Synergy was engaged by Systems Connection of Maryland (SCM), a furniture installation and services firm, to integrate three disparate MS Access-based systems using a .Net/MS SQL Server platform. Analysis performed on the front-end of that engagement exposed several issues outside the scope of that initial project.

To provide context, SCM began offering modular furniture installation services in 1987. Its services to many of the top furniture dealers in the DMV soon expanded to include receipt, inspection, and temporary storage of new product drop-shipped from manufacturers across the country. Drop-shipped product, having an aggregate value fluctuating from $65 to $80 million dollars per year, is subsequently delivered by SCM to end-customer sites and installed by its trained field crews.

Based on recommendations offered in the initial engagement, Synergy was subsequently tasked to reengineer policies and procedures used to track and account for each incoming drop shipment. The revamped system provided internal support to the SCM’s Sales and Warehouse Operations departments at a reduced cost; as well, it significantly increased customer satisfaction providing a level of service not offered by competitors.

From a services-provided perspective, upon receipt of a furniture shipment, SCM Warehouse personnel perform the following tasks:

• Unpack and inspect the furniture for defects or shipping damage
• Wrap, palletize, and rack the furniture for temporary storage (typically four to six weeks)
• As directed by its Sales Department, retrieve all furniture stored for a given project and load it into an SCM truck for delivery to, and installation at, the furniture dealer’s end customer. (These entities include Commercial offices, Government Agencies, Military Bases, Hospitals, and Hotels.)

Policies and procedures governing these tasks, in place since SCM’s inception, resulted in costly miscommunication between SCM's Sales and Warehouse personnel. Moreover, the furniture dealer’s sales and on-site managers lacked timely information to assist them over the course each project.

Historically, high level details of a multi-page shipping document referred to as a Pro were keyed into the SCM Operations system. (A Pro, derived from term “progressive number”, is a shipping document prepared by the furniture dealer detailing all items included in the shipment as well as the weight of each item. Two copies are provided to the carrier/trucking firm. One is given to recipient, SCM in this case, when the goods are delivered.)

Workflow dictated that subsequent to the original copy of the Pro being used to validate receipt of all goods, the multipage paperwork was faxed to the furniture dealer’s Sales department; the Pro was then placed on file for later use by SCM’s Sales and/or Warehouse personnel. The downsides of this system were many and varied.

The high-level detail on shipping tickets generated by the SCM’s Operations System were often inadequate to clearly identify each pallet of goods for a given project. A worse-case scenario gave rise to product being left in racks resulting in project delays and subsequent SCM delivery trips. To ensure such cases were rare, a when issues arose (typically in the middle of the night), a Warehouse Supervisor had to search through paper files maintained by the Sales Assistant thought to be managing that shipment in an attempt to retrieve the filed Pro.

Further, the furniture dealer’s sales personnel were often unable to locate the copy faxed to their office and thus requested it be faxed a second – sometimes a third - time. Finally, a dealer’s clerk was required to make multiple copies of the Pro for distribution across their sales and operations teams.

Synergy re-engineered policies and procedures by which product had previously been tracked. The Pro is now scanned utilizing the same high speed Savin machine previously used to fax the same document. Each digital file is stored on SCM’s server.

Automated processes were setup by which the digitized files were distributed both internally and externally targeted to appropriate furniture dealer personnel. At a high level, these processes include:

• An accounting clerk sorts the Pros by SCM customer (as before)
• A six-digit customer code is entered into the Savin scanner prior to the clerk scanning each customer batch
• As each scan commences the Savin names the respective digital file with the customer code entered followed by a sequential number starting with zero; the clerk records the sequential number on the Pro
• The Pro is entered into SCM’s Operations system by the accounting clerk (again, as before)
• The clerk runs an automated process which logs the digital files into the Operations system
• Each digital file is linked to the Operations system Pro record previously entered; the linking process replaces the sequential number previously assigned the file name with the Pro number
• The clerk assigns each logged Pro to an Email Group previously setup in the Operations System. (At a minimum each group includes the appropriate internal Sales Manager and Sales Assistant as well as the Furniture Dealer’s project Sales Manager and Field Manager)
• an automated routine is run to prepare all emails with the digital files attached; the routine breaks a given customer’s emails into batches if required to ensure email attachment file size totals are not exceeded
• a daily close-out process is run which validates that all scanned Pros have been linked and emailed

Linking the .pdf to the Pro table permits any of SCM’s personnel having Warehouse Operations system access (in-house or remote) to view the Pro document as needed. Further, it enables Sales Assistants to email the Pro to the Field Install Supervisor once one is assigned to a given project thus permitting access via their phone, portable computer, iPad, or similar device.

Finally, the closing process enables an SCM Supervisor to review Pro scan and email logs to ensure all Pros were processed on a timely basis.

The net savings on the front-end are minimal as the cost of scanning and emailing the Pros is 90% the cost of faxing (and re-faxing) each. However, the additional support afforded SCM’s Sales, Warehouse, and Installation personnel is significant. Variable costs no longer increase in a linear fashion with increases in service revenues resulting in increased profits. Most importantly, customer satisfaction has increased significantly as each Furniture Dealer’s Sales and Operations personnel are provided a timely copy of the Pro – a feature still not offered by SCM’s competition.