Case Study: BKM Total Office of California
Profile
BKM Total Office of California helps banks, colleges and businesses of all kinds furnish their daily workspaces. On any given day, BKM employees may deliver a single Steelcase desk or fill an entire building from the lobby to the boardroom with furniture, flooring, lights, and even window treatments.
The company's 280 employees serve Southern California and Northern Mexico and generate revenues of more than $70 million each year. The parent company is BKM Enterprises, the distinguished Connecticut furniture firm founded in 1933.
Bryan Geiger is vice president of operations for BKM Total Office of California. His job: lead their e-commerce initiative and provide the best possible service to BKM's 4000 separate customers, who range from large corporate purchasing departments to administrators and professors throughout the entire University of California system.
Bryan’s Challenge
- Integrate order data for planning, communication and reporting
- Communicate order details and progress to customers
- Reduce costs while working with existing computer systems
- Capture measurable data for continuous improvement programs
Recently, Bryan decided he needed a new way to keep clients informed. He wanted a better customer purchasing experience from the initial quote request through to final order delivery. But with so much detail and so many parties involved -- clients, sales reps, suppliers, schedulers, shippers and warehouse staff -- communications often broke down. How could a client examine an order's status quickly and easily? How could sales reps and other employees keep up-to-date?
Bryan also wanted to ease the load on BKM's in-house computer system, used for communicating with furniture manufacturers. Giving customers access to the system and its specialized data was increasingly complicated and costly.
Bryan had tried to solve these problems with a system of shared Microsoft Excel files. "For a time, every department entered data to help track orders, but it grew to be a huge number of linked files and we had way too many problems. The files became so unmanageable that users would start up Excel when they came to work and then go to get a cup of coffee while they waited for it to load."
Bryan also saw the potential of improving his relationships with major customers, like the University of California system. How could they work together to identify obstacles? Could they measure and analyze the duration of each step of the order process?
Bryan needed a solution that would work with his current data system, yet make it easier to keep customers in the loop. He turned to QuickBase.
The Solution
- Central source of shared information for the entire team
- Immediate order status updates to customers
- Password-protected access from any location
- Powerful data analysis and reporting
Bryan discovered QuickBase in PC Magazine, where it was ranked as one of the Web's top 100 sites of 2002. He signed on for the free trial, subscribed, and a few weeks later had solutions up and running.
"We can all sit and talk about communication," says Bryan, "but QuickBase gets the right information to the right person at the right time when they can really do something with it."
A QuickBase database replaced the linked, shared Excel files. BKM employees suddenly could enter and update information from the office, the field, or wherever they accessed the Internet. Changes appeared immediately. QuickBase worked with the existing BKM system to let clients see real-time status of their orders, day or night.
Bryan makes extensive use of QuickBase automatic e-mail notifications to inform customers and staff at each step in the order process. For instance, once a warehouse employee marks all items in an order as received, e-mails go to the customer, sales rep and delivery scheduling department. QuickBase even sends a thank-you e-mail to the customer once the job is done.
"We used to get stuck on communication between departments," says Bryan. "Now, we have one-step data entry that sends e-mails to the customer as well as to multiple departments. Everyone keeps the data current because it is so easy to update and the benefits are so obvious. Changes and updates become visible right away."
QuickBase helps Bryan pinpoint areas for process improvement with his customers and his manufacturers. For instance, now BKM can easily generate QuickBase reports that analyze delay times in getting approvals within the customer organization. "We can improve our partnerships with our larger customers by helping them to understand where they need to improve their process."
"We need automation for 70% of our Request for Proposals. We now include QuickBase in our RFPs as a differentiator from our competition. It is a selling point for us with our customers based on the stability of Intuit. Intuit is a household name with a reputation for data integrity and security for both corporate and personal products. "
"Furniture is a commodity. Success isn't about what you can offer in furniture, it is about what you can offer in services. By having communication when you need it, you dramatically reduce costs -- and that is important to our customers."
The Results
- Tighter teamwork
- Happier, better-informed clients
- Time and cost savings
- Competitive advantage
In just a few months, QuickBase worked with BKM's existing system to help everyone share crucial data quickly and easily. Customers stay better informed with less staff effort, and everyone has clear visibility into each phase of the process.
Web-based QuickBase is perfect for mobile teams and makes even the office employees' lives easier. As Bryan reports: "I used to have people in the office on Saturday doing work. Now they can do it anywhere. Productivity has gone way up, costs have gone way down."
And was it difficult? "Acceptability of the program is incredible; our Microsoft Excel solution was never embraced like that. One employee asked what she should do with all of the extra time she has now that she uses QuickBase!"
The bottom line? Flexibility… simplicity… affordability… QuickBase.
