Overview

Since 1981, Pony Enterprises, Inc. has served the Mustang community as a wholesale distributor of restoration/maintenance hardware and fasteners for classic cars. They have  become the go-to resource for hard-to-find classic car parts at fair prices.

As Pony Enterprises’ business increased over the years, their manual inventory and order management process flow became cumbersome and prone to human error. In 2020, they decided to stop struggling with unsupported software and outdated equipment and processes, and that’s when they contacted us.

Challenges

Pony Enterprises had a failing inventory and order management system that was unstable more than 75% of the time and had no technical support for its legacy app. The challenge was determining the best path for system replacement as quickly as possible while maintaining the current process flow integrity. 

In addition, Pony Enterprise has had zero success in previous data migrations, so we were challenged to migrate all necessary data elements from multiple data stores without hiccups. Finally, we needed a final product plan with a low-to-moderate learning curve and out-of-the-box usability while exploiting state of the art technology systems and printers.

Solution

Using our team’s combined years of process experience and business insight, we: 

• Analyzed the existing business processes and equipment
• Provided a comprehensive system design and business process flow to re-engineer the business, including reviewing the entire process flow to discover pain points and recommend improvements and efficiencies 
• Researched available technology options and presented alternatives and recommendations
• All of the above was provided after a discovery phase, giving Pony Enterprises the option to make a no-go decision on application development
• Implemented the selected system, setting up all needed infrastructure and equipment, including a top-of-the-line, easy-to-use labeling system
• Researched and tested available migration applications and devised a plan to migrate all required data elements successfully

Results

Within ten weeks from the initial recommendations to final implementation with all required data and zero downtime, Pony Enterprises had a new, reliable inventory and order management process that streamlined its end-to-end operations and decreased its costs by 24% while increasing revenue. 

We equipped the system with the following:

• Routine system backups and continued support
• Updated labeling equipment that reduced packaging steps from a day to minutes
• A new, centralized inventory repository created even more time savings, removing the constant need to maintain multiple lists in various locations

We are now collaborating with Pony Enterprises to design new system modules their previous application never had.

Client Feedback

 We were in need of a software upgrade for our company after using the same antiquated software for almost 40 years that had many shortcomings and limitations. I felt it was holding us back and limiting our ability to compete. I began calling various IT companies in our area and was told repeatedly that no one worked with the type of software we were using and they couldn’t help us to upgrade it. Over and over again I heard the same thing from everyone I called. After much frustration I called Noetyx, left a message and received a very timely callback from them. At first they said that they did not work with the particular software we were using but they inquired as to what we did and what processes we used. After much discussion they suggested they might be able to help us by going a little bit different route. After a couple of meetings with Noetyx we were presented with two possible solutions to our dilemma and we chose one of those that seemed to fit our needs as well as our limited budget. Implementation of the new system was accomplished in a timely fashion and went very smoothly. The day before we began using the new system we had some questions and a couple of minor glitches that we did not understand and Noetyx sent two people out to resolve these issues for us immediately. (That was on a Sunday morning!) Our new system has been a great success! It has solved some problems we didn’t even realize we had as well as bringing us up to speed relative to our competitors! This has resulted in a giant leap forward for our small company and time and cost savings in many areas. Noetyx has been great to work with! The communications were very good and every question we had about the process was answered completely and quickly! The people at Noetyx are very competent, easy to work with and very friendly. We are very pleased to finally have an IT firm we have complete confidence in and feel we can depend on! We have been so satisfied with their ability and service that we now have them working on updating our web page with a more modern look and greatly enhanced capabilities! Our future is looking much brighter now with help from Noetyx!”

— Charlie Bond, Owner 

Conclusion

After completing this project, it remains clear that taking time to understand all details of the business process fully allows for more creative solution development. In addition, clear communication increases confidence in project progress on all sides, prevents scope creep, and keeps the final target clearly in focus. Finally, multi-pronged solutions incorporating off-the-shelf products, custom-designed elements, and improved process flows provide the flexibility needed to address all pain points successfully.