Move It Or Lose It

"You are an ignorant SOB!" yelled the airline traveler as he pointed his finger inches away from the face of the ticket agent behind the counter. It seems the customer perceived the agent as being rude during the process of ticketing the man's son for a flight. "Sir," the agent responded through gritted teeth, "I'm trying to do 50 things all at once, and I don't need to listen to the likes of you! As far as I'm concerned, you can drive!"

Uh oh. Following a litany of profanities (from both parties), the customer was soon escorted out of the building by the airport police. So much for the customer always being right.

The most shocking part of this story is that it's true (witnessed firsthand by this editor). Could it have been avoided? Of course. For one thing, the ticket agent could have swallowed his pride and apologized. However, what if the ticketing process was changed so the customer never had to interact with the airline agent? What if, upon arriving at the airport, the customer simply had to go to the gate and board the plane? What if his luggage had already been tagged at his hotel and he already had his boarding pass? No more lines, no more waiting - no more fights.

Offer Customers Speed Via Queue Management
At Unimark, Inc. (Lenexa, KS), improving business processes like the aforementioned scenario is what they would call queue management. In other words, developing a system that manages the flow of people or objects as they move through a business process (e.g. passengers boarding a plane, packages moving through a distribution facility, patrons coming into a casino). "Our goal is to try to speed up and move anything that's going to end up sitting in a line," said Unimark President/COO Larry Reed.

Since business process expertise is what Unimark touts, Reed felt his company should have just that. Therefore, he added business process experts to his staff. Their goal is to understand, in depth, how the customer conducts business and which processes need improvement. They'll make recommendations on everything from hardware/software selection to conferences the company should attend. Unimark employs one business process expert for each of the company's three verticals (transportation, facilities management, supply chain). These people don't make the first call on the client (the salesperson does), though. Instead, they act as a process manager once the relationship has been established. While these duties may sound like those of a consultant, Reed is adamant about not using that term. "This is not a consultant sell," he said. "Some companies try to be consultants and some companies try to be technology providers. We want to be a combination of both."

Working With FedEx
In 1992, Unimark's queue management expertise landed the company its biggest client - unexpectedly. While exhibiting at a trade show, Unimark officials were approached by two Federal Express (FedEx) employees who were attending the show. The FedEx reps casually explained the difficulties their company was having with a new program called Powership. This program was designed to outfit a high- volume FedEx customer with the computers and bar code printers needed to print FedEx labels. The customer's computer system would also need to integrate directly into FedEx's existing logistics tracking software. Unimark impressed the booth visitors so much, the company was invited to go to FedEx and give a proposal on the Powership project. Unimark won the contract for the bar code label printers and continues to work with FedEx today. This relationship helped springboard Unimark to work with other Fortune 1000 clients such as McKesson and Southwest Airlines.

Yeah, We've Had That Same Problem.
In addition to developing queue management systems, Unimark designs and manufactures direct thermal printers and gate readers for the airline industry. Approximately 30% of the company's sales revenue (minus service revenue for these products) is derived from the products it manufactures. Unimark first established a presence in the airline industry through the 1995 acquisition of the airline ticketing and boarding pass printer division of Datamax Corp. (Orlando, FL). The company's London sales and service office was part of this acquisition. "Our manufacturing experience gives us an advantage over our integrator and VAR competitors," Reed said. "When our customers have work-in-process, procurement, or inventory control problems, we can relate since we've probably had the same problems."

Is The Facilities Management Market Recession Proof?
Aside from transportation-related (e.g. airports) solutions, Unimark also targets facilities management and supply chain technologies. The former is composed of casinos, hotels, theme parks, and stadiums while the latter usually includes manufacturing clients.

Although the current recession has put a hold on many customers' capital spending, Reed said the facilities management market hasn't followed this trend. "The IT and security directors at these companies haven't been barraged with a slew of ads from software developers targeting this market. It may be a small market, but it's one with a lot of fertile ground for a company like us that focuses on business process improvements."

To attract companies in the facilities management market (and other verticals), Unimark stages "Knowledge Seminars" in cities across the United States. Held four times a year, these events offer a preselected audience examples of how technology can improve a specific vertical's business processes.

Expect A 12- To 18-Month Sales Cycle
In the supply chain market, Unimark often is called upon to develop a bar code printer interface or middleware for integration into ERP (enterprise resource planning) or WMS (warehouse management system) software. However, the company also develops non-bar code printer applications such as facilities scheduling and in-house express package tracking systems. This software expertise, coupled with hardware such as bar code scanners, handheld computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), allows Unimark to offer the all important "solution sell." Although Unimark does maintain a small warehouse of products, the majority of the hardware the company provides is obtained directly from the manufacturers or from distributor ScanSource. "The reality is, if someone is coming to us just for a cheap price on a printer or a scanner, they are coming to the wrong place," stated Reed. "That's not what our value-add is to a client."

As budgets are being slashed and data collection projects are put on hold, many VARs and integrators have begun reemphasizing service as the real value-add. Unimark is no exception. In fact, the company has seen an increase in service contracts and refurbishment programs during this economic downturn.

AIDC (automatic identification and data collection) technologies are in the spotlight these days because of the efficiencies they offer. "But," Reed said, people who are pushing for these technologies are in a firefight every day. Capital spending has almost come to a halt. Unfortunately, a 12- to 18-month sales cycle is now the reality. A year ago it was 6 to 10 months."

The key to getting these projects approved, according to Reed, is being able to provide a legitimate payback model. In other words, show the client how much the solution will speed up an existing process. Show them how many more customers will be served; or - in the case of the airport confrontation - how many irate customers will be avoided.