Trusting Tried-And-True Technologies

What is your value-add? Are you Internet-savvy, or do you provide exceptional sales and service? Have you focused your company's energy on a specific product line? Maybe you provide your customers with bleeding-edge technology, forgetting about tried-and-true technology. Do you attend several trade shows to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry?

Chances are that whatever you determine to be your greatest value-add, you didn't stumble on it overnight. Your business practices and focus evolved over time - some by lessons learned through mistakes and some by just being lucky. Maybe you're business has changed so much since it's inception that you aren't selling the same products that were in your first product line.

Cincinnati Time Systems (Farmington Hills, MI), a $2 million VAR, is the largest reseller for time and attendance vendor Amano Cincinnati (Roseland, NJ). Fifty percent of its business deals with time and attendance systems, and 30% handles access control. However, Mark Dykstra, company president, doesn't downplay the 20% of his business from standard punch clocks and supplies. New technologies are important to him, make no mistake about it. But, with 16 employees and limited time to travel to trade shows and take risks on bleeding-edge technology, he's happy to stick with standard systems. Cincinnati Time is also in the process of establishing a Web site, but the company uses more conventional methods of marketing.

All of this may not sound like typical value-adds in today's race to adopt fast and furious technologies. However, Cincinnati Time has averaged a growth rate of 16% and has been in business for the past seven years.

Old And New Time And Attendance
"At one time, we only sold mechanical time clocks," says Dykstra. "Systems and software products track in and out time, as well as sick and vacation time. These systems transformed the time and attendance industry and developed the benefits of using special software and PCs. We naturally evolved to include access control.

"Automated time and attendance systems are our fastest area of growth," he continues. "Before, a 100-person company would purchase a $600 time clock. Today, that same company will spend $5,000 on a time and attendance system or $10,000 on an access control system.

"While the $5,000 sale is great," he continues, "we have not given up the traditional time clocks. One of the nice things about our business is that I can get a call from the flower shop down the street and sell a time clock. Or, I can sell a system for 1,000 employees. Our only customer requirement is that they have hourly employees or concerns with existing access control systems or parking areas."

Bigger Isn't Always Better
Cincinnati Time isn't looking to be the biggest fish in the pond. When Dykstra became company president, Cincinnati Time was only representing one vendor. But, by becoming independent, the company can take more of a consultative approach with its customers. "I'd say we are on the trailing edge of leading technology," Dykstra explains. "There are so many products introduced every day. We work with proven technologies from vendors with strong track records, not technologies without much track record."

The method seems to work. A residential care facility recently came to Cincinnati Time with a buddy punching problem. The manager spent a lot of time away from the facility and had proof that employees were clocking other employees in and out of work. With the installation of a $7,000 time and attendance system with a biometric hand reader, the facility saved $15,000 in payroll in the first month. That's a return on investment (ROI) of about 114%.

Cincinnati Time is working with biometrics, a technology that measures physical characteristics to prove identity. "Biometrics is not brand-new," comments Dykstra. "It's newer to our industry and more feasible today because its price point has lowered. If an end user wants to integrate the technology, we can provide that layer of security. Sometimes it makes employees feel like Big Brother is watching them. We educate our end users, and they educate their employees."

Cincinnati Time does not sell based on price. Dykstra contests that, if you must sell to a customer by giving something away, that customer will expect a big discount for the rest of the relationship. "We need to be in the position to sell our value-adds – not give them away," he says. "We keep ahead of our competition because we sell more services than they do: time and attendance, access control, closed caption television systems (CCTVs), and parking control systems. We have more opportunities to add value to our services. We can't let those opportunities to make money simply walk out the door."

Reaching New Customers - The Old-Fashioned Way
We've already established the fact that Cincinnati Time is not what you'd call Internet-savvy. There is a Web site in the works; but until then, Dykstra relies on more traditional forms of media. Actually, he advertises on the radio.

"Ninety percent of our business is in southeast Michigan, and 10% is in northern Michigan or out-of-state," he explains. "We get requests from current clients to provide solutions for their out-of-state sites because of the relationship we've established. Even though we've done installations in Pittsburgh and South Carolina, we aren't looking to expand geographically. We are in the toll-free directories and the Thomas Register, both of which allow anyone to get our name and phone number. I'm not going to travel to Houston for a $5,000 installation, but I'd like to be able to send a company a simple time recorder. If it gets complicated, I will refer that company to a VAR in that area."

Most of Cincinnati Time's leads come from relationships it has developed with payroll companies, professional employment organizations, systems consultants, and current users through advertisements and promotions. "We just finished a three-month stint with a telemarketing firm that produced about eight to 10 leads per month," Dykstra offers. "It was something that we tried through a co-op with Amano Cincinnati. Right now, we are running a radio spot, and we are getting some calls from that."

When it comes to advertising, Dykstra says "don't put all your eggs in one basket. If we do targeted advertising, we can respond efficiently to the calls we receive," he explains. "A large amount of phone calls isn't going to help us because we aren't set up to handle a large volume. Our lead generating is a secret to our success. We continuously use several methods of media to reach customers."

Questions about this article? E-mail the author at NancyS@corrypub.com.