XYZ Solar Co. is a solar panel manufacturer. The company provides solar panels to residential and commercial customers. The goal of XYZ Solar is to get as many homes as possible to switch to alternative solar energy. In other word XYZ Solar wants everyone to fire there power company and get off the grid.
However, many people use their local power company out of habit and necessity. Most of XYZ’s potential customers are skeptical of alternative energy sources, like solar. Outfitting a building for solar energy can be costly. People will only switch to solar if they can be shown that their overall power costs will decline and they can continue the same life-style of power use.
The XYZ Solar leadership believes that with the right effort the obstacles in our way can be overcome. With hard demonstrated data, XYZ will convince potential customers that solar power is reliable and more cost effective. Currently XYZ has 20,000 customers. As alternative power grows more popular and people look for ways to save money XYZ expects to expand to at least a million or more customers in five years.
With expanded operations and revenue, XYZ Solar will be able to vertically integrate its efforts. This will include other forms of environmentally friendly energy such as wind, tidal, and geothermal energy. These efforts will go a long way to providing more power for the planet.
XYZ Solar Co. must create a better data system for its business environment. XYZ Solar has to keep good records of its employees. An effective way has to be used to maintain a database on XYZ Solar customers. XYZ Solar also needs a data record of customer appointments. Most, importantly, it is also essential for XYZ Solar to have a billing data system to ensure correct accounts receivable.
Using an SAP database, XYZ can build and keep employee records. Currently, XYZ Solar does not maintain files of its team members. There is no database to show current employees from former employees. XYZ Solar cannot tell which employees are eligible for benefits or salary increases. The company also is not able to maintain effective records of employee ratings and disciplinary actions.
As a result of this poor record keeping, the company has kept paying a terminated employee. There was also another instance in which an employee was terminated and no one ever told him and he continued to work and receive pay. Then, possibly worst of all, XYZ hired a convicted armed robber after a background check on him was never conducted.
Currently, XYZ Solar does not maintain an automated list of customer addresses and purchases. There is no way of knowing a residential customer from and commercial customer. The company loses customer information though human negligence or vindictive employee action. There is no way to gauge a trend in purchases or customer desire. By using the SAP database, XYZ Solar can track its current customers, know what has been purchased, and gauge the type of customers that the company attracts.
SAP database can keep a record of customer appointments and distinguish the types of appointments. At the present XYZ does not keep a record of customer appointments. Personnel have no way of knowing a sales appointment from a maintenance appointment. The company has no way of knowing how many times a customer has called us for maintenance or been solicited by us for business.
At XYZ Solar, there has to be an effective automated database that tracks customer billings. There have been instances in which customers have been billed for the wrong item they purchased. People are even sent the bill for service to another customer. Customer addresses are not kept up to date in the present file system. There is no way of properly charging for maintenance calls by customers.
With the SAP database, these operating practices can be remedied. Good employee records can be maintained. Then most importantly, customers can be better served.