Contact: Alliant Systems 909 Lake Carolyn Parkway, Suite 1150 Irving, TX 75039 Phone (972) 331-5060 Fax (972) 331-5061 Contact: Eric Smith esmith@alliantsystems.net
Dec. 2006 By Ken Koepper
CRM-style enhancements update route accounting Alliant Systems’ annual customer conference drew 55 textile service industry executives and managers to Ft. Worth, Texas in October. The program was part training session (enabling participants to learn about new Alliant product features), part market research (so they could provide suggestions to this information technology supplier for future enhancements), and part networking opportunity (giving them a chance to mix informally with each other).
They also got a big-picture view of technology’s value when industry consultant Ron Evans, the conference keynoter, charged his audience with providing data to their sales and service staff to undertake formal customer renewal programs.
“We all hear lots of talk today about CRM (customer relationship management) and the importance of customers,” says Jeff Belcher, Alliant’s president. While his company’s route accounting software helps perform numerous functions beyond CRM, at its heart, it provides tools needed to manage a textile service operation’s “entire relationship with customers,” he notes.
He offers this example: “Suppose your service department gets a call from someone who is really irate. So you open a service record and see that two weeks ago, this customer was hit with a $1,500 inventory charge. You realize this is likely influencing some of the current conversation and you can react accordingly.”
Many Alliant enhancements enable you to put your most recent service information at your fingertips to handle customer inquiries. One such capability is what Belcher calls the ability to “retrieve signed invoices on the fly” once they hit your service desk. This enables you to escape the embarrassment of having to tell callers that you can’t immediately answer questions about their invoices because it’s going to take you some time to track down the paper.
Recent improvements to Alliant’s software’s CRM functions were only part of the conference agenda, however. One popular presentation discussed “price types,” or the manner in which items at the wearer or customer level (flat goods) are billed. The company’s software makes it easy to bill not just on a flat rate basis or unit pricing, but for unusual methods like leasing-and-laundering and dynamic approaches like factoring account inventory minimums into the equation.
Belcher points out that billing options are expanding as competition in the market increases. Alliant VP Eric Smith concurs and adds that, traditionally, many launderers have used “incoming soil from customers as the driving force behind what’s returned to the customer” and billed accordingly. But “today, customers aren’t so concerned about what they’re turning in. They’re far more concerned with what they need back.”
Thus, “we’re seeing a shift away from soil-based billing methods to new techniques that are more like true shelf-stocking systems,” he explains. Linen operators are especially intrigued by this.
“More and more, our systems are being expanded to accommodate the needs of the delivery regardless of any prior soil pickup,” Belcher adds. Another trend in this segment: greater use of mobile computing. “Adjustments and accuracy of adjustments are key to the service process,” he observes.
With growing interest in healthcare linen rental, Alliant has assembled a focus group of a few users who are growing their business in this market. Smith notes that it’s similar to hotels and casinos in that some large customers need multiple deliveries per day. This goes against the traditional practice of providing an invoice with each drop-off.
The new wave in these situations, he says, is providing a manifest for each delivery and a summary invoice once a week.
On the industrial side, many such Alliant users have commented on the shift away from traditional uniforms towards more professional work wear. “Today, our customers are providing more custom garment programs using direct embroidery. This requires that systems have the ability to enforce certain rules for these garments, as they can’t be returned to the stockroom and utilized by another customer if the wearer quits,” Belcher says.
Alliant is seeing much interest in custom lease programs and buyback programs in which garments are either warehoused for a fee for the customer or a buyback price is set for an item if it is ever discontinued.
He adds, “The ability to have flexibility at the account level is also important for our customers. For example, you might have one customer that asks you to print their invoice by wearer number and another customer asks you to print their invoice alphabetically by the wearer’s last name. These are just a few examples of how industrial operator feedback has shaped our development.”
Another sign of the times: Alliant’s customers’ desire for timely integration between route handhelds, online modules, and in-house route accounting systems. “They need to work well enough together so that when I dock my handheld, not only have I captured the signature on the invoice, but I have made this information immediately available to the customer,” Smith says.
