Fourth Shift was faced with implementation of a new software system for all of its international subsidiaries, with the first rollout to the Japanese subsidiary.

There was a language barrier, and the 1980s offered an additional gender barrier in that the Japanese encountered very few women in management positions.

Travel to Japan was necessary to teach the new system to ten key people. Presentations, worksheets, and hands-on work for them to perform were all provided, but they asked few questions. The realization struck that the Japanese do not ask questions for fear of “losing face,” especially in front of a woman manager from corporate HQ, so a way to open them up was necessary. They were given a timed exercise, which would last 2 hours. After checking back in 15 minutes, knowing they could not do it, the trainees were instructed to think of the room they were in as the US, where people ask questions and work together, to help them understand that it is acceptable to ask questions and ask for help. Slowly, they came around, and after the week, they knew the system and were asking questions and doing well.

The IT system was installed quickly and maintained by the Japanese trainees. The Japanese learned about the American culture and learned how business is handled in different cultures.

The Japanese sub was the first implementation, and a success and model for future implementations across the world. The Japanese became great friends and henceforth called to ask questions and raise key issues. Upon leaving Tokyo, they bestowed presents and showed great thanks, which was very uncommon for them during that era.

The Sales, Marketing, Operations and Finance groups within Scholastic each felt they were the controlling power, when in fact all should have been acting as a team to find better ways of increasing revenue and satisfying customers. There was a marked lack of communication between the departments. In addition, trying to settle down sales people when they were across the country, influencing marketers to think about COGs, and getting operations and finance to be flexible was difficult at best.

The first hurdle was trying to get people together to talk and review the issues. Even after that was solved, trying to keep people's objectives in focus was difficult. A weekly meeting was instituted with all sales reps, key marketers, operations and finance people to discuss product forecasts, product cycle, manufacture, and other related issues, so everyone was on the same page and sales wasn't trying to sell a product that wasn't even ready to manufacture let alone ready to ship. This opened up the issues and everyone had a better understanding of each department’s difficulties; it brought the departments together so that communication preempted promises to customers and other defining actions. The benefit was that Scholastic could now ship on time, and meet customer's expectations and realistic revenue goals, while minimizing COGs, as a result of not having to expedite product and incur excessive OT costs.

Departments began working together and any animosity was let go. The company met its expected revenue and customers were happy since they received product on time.

Through this coordination, Scholastic acknowledged that while every department has its own goal, the overarching company goal cannot be neglected, and all work is more efficient through collaboration.

The customer service and operations personnel within Surgical Laser Technologies, a producer of medical lasers, were not knowledgeable in the process of product manufacture and the FDA approval process. Departments did not think that operations needed to understand the issues; they simply needed to manufacture.

As new Manager of Order Management and Customer Service, developed communication between the groups to understand all steps in the process and the reasons pre-manufacture may take “x” amount of months to work the items.

The resulting communication between operations and the other departments meant that each then understood not only their own issues, but also the issues of other personnel that affected their product, and they then helped each other work through the items. As a result, departments started to think about how a change would affect downstream systems or departments.

This was a great start for Surgical Laser in disseminating the understanding of a complicated process and effecting teamwork and receptivity among personnel.

Scholastic needed to initiate a new customer service group into corporate headquarters and eliminate customer service in a newly acquired company.

A new team would be convened in New York while the existing team, who would eventually be laid off, worked customer service in Atlanta. The New York team needed to access the group in Atlanta and learn the information and systems during this rebuild. Keeping the project quiet was difficult because of the need for fielding calls while a new team was built; the company could not afford not to have any customer service reps.

As Manager of Operations, was sent to Atlanta to gain the manager and the group's trust while trying to learn everything about the organization. Upon return to New York, a strategy was developed whereby a team of 25 would be interviewed, hired, and trained. Going back and forth, and learning more about the products and issues, they could then be translated into training for the New York team. Once new recruits were trained, a strategy needed to be established whereby the phones in Atlanta were turned off and calls transferred to reps in New York, while a meeting was also conducted with the team in Atlanta to inform them of the intention to terminate their group. This was a logistic nightmare that was handled effectively with minimal disruption.

Customer Service in New York handled the calls with minimal customer disruption on day one while Atlanta took the news of the event fairly well.

This was a difficult situation, and if Scholastic had felt capable of supporting two departments working in tandem, the company would have gone that route, thus making it more open and less difficult, but that was not feasible. Although tough decisions were necessary, the resulting transition was smooth.

Imation wished to implement a new division for fulfillment of software products.

Employees, however, were reluctant to believe a new division would assist the revenue line, and management in Japan provided short time frames and minimal budgets.

A new fulfillment division was developed whereby proof of how we could add revenue could be illustrated to the company as a whole, by offering a new service that the division believed clients wanted. Preparing presentations and getting buy-off from departments was key to the new division’s success. By utilizing existing clients at first, Sales and Manufacturing were shown how just offering additional services, and making the clients happier by offering a one-stop solution with one key provider, could increase revenue.

Existing customer revenue grew by 20% during the initial stages and then new customers were brought on.

The new division not only offered additional services to existing customers, but also provided a new revenue outlet to the company by courting a new customer base.

GaSonics International won a $25M deal with a Korean company, but had not yet worked through the financial details.

This was virgin territory for the company, with very tight schedules and large financial penalties.

Working with Sales, Finance and the customer, terms for payment were derived to include a letter of credit, which had to be negotiated at specific production points. Working with the bank, negotiable letters of credit were detailed; after which, as Manager of Credit & Collections and Inside Sales, every detail of the project, which spanned over a year, was followed to ensure we could meet the letters of credit and collect payments.

