.

Feb. 28, 2013:  It is with a very sad heart that I have to tell you that our good friend and colleague, Joe Speer passed away peacefully this morning, just after 9:00am.

 

April 01, 2013: Just when we thought that Ian Mooney couldn’t surprise us any more than by moving to  the great white north, he has now just announced that he got married yesterday.  This news has caught us all by surprise, and we couldn’t be happier for Ian & Barbara.

April 12,2013:  Davis Controls Ltd is pleased to announce the appointment of Brian Dahms   to the position of Technical Account Manager for the Province of British Columbia.  Brian came to Davis Controls with 20+ years in the industrial controls field.

 

July 30, 2013: Sherry and Robert Beattie are delighted to announce the birth of their daughter, Alivia Ann.   Congratulations to the Beattie’s.

August 01, 2013:  Richard Hawksby relocates to Calgary to open our new office.  Thanks and Good Luck Rick.

 

September 06, 2013:  Craig McLay joins Davis Controls in Western Canada becoming our second product specialist for Parker, Balston.  Craig is based in Camrose, Alberta and has extensive sales experience in the Oil & Gas indutry.

 

October 25,2013:  Congratulations to Grandma Nathalie Cyr!  Nathalie would like to share with us the birth of her granddaughter, Myla.  Myla is the new love of Nathalie's life! 

November 15, 2013:  Congratulations to Michael and Rachel on the birth of their son, Charlie Pantaleo.  Mom and Dad are very tired but very happy for the new addition to their family!                                                                                                                  

As the clock ticks down on 2013, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for their business and for their support again this year.  Customers create our success by choosing Davis Controls’ quality products and services to solve real problems and every Davis employee is accutely aware of this.

 

 

www.daviscontrols.com

 

 

 

Davis Controls Ltd. - ABB Announces A New Distributor For Measurement Products

ABB Introduces a New Distributor for Measurement Products

 Effective December 3, 2013

Burlington, Ontario - ABB Measurement Products is pleased to announce the appointment of
Davis Controls as the new representative for ABB Measurement Products in the Province of Ontario. 

Davis Controls Ltd. was founded in 1933 and has been servicing and supporting the Factory and Process Automation marketplace in Canada during this time.  Davis Controls combines technical and process expertise and dedication to customer service to provide the best solutions and products.

 

ABB Measurement Products offers instrumentation and analytical solutions to enable industrial and energy customers to operate more efficiently and profitably. Key product groups include Analytical Instruments, Field Devices, Flow Measurement, Level Measurement and Instrumentation Service.

 

ABB's Measurement Products business unit (www.abb.com/measurement) is among the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of instrumentation and analyzers. With thousands of experts around the world and high-performance technology, ABB's team is dedicated to making measurement easy for its customers.

 

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 150,000 people.

Neil Montgomery and Paul Chabot – National Sales & Marketing Director - Measurement Products - shake hands after the agreement is signed.

 

 

www.daviscontrols.com

Davis Controls Ltd. - 80th Anniversary Open House

Sept. 01, 2013 marked the 80^th Anniversary of the foundation of Davis Controls Ltd.

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about how different my life might have been without Davis Controls.  My father joined the company when I was five years old, and so for nearly 60 years now, my family has depended on DCL for our health and wellbeing. 

On Sept. 25, we held a Customer appreciation Open House in our Oakville office.  Our event was supported by 15 of our most important suppliers, who assembled to congratulate us on our 80^th anniversary and to present a private trade show from table top displays set up throughout the office

                       

More than 150 Customers, Suppliers and Employees took time out of their busy schedules to drop in to meet the people they work over the phone with on a regular basis.  Good weather, good company, good conversations and good food helped to make the day memorable. Thank You to everyone who came to visit!

Click here to view pictures from the event.

 Other news worth mentioning since our last blog posting;

Ø  The new roof over the office half of the building is finished.

Ø  Davis Controls is now the exclusive Distributor for Parker/Balston filters and Nitrogen Generators across Canada

Ø  We have added a Balston Product Specialist based in Edmonton, AB to service our customer base in Western Canada.

Ø  The winner of our business card draw for a $200.00 gift certificate for The KEG Steakhouse + Bar was Ed Mueller from Crown Food Services.  Congratulations Ed !

www.daviscontrols.com

Davis Controls Ltd. - Raising the Roof

I can still remember the buzz and excitement, the detailed planning and the hours of preparation that came with our decision to leave 4251 Dundas Street W. in 1989 and build new facilities in Oakville.  That was 24 years ago, and while everything was fresh and new then, the building is beginning to show it’s age now.  Over the years, we have been able to keep up with maintenance of the cosmetic items, like fresh paint, new carpets and foundation planting, but now we are faced with more structural problems, specifically a leaky roof.  Our plan is to replace the 12,000 sq ft office roof this year and the 8,000 sq ft warehouse roof next year.                           