Thus, as soon as a route is reconciled, an invoice or statement can be e-mailed or faxed from a route accounting workstation desktop. These can also be made available online.
The latter is becoming more important, Smith notes. “A lot of your customers are going to think it’s great that you can e-mail that information to them when they ask for it,” he explains. “But some consumers out there, probably the younger ones, don’t want to have to talk to you to make a request. They just expect it to be available online.”
Industrial laundry transactions offer great potential in this respect because of the greater variety of issues that arise in service. A customer who ordered a size change last week for a wearer, for instance, may want to be certain you received the request and learn when you will fulfill it. Smith expects the online product to evolve in the years to come to provide for such types of communication.
Alliant staff may suggest the creation of such capabilities but, ultimately, your market will decide whether they’re worth developing. “Most enhancements and new functionality are customer-driven,” he says. The company’s core route accounting system has been on the market for a few years, with modifications taking place as often as quarterly because of changes that users encounter serving their customers. Such an enhancement often solves some type of business problem that emerges.
While launderers have a significant influence on product direction, “our products as a whole are more technology-driven,” Smith says. To accommodate requests, Alliant must incorporate advanced IT concepts cost-effectively. This will be reflected in the unveiling of the company’s 2.0 route accounting system, written on the Microsoft .NET platform. A test version is due out in the first quarter of 2007.
The new program will make it easier for you to serve a customer with many locations. Currently, accounts can’t be linked across branches in any way. Now, you will be able to have multiple groups per account, with three customers of an account on one statement and the rest on another.
This new hierarchy “offers incredible flexibility across our user base,” Belcher says. “The design enables a customer to be served across multiple locations with ease. The contract is entered only once and delivery-specific information is added as need be.”
Another big change: the capability to “lock” prices on the account level. Currently, you can have 20 wearers on an account and all can have different flat rates for a given stock keeping unit (SKU). With 2.0, item level prices and options, such as unit price, flat rate, price type, etc., can be set at either the account or customer level and not be able to be changed when adding a new wearer or item.
He explains, “locking prices and product availability at an account level ensures that every item added at the delivery level will be added in accordance with the terms of the contract. We see this as a fundamental layer of the service process. Accuracy in billing is a key component of the relationship with the customer. As each delivery location is established, the rules are inherited from a single correct source.”
Under 2.0, customer level charges (such as those for energy) can be locked at the account level, so all customers of the account will have the same charge. The same applies to other ancillary charges. And SKUs are limited to what you have chosen to serve the account.
To make the transition to 2.0 easier, the company has developed a data normalization utility. Even if a laundry chooses not to upgrade, this will help resolve conflicts in account numbers across branches and customer-level charges across accounts. The utility allows users to update and correct conflicts they find.
“The term ‘garbage in-garbage’ out applies here. Data contained within the majority of legacy applications is prone to error,” Belcher says. “Potential causes for these errors include lack of validation, redundant data entry processes, and others.
“The data normalization utility addresses these issues, as it is an excellent tool for highlighting inconsistencies in pricing, inventory, ancillary charges, and even account designation.”
Another step up with the new version: security features that address the trend toward making more information available at multiple levels throughout an organization. At your discretion, any data elements desired may be accessed for read only, read and modify, or excluded from view entirely.
Perhaps the most significant overall change in 2.0 will be the use of the .NET platform. It will provide for improved search capabilities and security. A layout manager will allow for screens to be customized for each user. To facilitate fast data entry, most such functions will be accessible without a mouse. For 2.0 and other Alliant software, a new framework “provides a consistent and shared interface across each of the individual products available from Alliant, simplifying navigation throughout the applications,” he says.
Also thanks to the interface, screen layout can be customized to each user. “The number of operations reliant on our software demands that the application be quite flexible,” Belcher explains. “Many operators use only certain elements of the data and being able to simplify the presentation is quite powerful. It is also important to note that the order of entry can be modified to coincide with the manner in which the contract is written.”
The customizable Customer Search screen can be completely user defined. This means you determine the order in which customers are listed and what data pops up about each one. Attachment screens have been added, allowing scans of contracts, emblems, etc. to be linked to an account or customer.
