As a small, family-owned business, Ronald Kirsch, owner of Kirsch Millwork, understands that his customers expect his company to be able to give more than their competitors. In 2003, the company, founded in 1957, decided to outsource certain technologies to better provide one-step distribution companies and builders with quality products.
“I looked at the time lost due to slow performance, server and back-up maintenance. I realized that for Kirsch Builders Supply to remain focused on customers, we needed to outsource time-consuming activities centering around our network.”
Kirsch tackled the problem head-on by upgrading to Agility in the hosting environment. There, technical configuration experts at a remote data center host the application and hardware as part of a monthly service agreement. Loading new releases of software, performing back-ups and system maintenance are no longer the company’s responsibility. Instead, he and his employees now focus on handling the day-to-day transactions of their growing customer base.
“When you’re talking about business management, it’s critical to find partners in the building products industry who are always developing the next generation of technology,” Kirsch said. “Outsourcing software and system maintenance gives us an easier, more efficient way to do business.”
The decision came after months of careful analysis. The perceived benefits took mere seconds – as long as it takes work orders to complete now from their previous time of two minutes.
Using Agility protects Kirsch Millwork from obsolete technology and reduces capital investments. The company now takes advantage of a high-performance server architecture. Regular maintenance and software updates are performed by DMSi, relieving Kirsch from all responsibility.
Employees can now also work remotely, a necessity in a post-Covid world. The sales team can walk into a customer’s office, go online, and complete a sale over the internet, saving paperwork, eliminating task redundancy, and speeding up delivery. For Kirsch, arming dedicated employees with the right business tools is a win for everyone.
“As an owner, I’m helping my employees. But they’re also making my company succeed by working more efficiently, which is helpful to my customers.”
Kirsch and his employees concentrate every day on delivering the right products to their distributor and builder customers. This time, their quest for improving customer experiences began by looking at their own daily processes. “Agility helps run our business. It’s important because we can’t do it alone and still compete in the marketplace.” said Kirsch.