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TKS Industrial Grows Revenue by Transforming Business Processes with a Custom ERP System

Company Background

TKS Industrial is the North American division of Taikisha Ltd., a world leader in HVAC and Paint Finishing Systems for large buildings and industrial plants. TKS can provide turnkey paint finishing systems including building, conveyors, process equipment, automation, etc.

TKS Industrial provides paint booths, industrial ovens, and other paint systems to major Fortune 500 manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford, Subaru, Kia, Harley Davidson, The Boeing Company, major Semi-truck manufacturers, and more

Challenge

TKS had internal business processes for projecting cost, budget, purchasing, and sales that were managed using Excel spreadsheets and email. It required significant effort or their team to manage different file versions and to manually generate reports. They knew this was wasted effort from critical resources whose time could be better spent solving engineering problems for their end-customers. TKS knew they needed to find a technology partner that could understand their unique business and automate their processes.

Results

Purchase orders have doubled over 3 years

Sales proposal doubled in the first year

Onboarding 70-90 new suppliers each year

We forsee partnering with SharpQuest for a while as it's been a very beneficial relationship for us.

Irv Shiffman,Manager of Information Systems, TKS industrial

What SharpQuest Did

Automated workflows of all business units

Modernized applications using best practices

Improved data integrity and security with new database

Cleansed data and implemented analytics

Developed supplier portal to increase deal flow

SharpQuest's project management is outstanding. I'm amazed they can keep everything straight

Solution

TKS evaluated three potential technology partners and selected SharpQuest. Irv Shiffman, Manager of Information Systems at TKS Industrial commented, “SharpQuest had the most attractive proposal for us, in terms of technology, cost, their location, etc. They were overall a good fit for us.”

SharpQuest proposed building a platform that would become the foundation for automating the workflows of all business units at TKS. The new platform would be a mini-ERP system hosted in AWS cloud using the MS SQL Server database.

Shiffman recalled how the project started, “We put together a set of specifications outlining the scope of the project. We needed them to write it from scratch, provide assistance, and host it in the cloud.” TKS prioritized the business units that would implement he new web-based solution to replace their manual processes. SharpQuest leveraged agile methodology to build and release modules for these business units and used feedback from each team to continue to make improvements for current and future modules.

“They took the time to get to know our business,” noted Shiffman. “We had our initial specifications, and then we sat
down with them and went over the details. As things went on, we had more and more discussions to clarify what needed to be programmed.” Each module SharpQuest has built has incorporated security features, like Single-Sign-On. They’ve also been careful to ensure data integrity and performed data cleansing as needed. The modules facilitate collaboration, workflow approvals, and data, including approval notifications and status, bubbles up to a management dashboard. There is even an integration with TKS suppliers who now have their own portal for bidding on TKS projects.

How TKS Rates SharpQuest

Keeping on Schedule

Quality of Service and Deliverables

Outcomes

The agile development approach used by SharpQuest allowed them to build a solid foundation, then over time add new modules without any rework and minimal maintenance. The SharpQuest team project managed their effort as well as the collaboration between teams. Shiffman has been thrilled, “Their project management is outstanding. I’m amazed they can keep everything straight. They have a system to keep track of everything. All the changes, modifications, and issues.”

Like most businesses, things change for TKS often and that can be a challenge for technology partners. Shiffman says not so for SharpQuest, “They are very good at reacting to those changes and implementing them in a way that’s effective for our business.” Shiffman added, “They’re very smart in the tools they use and they’re very responsive in addressing our requests in a timely manner.”

With each module that is released, TKS Industrial has seen major gains in their operations and resulting revenue.

• The purchasing team has doubled the purchase orders that they can manage going from $138M in Y1 to $263M in Y3.

• TKS has been able to onboard 70-90 new suppliers and 200-250 new users every year since the new supplier portal
was created.

• The sales team doubled the number of proposals they prepare for potential buyers annually in the first year after their module was released

This has been a big change for TKS Industrial as noted by Shiffman, “Changing a system after 20 or 30 years is always
strange, but the feedback on the new software has been very good.” It’s not just productivity that has improved. From a qualitative standpoint, our accuracy and consistency of data going into the system is better,” added Shiffman. “We foresee partnering with them for a while as it’s been a very beneficial relationship for us."

How TKS Rates SharpQuest

Keeping Cost Within Estimates and Delivering Value

Willingness to Refer SharpQuest

SharpQuest is very good at reacting to changes and implementing them in a way that is effective for our buisness

Explore the SharpQuest Portfolio

to see the technical details and examples of projects like those done for TKS Industrial.

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