MicroTRAK GPS, Inc.
A Success Story in Developing an Operation Management System
MicroTRAK GPS, Inc is an established provider of GPS tracking and monitoring products to the consumer market, with premier clients such as The Sharper Image, Jaguar, and Land Rover. MicroTRAK GPS was in search of an information system capable of handling larger scale information processing applications to accommodate industrial customers with fleet-type service requirements, including patient “fleets” in large healthcare facilities.
The Challenge
MicroTRAK GPS, Inc. was faced with handling and tracking a growing number of large customers and more complex orders. The company wanted to develop an Internet-based Operation Management System (OMS) that integrated seamlessly with existing legacy systems to process the company’s Consumer Service Agreements simpler, faster, and more accurately. A primary management goal was to track, continuously monitor, and send exception alerts from its GPS-sensing products located in large multi-level distribution structures within clients such as automotive master dealership groups and national healthcare distributorships. They also needed to track GPS units in multi-unit healthcare organizations. For healthcare clients, time was critical because tracked “products” included acutely perishable items such as human tissue and blood.
The Solution
Because they needed an experienced streaming data information services provider, MicroTRAK GPS chose Perot Systems to develop its Operation Management System. The Perot Systems team applied our proven Project Management Methodologies and worked extensively with MicroTRAK GPS to define requirements. Perot Systems then developed the technical architecture and core OMS software. The solution was implemented incrementally over time with complete business continuity.
Operations Management System (OMS) helps MicroTRAK GPS get and keep valuable clients while staying ahead of its competition.
The OMS Solution
The OMS that Perot Systems designed and maintains includes: Order Management, Customer Management, Inventory Management and User Management along with separate modules for end users. A multi-level tracking system for distributors and dealers of the company’s GPS products is also included in the solution. In addition, the customized Web-based application delivers timely MIS reports on a daily basis to track full business operations.
The Order Management module is an online tool for sales order creation, approval, and shipping along with various reports. The system facilitates electronic dealer and distributor approvals and generates automated email notifications for order shipment.
The Customer Management module covers all customer activities such as: Consumer Service Agreements (CSA), Return Merchandise Agreements (RMA), and Deactivation Requests (DR). The integrated database facilitates online customer identification and registration. Once a user has registered online, information is available in the MicroTRAK GPS database for all customer-related activities, including tracking invoices and sales documents upstream, and multi-level supervision downstream for tracking vehicles or patient GPS location with exception alert capabilities.
The Inventory Management module is an online tool that helps maintain inventory. It automatically ensures that units are available and that GPS locations of inventory (vehicle or patient) are tracked by the MicroTRAK GPS units. The improved inventory tracking of availability in the warehouse or use in deployed products is beneficial in making more informed decisions.
The User Management module includes MIS reports generated dynamically for easy management reference. Users can export reports directly into an MS Excel spreadsheet.
Web platform modules are custom-created and maintained by MicroTRAK GPS for multiple levels of dealers to login and create their customer records. OMS has proven to be “The Solution” for registration, tracking, and commission calculation by dealers and sales representatives who are members of the Nationwide Dealer Network of MicroTRAK GPS. Individual customers can log in to the OMS to edit profiles, send CSAs, and deactivate requests.
The overall OMS solution is a reliable and scalable solution using J2EE compliant standards built on a distributed n-tier Web-based architecture platform. It is compatible with both MSIE and Netscape browsers so the site can be accessed consistently by either browser.
The Results
The OMS provided by Perot Systems has helped MicroTRAK GPS double its sales in the last year without increasing manpower. In addition, the company is now able to accurately track and bill their customers based on more reliable documentation of usage. With the OMS, customer management processes are more streamlined and the order submission process is more standardized, which has led to reduced operational costs. The cost of GPS services to the company has been reduced by more than 20% on monthly basis. As a result, the management team at MicroTRAK is now able to devote more resources to proactive mareting rather than spending time on complex reactions to customer orders issues which had previously bogged down management under the older, non-integrated information system.
