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Gerris Solutions Inc. began when Gerry Muller, the president of a thriving door and hardware distributorship, outgrew the manual management system that had served him well.
Shopping for an automated software solution seemed like the natural next step. While Mr Muller had an in depth understanding of the door and hardware industry he was definitely out of his league when it came to software. While the large initial outlay, the hidden and the ongoing costs were intimidating, it still made good business sense to automate. Mr Mullers biggest fear was the learning curve associated with the systems currently available. He had heard the implementation horror stories of other firms and their dissatisfaction with the systems ability after implementation.
Where was the return on investment?
Being out of his element, Mr Muller hired Bill Holden as a consultant, to evaluate software solutions specifically for the door and hardware business. Mr Holden had extensive experience with software analysis and development for a major financial institution.
After learning the basics of the business and doing his research Mr Holden delivered his recommendations. "I haven't seen anything that I like" was his professional assessment. It was either too expensive, built on outdated architecture or functionally cumbersome. "You will have to redesign the way you do business around a system that really doesn't work that well." "Expect a sizeable learning curve and many hidden costs, like annual maintenance fees and dedicated equipment to run these systems on".
This was confirmation of Gerry's worst fears.
Bill's recommendation was to build a new state of the art system around the way the business ran. As the development progressed Gerry could see that Bill would indeed deliver the product as advertised.
"What if we developed this system as a marketable product for the industry?" asked Gerry? And Gerris was born...
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