A successful letter of credit was provided and the full $25M collected. Because of this successful venture, the letter of credit became a guideline for future international deals.

Fourth Shift had a large existing A/R portfolio for international sales, over 70% of which was past due 90 days.

Over 15 distributors with an average A/R of over $1M each was compounded by language barriers and items in excess of 1 year old.

A rapport was developed with each customer and each A/R examined line by line. Providing a detailed reconciliation, discovered billing errors, credits not issued, misapplied funds, and other discrepancies. Once a clear and accurate A/R had been established, payment plans to get the A/R balance down were developed.

After several months, the over-90 A/R balance was less than $50K, or less than 5%.

The distributors were happy now that items were cleared and they were more willing to work with Fourth Shift when there was a problem as opposed to ignoring it. As Manager of International Sales and Export, many of the managing directors became good friends and a rapport had been instilled wherein they could trust and asked for help in other areas of the company when needed.

Horizon Wimba Media Services was using Peachtree for all processes, but it did not satisfy the needs of the company. The company was young, had limited funds and no internal IT team.

As VP of Operations, a review of the IT systems was ensued. As the company evolved, so too should the systems, in order to elevate the company and revenue. The evaluation included concerns such as system cost, the diverse needs of personnel and departments, and installation cost, among others.

The team decided on the MAS200 system, which was a large multi-faceted system that could grow with the company and help with order management, fulfillment, A/R, A/P and expenses. An arrangement was negotiated with a CPA firm who had licensing rights for MAS200, thereby allowing HW to lease the program and reducing a huge initial cost. The CPA firm had an IT team who could install and support the company’s system needs; they could also help set up a chart of accounts and other tools, and assist with month-end reconciliations.

The results were positive and it allowed HW to lean on the experts without paying the higher costs associated with direct services from the MAS200 vendor. It allowed the team flexibility, plus a comfortable reliance on those already experienced with the system and avoidance of initial implementation pitfalls.

A client acquired a new company on the West Coast that utilized different processes and IT systems and consolidation was required.

The West Coast facility felt they had the better structure and were reluctant to change; corporate headquarters disagreed. There also existed communication issues based on the bicoastal time difference, and some staff seemed uncooperative to the integration process.

Weekly calls were established to discuss concerns and strategy. Once an agreement had been reached, the implementation strategy ensued, which included concerted attempts to involve the West Coast personnel as much as possible. The West Coast offices were visited to understand their process and concerns so that their issues could be incorporated into the strategy. Online testing was undertaken for the offices on both coasts, from which ideas and concerns could be exchanged, and both sides benefited from identifying where differences lay and exchanging ideas.

The system was installed on time, and the true success was that both groups benefited and worked together to get through issues. The newly wed divisions helped each other so the two were compatible, and it resulted in camaraderie between both coasts.

A client of PML Consulting wanted to sell a product through the retail channels but did not have a finished product yet.

The employees of the company were new to the manufacturing arena and did not possess knowledge of the retail channels. The company had little idea of COGs and the quantity of product they would require, and needed to outsource the marketing area for product development.

Forecasts were determined with the sales group, along with the types of stores in which the client wanted the product to be sold. The retail stores were then engaged to allow the product in and set a timeframe for distribution. Working with internal and external marketing a box prototype was developed, and manufacturers were approached to obtain COGs for the product. Working through the timeframes and COGs, the team was able to secure a manufacturer who could produce the product within the time and cost budgets forecasted.

The product was shipped on time and within budget.

In retrospect, even more success could have been achieved with sufficient time to train internal personnel on what was needed, to minimize the third party activity so COGs could be curtailed. Barring this capability, the undertaking was still thoroughly successful and all parties’ needs and expectations were satisfied.

Horizon Wimba Media Services, an upstart software and educational media company, needed to partner with vendors who could afford it high output, with flexibility, at minimal COGs.

Trying to find a vendor who felt partnering with a small company would be a benefit to them was the major hurdle.

Several vendors across the country were courted, and a key major vendor was finally selected who wanted to expand into the smaller market that HW was trying to attract, so it would be a gain for both partners in turn. Forecasts were examined to guarantee a certain amount of business over a period of time, and in so doing, HW tapped into the vendor’s valleys where slow time could be taken advantage of and lower prices obtained; this too was a win for both companies. To bring the partnership to fruition, HW had to gain clients who needed product consistently over a period of time rather than a client who needed POs at one particular time and who needed them in a short time frame. The clients utilized were consistent clients who gave multiple POs for various quantities over several months, thus allowing HW to manage the production time.

HW became a key revenue contributor to the vendor while providing low cost production to their clients. They were able to have clients forecast and maintain consistent production levels because clients saw they could get better prices if they planned.

The results achieved were favorable for all, and if HW could have taken on more clients utilizing the same process, the company’s business could have grown even more and provided more revenue for the vendor.

Project managers at Imation were scattered and received little support. They were accustomed to working long and hard with minimal support and supervision, and did not have any uniform procedures to follow, thus creating different prices and processes for each customer, which sent costs soaring.

Each project manager was approached to get a handle on his or her accounts and processes and each one was found different. A procedure was developed for project managers to follow, and other departments were engaged to help streamline the issues and procedures so every PM would adopt the same process.

The project managers were more productive, could handle more clients because they followed the procedures, and knew the supporting departments would follow the procedures. Customers received consistent, timely products.

Each PM increased the number of accounts they handled by 25% and length of production process was reduced by 20%.