He explains, “This screen permits the access of customer specific data by a variety of keys. A narrow view of the functionality might be the difference in searching for a specific account by either the customer name or the phone number. We have several operators that report the phone number is the easiest way to search for an account.
“A broader example of the functionality might be to review all customers in zip code order, or route order. The ability to sort and search off of multiple keys is critical.”
Look over all the changes Alliant is making in route accounting and you notice the infusion of customer service through every aspect of its function. This points to the importance of improving interfaces: “what the operator sees and the ease of being able to get to data quickly,” Belcher summarizes. The company recognizes that individual operators want to select what data they see on their screens, as opposed to having a software developer make that decision for everyone in the industry who runs the program.
For some people, this means less interest in pointing and clicking a mouse. “We have some customers who just don’t use it. They’re the people who have to key 1,000 soil tickets or they’re in accounts receivable and they have to get 100 checks entered and applied in the next two hours,” he says.
“Everybody operates a little differently,” Belcher adds. “Maybe it’s driven by the job you have or the type of market you serve, but it affects your use of technology.” Some launderers always want to find a customer’s records by typing the account’s company name in a search window. Others like to use the account number; still others use the phone number, particularly if there’s a language barrier between a customer’s caller and the laundry staff.
Alliant’s approach recognizes that for key searches and reports, users become more productive when they have individualized “dashboards” with the parameters most important to them displayed most prominently. An accounts receivable clerk, for instance, might want to start work every day with a list of receivables by account with the largest balances listed first.
Initially, Alliant staff will likely manipulate the software to create such custom views for users; “eventually, it’s something they’ll do on their own.” However, the software has been designed to allow you to begin such modification right away, for the more tech-savvy who are likely to experiment with a variety of such views for different types of tasks.
Another step up for 2.0: a complete version of an accounts receivable module that takes into account the fact that many operations segregate the collection responsibility across multiple collectors. Without any customization, Alliant’s system can assign accounts to specific collectors. Its ability to report on the collection process by collector is critical to managing the effort, Belcher notes.
At one time, collection may have been the sole domain of a laundry’s A/R operation, while the service department focused on route settlement and stayed away from such cash flow issues. “Those days are going by the wayside a little bit,” he observes. Not only are service people more attuned to A/R issues, administrative types are tuning more into the need to satisfy customers.
“There’s growing recognition that everyone on staff is part of service and this starts from the time you enter into a contract.” This attitude requires you to collect and report more data than ever, on all activities involving customers. Such capabilities have been greatly expanded in recent years and with Alliant continuing to push that envelope as it steadily upgrades its offerings, the state of this art is likely to advance for quite some time.
Alliant Systems’ corporate growth scorecard indicates the Irving, Texas-based operation is establishing itself as the primary supplier of route accounting and related systems to the rental laundry industry.
At the company’s user conference in October, President Jeff Belcher reported that 103 facilities have the company’s 1.0 route accounting program, written in SQL. Another 27 are using Visual SmartNET, built on the FoxPro database. Five locations are using Alliant’s DOS program.
To run their handheld route computers, 36 locations (representing 420 routes) deploy Alliant Mobile, based on the Microsoft .NET platform. Another 22 (215) have the company’s first-generation handheld program, called SmartRoute.
It’s been a busy year for the Irving, Texas-based operation, as it upgraded 50 locations to 1.0 from Visual SmartNET, “one of the fastest conversions to a new platform we’ve ever done,” he says. Some 240 new routes starting working with Alliant Mobile.
The company has gained 11 new customers in 2006; it lost two that went out of business because the operations were consolidated into larger companies. There was one loss to competition. Belcher described 2006 as a highly successful year for the organization and they look forward to continued growth.
Alliant was established in 2002 when it purchased selected assets from Information Plus Corp., a long-time supplier to the industry. Today, the company focuses entirely on the textile service segment and offers a range of information technology solutions including the aforementioned plus stockroom management.
“Maintaining an independent ownership structure is important,” says Belcher. “Our commitment and focus on our customers demands a clear direction and the organization is structured in accordance with this commitment.”
VP Eric Smith adds that because the ownership group consists of just Belcher and him, “maintaining our direction is simplified as we are both working from the same page.”