Construction Equipment Dealer : September 2009
A Closer Look
50 Construction Equipment Distribution www.cedmag.com September 2009 A Closer Look Not so long ago, a dealer might purchase a new software program with the hope that it would generate a positive return on investment, and that would be enough. But that was then and this is now. Dealers today want to know how a software system purchase will pay off. One software vendor is providing that information by examining the opportunity cost of not moving forward, quantifying future savings and return on investment. Justifying the Cost Lawson Software has developed an innovative tool to help dealers quantify their investment in Lawson's Equipment Service Management and Rental, a software product launched in November of 2008. People need to justify the cost, said Julian Archer, global marketing manager for Lawson Software. With Lawson you can sit down with our consultants, before you sign a deal, and undertake a value assessment. The value assessment answers the question, how much will I be spending if I don't do this? During the value assessment process, Lawson consultants will talk with the senior staff of a dealership and evaluate how they are doing things. We would look at whatever key performance indicators they have, said Archer. Then we can see how much they can save by implementing our solution. As part of the evaluation process, Wheeler Machinery, based in Salt Lake City, undertook a six-week value assessment. Through the assessment, the company gained an in-depth understanding of the potential financial benefits to be gained by the invest-ment. After interviewing dozens of employees, Lawson provided a detailed review and analysis of the specific key performance indicators, business processes and best practices to help drive improvements at Wheeler. Frankly, the numbers [savings] were really big, when they first presented them to us, said Jeff Ipsen, CFO. So then the dealership asked the question, What if we only got 10 percent would we move forward, even at 10 percent? The answer was yes, and so the company is now in the early stages of deployment, and expects a payback within three to five years. According to Ipsen, one of the positives of the value assessment is that it identifies 25 to 30 areas of opportunity. This was not the case with other software conversions Ipsen was involved with. In this case, we have a road map that we can work towards and work from, said Ipsen. The software will support inte-gration with Caterpillar, enhance customer service, gain organization-wide visibility into business processes and create a reliable, consolidated source of information. Wheeler will also use the Lawson Human Equipment-Centric Lawson Software Knows Your Bottom Line Value assessment demonstrates significant savings for dealers, including Wheeler Machinery. By joaNNe costiN Wheeler Machinery in Salt Lake City, Utah, recently selected Lawson Software to provide an enterprise system software solution.