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Customer Reference Highlight |
Newstream Enterprises - Customer Reference Highlight
Realtime Software is proud to present
a documented case study, written by Mr. Lloyd Ellis - IT Directory
for Newstream Enterprises, LLC, of their experience with converting to,
and utilizing the Realtime Software Package:
Newstream Enterprises, LLC (NSE) is an SRC Holdings company
specializing in custom packaging, warehousing, and logistics services. NSE is
employee owned and operates using an open book management system called the
Great Game of Business. NSE is a primary and secondary packaging facility
supplying OEM’s, their distribution centers, dealers and shops with kits and
parts used to rebuild or repair engines. Employing less than 100 people, NSE has
grown to an 85 million dollar company in just over 10 years.
Lloyd has worked in Information Technology for over 22 years,
and started as a user representative to assist a large I.T. department in the
development of a new computer business system in 1984. He became the company’s
national user support manager while attending DePaul University’s Computer
Career Programming classes. Lloyd was a programmer, project leader, and systems
manager responsible for additional upgrades, system additions, and development
of and order entry system. Lloyd left to work for SRC in February 1996. and has
worked with 8 of the 12 SRC companies using the Pick Database system over the
last 11 years. He came to NSE in January 2006 as their I.T. Manager to assist
conversion to the Realtime Software - D3/Pick based Software Package.
"When I came to work for
Springfield Remanufacturing Corp (SRC) in 1996, I found they had
been using their business system for about ten years. The system
was purchased then SRC programmers modified it to handle the
Remanufacturing business. As SRC grew they added new diversified
companies. The system was changed to handle each new business then
setup for each new business. Some SRC companies share I.T. support
staff and some have dedicated staff of their own.
In the summer of 2005 I joined other SRC I.T. Managers and began a
project to analyze SRC I.T., processes, business needs, and future
I.T. support for SRC companies. The problems we faced were:
 | Finding, training, and
keeping programmers on staff to support the existing systems |
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The length of time it took to make changes
needed to support changing business needs. |
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Inability to meet change requirements from
customers. |
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Realization that the older system did not utilize technology and
was extremely high in cost to maintain |
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Downtime for maintenance, batch processing,
and end of month close. |
In short, the customized,
over-developed system was consuming huge costs in I.T. overhead
expense without providing timely support of business needs. I.T.
staff was spending so much time fixing problems created by the
changes that had been made over the years we couldn’t keep enough
trained I.T. people on staff to make system improvements. I.T. was
broken.
We looked at dozens of database systems, applications, and solutions
for SRC. We knew we did not want to perpetuate the current
direction because of the increasing costs of support and probability
SRC would reach a point within 3-5 years that the system would be
totally unsupportable and obsolete. A few software companies came
close to providing the needed solution. Some were simply too
expensive for staffing, licensing or hardware. Others did not
provide critical applications. Future support costs for some were
as high or higher than our projected I.T. costs for the current
system.
The company, Realtime Software Corporation rose above the others as the perfect
solution. The Realtime Software application had 90% of what we
needed, and the remaining 10% could be added or brought over from
the older system. I visited and spoke to other companies who had
converted from an older ‘similar’ system to the new Realtime
system. All of them praised Realtime software and support. I was
able to see the system working, talk to people using it, and get
a feel for what the Realtime System could do. I worked closely with
Realtime on an in depth analysis of their newest release and how it
fit with our business requirements. This solution was far less
expensive, but more complete overall than any other system I found. I
presented my findings to the SRC General managers and each company
staff.
In November
of 2005, one SRC company, Newstream Enterprises (NSE) asked me to
head up their initiative to convert to the new Realtime business
system. I made the move to NSE in January of 2006 and began working
with the Newstream managers and employees to develop an I.T.
strategic solution. Our largest customer required changes to the way
we handled their orders, remote access to data, and supply chain
management systems. We were faced with decreasing lead times for
orders and increasing lead times for parts as well as an increase in
sales. We developed a list of general requirements for a business
system.
The requirements defined.
