Get With the Code

How One Customer's Idea About Bar Code Scanning Technology Launched New Product Features

Any business that has to stock parts faces challenges with inventory tracking and accounting. It's what drove ATS Tech Solutions of Gainesville, Georgia, to find a creative solution to inventory management and billing.

As a leading business technology solutions provider to local businesses, ATS technicians carry various hardware components and other parts to customer sites, often grabbing them off the shelf on the way out the door. The items removed from shelves were supposed to be manually entered into a log, a time-consuming and often tedious task. Some boxes did not have standard parts numbers on them, which left much room for guesswork and error. People would simply forget to make the annotation about removing a piece of inventory, throwing off the stock count. Employees at customer sites would sometimes overlook parts used so they would not be added to the invoice, thus creating revenue leaks.

Since using technology to improve business operations is a core specialty for ATS, it was only natural that employees would devise a way to make inventory management more accurate and efficient. The company had implemented field service software, ServiceCEO from Insight Direct, in early 2006 to manage projects, create quotes, generate work orders, and manage billing and procurement. The logical thing to do was to connect inventory directly with the software for more accurate accounting of stock for billing and inventory management.

One problem in identifying parts was reconciling all the different numbers used by vendors and resellers. These could vary wildly for the same type of product, creating confusion and errors. The best thing to do was to go by the UPC code on the boxes, but this proved cumbersome too, since UPC codes tend to be very long - again, more room for errors. The next conclusion was obvious - if UPC codes let products be scanned in retail environments, why not use scanners to monitor parts and supplies at ATS?

The company contacted Insight Direct to inquire about using scanners with ServiceCEO. It seemed like a great idea - except no one had tried it yet.

"They were supportive about our ideas, and had some suggestions" says Scott Williams, ATS General Manager.

Scanning Right Off-the-Shelf

The techies at ATS bought some off-the-shelf scanners that were programmed to work with Windows-based software. The company was using the Windows XP platform, which recognized the scanner technology and was able to link it directly to ServiceCEO for inventory management.

That was how a new solution was born, and a novel feature added to the ServiceCEO software - through the ingenuity of the user customer!

After some simple testing and trial-and-error, ATS was able to implement bar code scanning for inventory management, and gain dramatic improvements in efficiency, productivity and invoice accuracy. And Insight Direct was able incorporate a new feature into its ServiceCEO software, adding more value for its customers. The company currently offers scanning technology for wired, countertop and wireless handheld devices.

Now ATS employees can simply scan the UPC code for parts used directly into work orders, plugging the revenue leaks that formerly plagued the company. This in turn has improved customer service, since they receive one straightforward bill for all work and equipment. Previously, customers were often billed first for services, then received a second parts bill as an after-thought -- which resulted in complaints and missed payments. The invoices are more timely, and the once-missing revenues come in much faster.

Inventory accounting used to take an entire day, with several employees stacking and unstacking rows of boxes, calling out numbers, and manually entering information. Today, the whole process take a few hours, with fewer personnel involved.

"When you think about it," comments Williams, "anything that can be assigned a number, is suitable for bar code scanning. You are only limited by your own imagination in how to apply this technology."

Networking with ServiceCEO user groups has given ATS even more ideas about ways to use scanning to improve business operations. Bar codes could be applied to each customer invoice, making it easy to retrieve from the system. And customers could be assigned a bar code too, for more accurate and accessible account management.

"The scanning technology eliminates guesswork and human error," says Williams. "I would advise any business to look at their operations and think of the possibilities for using bar code scanning. It is great for anything related to customers to ensure accuracy and good customer relationship management. Scanning technology lets us work faster, more productively, and accelerates revenues received."

Headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia, ATS Tech Solutions offers IT support and computer networking consulting services.

"You are only limited by your own imagination in how to apply this technology."
Scott Williams
ATS General Manager