The following is our submission for the 2009 Dell SME Business Excellence Award. This award honours SME's that apply technology in innovative ways to improve their customer experience and company growth. This was a great exercise for us to go through as it allowed us to crystalize our thoughts on how we have leveraged technology to reposition ourselves within the promotional products industry.
On June 23, we learned that we were chosen as a Top 10 Finalist in the competition.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please give a brief description of the business.
Please give a brief description of the business.
RIGHTSLEEVE is a promotional design agency. Utilizing a unique mix of design, technology and promotional media, RIGHTSLEEVE develops promotional products programs for leading corporations across North America.
RIGHTSLEEVE has used technology in every aspect of its business model, from how clients interact with the company to how employees process orders and collaborate with one another. The company’s technology strategy has allowed RIGHTSLEEVE to scale, enhance margins as well as provide a point of differentiation in the marketplace.
What are some of the innovative ways you use information technology (IT) in your business to better serve your customers? (Think beyond standard practices like email, Internet, computer hardware, computer networks, use of productivity or accounting software, etc.) Provide a description.
We developed an online CRM and production management system that moved the company away from the paper-based model followed by the majority of promotional products companies. RIGHTSLEEVE broke from the crowd and created a unique IT alternative that allows efficient transfer of work and knowledge between all employees in the company. A Facebook-like news feed keeps employees tuned in to what their colleagues have been doing, electronic notes allow all employees to share knowledge discovered by co-workers, and a constantly updated production schedule allows us to advise customers of order status at any time. The system is also infinitely scalable, fostering company growth. Likewise, customized user-oriented features of the customer facing portion of our system, allow real-time feedback on products and services.
How has your innovative use of IT led to significant improvements in your customers’ experiences with your business, products or services? Give two or three specific examples to illustrate your answer. Be clear in describing how your innovative use of IT produced this outcome.
RIGHTSLEEVE has built two innovative web applications designed specifically to address the business needs and challenges of how customers interact with businesses of our type.
Our first application is a “Corporate Store” where corporate clients can create their own virtual merchandise store within RIGHTSLEEVE.COM. The corporate store gives customers the ability to approve products at a corporate level, yet pass the buying responsibility to employees in other areas. Purchasing managers across the country can order the sizing and styles necessary for their region knowing that all of the products have already been approved by their head office.
Our interactive “Retail Portal” was built specifically for the needs of our retail market. This tool saves our retail clients the hassle of contacting customers and manually tabulating sizing and styles needed for their upcoming retail season. Instead, each customer is able to log-in to the Retail Portal and place their order directly into our production system. The system tabulates the orders and provides the totals to the retailer for final sign-off. When it comes time for distribution, we supply the retailer with a final list of items ordered per customer, which facilitates the billing process for the retailer.
In addition to the web applications described above, RIGHTSLEEVE has built other features into our online retail store to assist customers when researching or placing orders. These features are specific to RIGHTSLEEVE.COM.
- Wishlists allow customers to keep tabs on products that they are interested in. It also allows them to easily share the product considerations with co-workers.
- Product Comments allow customers to share their opinions with other users. An added benefit is that RIGHTSLEEVE immediately responds to any concerns a customer might have with one of our products.
- Pricing information clearly outlines costs so there are no pricing surprises when our customers place an order.
- Automated tabulations displayed on the website allow customers to see how many times a specific item has been viewed and/or ordered.
- Related Product displays allow our customers to get ideas for their promotions based off data that indicates what other customers have either viewed or ordered in relation to the products that they are currently viewing. For example, if a customer is ordering notebooks, the related product display will remind them that they might also need to order pens.
How do you use IT to better manage your business operations? That is to coordinate with suppliers, contractors, and internally with employees? Please provide a clear description
Our online system allows our Account Representatives to create one sales order that then generates customer-facing and vendor-facing information. Creating everything from the same initial order prevents mistakes at all levels of the organization. Doing calculations automatically in the system eliminates many “human error” mistakes and also allows the representatives to see margins, shipping costs, duties, and other factors in a fraction of the time it would take them to calculate on their own. Purchase Orders are then transmitted to internal Production staff and external vendors at the touch of a button. Once created, the POs are placed on a report that is updated with real-time information on all open orders. The system also generates real time reporting that facilitates managing staff and financial performance.
How has your innovative use of IT affected the success of your organization? Give specifics. For example: growth, profit, cost reduction, or market share increases. Be clear in terms of how IT actually led to improved performance results.
1 - Our cost of goods sold have reduced by 10%. Our vendors extended better pricing terms to us because our automated Purchase Order system relieved workload from their Customer Service personnel.
2 – The scalability of our system has allowed us to double the company staff within the last 12 months. The new-hire on-boarding process has been vastly simplified as all product and pricing information is in one central place as opposed to being scattered throughout hundreds of catalogs.
3 - Detailed real-time reporting has provided far greater insight into individual and company performance. This has allowed for greater goal-setting and accountability which in turn has increased sales performance and reduced turn-over.
How is your company’s use of IT unique or differentiated so that it sets you apart from your competition?
RIGHTSLEEVE is a trendsetter by creating and using a digital order flow and CRM tool built specifically for the unique needs of a promotional products distributor. Moving to a paperless, web-powered system is something that few of our peers have done. By creating our online system, we have automated processes that most of our competitors still do by hand, thereby eliminating many human errors and streamlining the entire process from order placement to final invoicing.
By placing product pricing on the front end, we have also created transparency in an industry not known for transparency. Our up-front pricing empowers consumers to research products on our retail website, even giving them the ability to place their promotional orders directly online. RIGHTSLEEVE.COM is as “What You See Is What You Get” as a company in our industry can be.