No sooner had we placed the order to replace the old roof, a job that requires 5 straight days of good weather, an extreme weather system characterized by high humidity moved in, and our new roof has been in a rain delay for the past three weeks.  The roofing material has been sitting on the roof and a 20 yd dumpster has been taking up the entire front parking lot for weeks and yet, no work has been done, due to the threat of rain.  Today, even though they are still forecasting thunderstorms in the area, the project has finally begun and by the end of this week, we will either have a new roof, or a lot of water damage in the office.

Another significant development that is occurring now is the expansion of our footprint in Western Canada.  On August 01, 2013, we will open an office in Calgary AB, and we will staff this office with one of our more experienced Product Specialists from the Oakville office.  This new office will assist our Customers in Western Canada with order entry, technical support and inventory as well as provide our three field sales representatives in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver with a trained and experienced product specialist to back them up.

Finally, to help commemorate our 80 years in business this year, plans are underway to host a customer appreciation Open House in September.  In conjunction with this event, we will publish an 80^th Anniversary brochure and invite our suppliers to participate in a New Product Showcase staged throughout the building during the Open House.  In addition to giving us the chance to say thanks to many of the customers who have contributed to our growth and success during these last 80 years, we will use this opportunity to give most of our key suppliers the opportunity to meet some of their best customers in Canada.  It also provides me with the excuse to tidy the place up a bit.  Look for more information about our 80^th Anniversary Open House in the weeks ahead.

                                                                                                                                                       


                                                                                                                www.daviscontrols.com

Davis Controls Ltd. - A Quick Update

I am late again...and once again, I apologize for that.  April and May have been two fun filled and action packed months that, for me at least, have flashed by far too quickly.  April is typically a busy month for us, as this is the time for our annual year end financial audit.  We are very fortunate to have an excellent accounting manager who always does a great job preparing us for this fiscal review and, according to our corporate accountants, this year was no different.  Thank You Joan !

April is also the month that the AHTD holds their Spring meeting and this year’s event took place at the fabulous La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, California.  Needless to say, it was a welcome break to get away from the cold, wet and dreary remnants of our long winter season to the sun and heat of Palm Desert.  For me, AHTD meetings are always rewarding both personally and professionally and this one was no exception.  The weather, the venue, the program, the food, the drinks, the networking and the chance to reunite with friends and colleagues is a winning combination that I look forward to twice every year.  The meeting prior to La Quinta was in October at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and our Fall meeting later this year will be held at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee.

The remaining days in April were rounded out with seven supplier visits and other assorted springtime responsibilities.  May was even busier.  We planned and executed a cosmetic facelift to our Oakville office lunchroom over three weeks in May.  After 23 years, the original pastel wallpaper and peach millwork were looking their age and the room was

 

badly in need of a renovation.  The project went quickly and smoothly and the room looks clean and fresh once again.  However, just when I thought that I was finished with building maintenance for the year, we experienced a pretty serious leak in the middle of the warehouse roof.  A comprehensive roof inspection confirmed that, like the lunchroom, our roof was quickly approaching the end of its life. Although we had not initially budgeted for a roof replacement this year, we are going to have to find a way to get it done, or deal with the consequences of more extensive, expensive damages down the road.

In my own defense, every time I tried to sit down and write another blog entry, something else slightly more pressing came along to distract me.  Hopefully I can now get back into a rhythm again and pop these out more consistently.

                                                                                                               
                                                                                                              www.daviscontrols.com

Davis Controls Ltd. - Leveraging the Power of e-Business

Great businesses rely on great people and great products, and in this respect, Davis Controls Ltd. is no different from many other successful companies.   However, in order to survive the competitive business environment of the 21st century, truly successful companies need high performance technology tools to optimize efficiencies and maximize ROI.  We spend a lot of our time trying to identify what mix of E-business strategies will strengthen our organization.  We understand the core competency of our company and we invest considerable time and energy and resources into building relationships that put us close to customers, so that we might better understand their needs.

In order to survive - and thrive – in this digital economy, every organization must rethink its products, services, supply chains, business processes and relationships with their employees, customers and partners.  Every business will eventually need to achieve a comfort level with E-business.  At Davis Controls, we believe that if we are not ready for this when our customer is, then we will lose that customer.  If you don’t have a culture of continuous learning and adapting and of changing your business model, then the opportunity that lies ahead is going to be missed. 

Competitiveness today is based on business model innovation and the exploitation of emerging technologies, and this competition will take place on the battleground of customer experience.
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 company.

We employ a 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 expertise 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 SSRS reports provide management with instantaneous access to sales results by representative and by territory, current accounts payable and receivable details, cash receipts, open quotes and a host of other important information required to make informed decisions and to respond instantly.

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 KPI 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 solutions to industrial 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’.


                                                                            www.daviscontrols.com