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Utilize technology
to be able to increase and support business without corresponding
relational increase in work force. |
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Develop a wireless, bar code solution
for production, inventory ins and outs for accuracy and tracking. |
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Provide immediate ‘instant’ updates
instead of ‘batch overnight processing’ for live “real time” data
updates. |
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Insure the continued support of the
system into the future. |
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Find a solution that could be
supported in terms of overhead cost and technical skill sets
available. |
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Provide complete supply chain
management from vendors through NSE to Customer. |
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Develop on line access to data for
vendors and customers as well as NSE (remote web access) |
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Eliminate 90% of the printed
documents (reports, Purchase Orders, Order and shipping process
documents, internal Inventory documents) |
| Insure the system
would be scaleable and easily changed to fit changing business
needs. |
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Reduce daily system maintenance,
overnight batch processing, and system downtime. |
The first few months were spent analyzing the business, each
department, and all processes to develop a ‘map’ or design of the
complete system. Setup and testing of the new system began in July
2006. Less than 4 months later on December 16, 2006 we
converted live to the Realtime new software.
One of the best things that came from this conversion was that it
forced all managers, supervisors, and employees in every department
to analyze the physical and system process. As we did this we
defined the product flow, business needs, and how transactions were
to be handled. Realtime worked with us to identify areas of
redundant data entry, lengthy processing requirements, and non value
added systems.
Now that I’ve gone through the conversion, I know the Realtime
software would work for any business provided the business people
are willing to define what they need, analyze how the business is
going to operate, and develop a partnership with Realtime Software
Corporation to let them assist in the design and development of the
finished product.
Now months after conversion NSE Realtime System supports the
business. We spend time on streamlining processes instead of
fixing problems. Changes that would have taken me hours or
days to implement on the old system now take minutes.
The nature of Newstream’s business required we bring several
existing systems over from the old software. Realtime did that
quickly and effectively. Some were major modifications for NAFTA,
ISO, Payroll, Bill of Materials, and Customer required labels and
documents. Since the conversion in December 2006, we have had no
downtime, no business system interruption, and huge decreases in I.T.
costs.
Newstream is one company within SRC Holdings Corporation. As such we
have to provide specific financial information to the other SRC
companies as well as corporate office.
Our Corporate wide Fiscal year end was
January 28th, 2007. The end of year close process
completed without a single problem and took only hours instead of
weeks. Our nightly batch and maintenance has been reduced from 5
hours to 10 minutes. Each End of Month takes minutes to complete
instead of 6 to 8 hours.
NSE employees are now getting used to seeing the immediate updates
to inventory movement, shipping and receiving, order processing,
purchase order processing and data inquiry.
The mindset in the past had been “wait till overnight batch runs to see what
we did today”.
The features of the Realtime application provide drill downs from
summary to detail, quick access to data with minimal input, and no
interruption of business due to system processing or downtime.
Our customers have commented that our on time delivery and handling
of their business has improved dramatically in the past 6 months.
Our supplier rating from our customers has gone from 87% to 98%.
Our suppliers no longer wait hours or days for a Purchase order or
purchase order change. Our materials and procurement departments
process Purchase Orders and changes in seconds instead of minutes or
hours.
Our reduction in work force of 8.48% has primarily been in office
and overhead employees. That reduction does not include I.T. staff
that decreased from 4 support employees to 1. The increased sales
volume from 70 million to 85 million has not increased shop floor
and production employees or overhead expense. The new system lets
us do more without increasing costs.
In January 2006 NSE was a 70 million dollar
company with over 6,000 part numbers to supply and handle. A staff
of 4 I.T. employees supported them. Under the new Realtime System
we now support over 8,000 part numbers and 85 million dollars in
sales with one I.T. staff employee and a reduced work force 8.48% in
office and overhead employees.
I have worked in Information Technology for over 22 years. In that
time, I’ve been part of 4 systems conversions for companies both
large and small. I have never seen such an easy transition of a
complete software system change. The Realtime staff and owners
spent time here on site as well as on conference calls and online
collaboration. They truly understood our business and the need to
complete the change without interruption of that business. They
provided tremendous insights for ways to implement new processes
that have increased our bottom line. Realtime provides immediate
response to change requests, assistance, and training.
Realtime Software Corporation provided our solution on time, under
their quoted cost estimate, and has provided excellent continued
support of the system. I estimate it would have taken a staff of 5
or 6 programmers 2 – 3 years to provide the solution Realtime
provided in less than 6 months. The Vendor Customer partnership
between NSE and Realtime has provided a state of the art system.
Both the partnership and system will continue to grow and improve
for years to come. The only regret I have is that I didn’t convert
to the new Realtime System years ago."
Lloyd Ellis
Manager Information
Technology
Newstream Enterprises, LLC
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