Again and again, we hear that consolidation
results in superior products, services, and relationships.
Last year, I joined Alfa Tech Consulting
Engineers Inc. as general manager, via a three-way corporate merger.
The principals had the insight to recognize that, through consolidation,
they could offer clients premier, single-source, multidisciplined,
professional engineering services.
Today, Alfa Tech, based in San Jose,
Calif., is a leader in its industry, designing mechanical, electrical,
plumbing, process-piping, and telecommunication systems for high-tech
microelectronics industries, computer rooms, wafer fates, pharmaceutical
and biotech companies, clean rooms, manufacturing facilities, hospitals,
Corporate campuses, office buildings, schools, and others.
Consolidation is a way of life at Alfa
Tech. Teamwork is our motto. Personnel are assigned to 16 individual
teams at the San Jose, Calif. corporate headquarters in order to
provide optimum client services and to ensure that each employee
recognizes his or her importance to the company. Each team is directed
by a Team or Department Leader, and each team meets regularly with
its Team Leader to consolidate its efforts and monitor the status
of its projects and individual performance.
The primary principals of the firm,
Jeff Fini, CEO, and William Hurley, president, merged their respective
firms a little over a year ago and set the tone of teamwork for
the rest of the organization. Fini, renowned for his marketing expertise,
continues to win numerous contracts on a wide variety of projects,
and supervises the efforts of the marketing team. Hurley manages
the mechanical department, in addition to performing his responsibilities
as president of Alfa Tech.
The day-to-day management of the company
is also a consolidated effort. The vice president of production,
Cliff Cox and I share these responsibilities. Cox is responsible
for production and overseeing the technical staff; my responsibilities
include directing the administrative, information systems (IS),
and finance departments. Together our goal is to support, coach,
and service the teams under our direction.
Faced with this challenge, I questioned,
"How can I best lead the departments under my supervision to
provide the technical staff with the information they need to effectively
manage and control their projects?" From a financial standpoint,
I believe that good reporting is the key. Reports must have the
ability to be printed in either a concise, abbreviated format for
quick review, or in a comprehensive format for detailed evaluation.
Project managers are challenged with
designing quality systems within a given budget. It is essential
that they have weekly progress reports to monitor the status of
their jobs, and that billing reports be easy to read and understand
so that turnaround time is minimal. Again, consolidation is the
operative word. The ability to customize and group information on
reports to meet the requirements of a client or a project manager
results in user satisfaction.
It is essential, too, that the principals
and executive management team be provided with reports to monitor
the financial stability and growth of the company. At Alfa Tech,
we have set up our accounting system to track income and expenses
by team, as well as by department and branch. This enables management
to evaluate productivity and profitability team-by-team, department-by-department
and branch-by-branch, as well as on a project-by-project basis.
Again, the ability to easily consolidate specific data on reports
has proven to be an effective management tool.
Timely billings are necessary for consistent
cash flow. Customized invoices are the norm rather than the exception
in our industry. Therefore, the ability to easily customize and
generate detailed attachments to invoices is crucial.
The progress of information systems
at Alfa Tech during the past year has been significant. Last fall
we installed a Novell Netware 4.12 Network on an Hewlett-Packard
raid server, as well as on a separate accounting server. Since Alfa
Tech is known for its high-tech, state-of-the-art engineering designs,
we wanted to ensure that our IS department was equipped with high-quality
software programs that would meet our current needs and expand with
us as we move toward the year 2000.
With this as our criterion, we installed
Microsoft Windows 95 on all computer systems, upgraded to Microsoft
Office 97, purchased a new accounting package, the Wind2 Financial
Management System for Windows 95/NT, and upgraded our technical
staff to Autodesk's AutoCad program. This summer we hired our first,
full-time, on-site IS administrator, installed a Tl line, and set
up e-mail on all systems.
These have been exciting times for
our organization, and we are especially pleased that our new accounting
package enables our project managers to monitor and manage their
projects with optimum efficiency. Because of the capabilities of
the Wind2 for Windows 95/NT software, the accounting team can now
provide project managers, team leaders, and executive management
with customized reports. Data can be consolidated by client, by
project, by billing group, by project manager, by cost type, by
department, by phase, by labor code, etc., with as little detail
as requested in user-defined formats. Time records, too, can be
consolidated by date, by employee, by staff level, be team, by project,
etc., to help monitor productivity. Financial reports can be printed
in a number of standard formats as well as customized, user defined,
abbreviated formats that consolidate totals for pre-selected account
ranges.
In an effort to ensure that Alfa Tech
continues to provide clients with quality services, the administrative
and finance departments are taking a proactive approach to job-sharing
and are in the process of forming cross-functional teams so that
they may better serve the technical departments.
Team spirit filters through all departments
in our firm, from the highest level executive to the new entry-level
trainee. Alfa Tech attributes its phenomenal success and growth
to the willingness of its employees to consolidate their efforts,
innovative ideas, and talents in order to provide clients with well-designed
systems, and to the dedication of its team- each playing a significant
role to build a winning team. Consolidation is the key.
Julie Escover has worked in the
professional engineering cervices ' arena for 14years and can be
reached at (408) 436-8300.
