Achieving Growth One Step At A Time
This time and attendance dealer and software developer, Scan Technology Internationa1, discusses its plans for establishing credibility in the market.
Business Solutions, April 1998
According to most industry estimates, only 25%-30% of U.S. companies use PC-based or electronic time and attendance systems. Despite the number of companies still using manual clocks, Tamaro knows that because sales competition is fierce in this market, success will not come easily for Scan Technology.
Prior to founding Scan Technology, Tamaro operated an automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) dealership in Venezuela called Prosicom. Prosicom, which is now 25 years old, was in business for more than two years before it was able to break even. "The experience of growing a business from the ground up taught me a lot of valuable business lessons that I'll apply to Scan Technology," Tamaro says.
In the following pages, Tamaro, who still owns and operates Prosicom, discusses his plans to make Scan Technology (West Newfield, ME) profitable.
Do You Have The Right Business Outlook?
As a result of Prosicom's early struggles, Tamaro learned several important business lessons, including:
VAR Action Points
Tamaro is using several approaches to carry Scan Technology through its initial struggles, including:
Scan Technology also has a Web site.
In terms of customers, Tamaro says Scan Technology will target companies with 25-plus employees. He does not expect to target a specific vertical market, in that companies with at least 25 employees are spread across many markets.
Beating The Big Boys
As a start-up company, Tamaro knows Scan Technology will have to compete with established companies like Kronos, Konetix and Stromberg. And Tamaro knows that merely offering a lower price still may not be enough to win sales. "Some prospects don't feel comfortable buying from a newer company," he explains, "because they wonder whether a new company will be around in a year."
Scan Technology doesn't yet have the benefit of name recognition. However, Tamaro is encouraged by the fact that, as a time and attendance dealer, he will target human resource managers, who, he says, generally focus on system functionality. "Human resource managers want to make sure employee hours worked can be collected without complications," he says. "They will buy from newer dealers with competitive products."
Tamaro is taking a different approach than some of his more established competitors. Time and attendance software typically includes a payroll processing module, he says. Tamaro did not include payroll processing in his software. "Most end users already have some type of payroll processing system," Tamaro explains. "Why make them pay for something they probably don't need?"
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