Tài liệu Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study doc

Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc.
Case Study
The Company
Corporate Vision
“Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. is dedicated to increasing shareholder equity by
increasing corporate profits while at the same time maintaining the high quality
standards for which the company is famous. Our goal is to be the recognized
market leader in our stated target markets.”
from the company’s 1998 Annual Report
Corporate Profile
Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. is a Chicago-based engineering, architecture, and
project management firm. Founded in 1948, it has grown to over 800
employees with revenues in 1998 approaching $230 million. Corporate
headquarters occupy seven floors of a prominent office high-rise in downtown
Chicago, with satellite offices in Detroit, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Indianapolis,
and Louisville.
The following charts present 1998 revenue by line of business and location:
Line of business 1998 revenue (in $000s)
Architectural design 88,744
Project management 50,120
Electrical engineering 37,002
Mechanical engineering 26,881
Civil engineering 20,375
Landscape engineering 4,935

Table 1.1 Revenue by line of business

Location 1998 revenue (in $000s)
Chicago 112,545
Detroit 39,293

Milwaukee 31,048
Indianapolis 23,070
Cincinnati 13,214
Louisville 8,887

Table 1.2 Revenue by location
56 Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study



Current Status
Today, Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. can be characterized as follows:
!
Number 1 architectural firm in the Midwest.
!
Growth acceleration in past 2 years as satellite offices added.
!
Consultant team:
• 620 consultants (billable resources) with varying expertise.
• Average billable time for all consultants: 92%
• Average tenure of consulting personnel: 7.5 years.
!
Marketing team has 25 people in central office and 2-3 in each satellite.
!
Sales team tends to focus on highly visible architecture projects by
maintaining an extensive corporate contact list. Sales meets with potential
clients and draws up proposals. When a proposal is agreed to in principle, a
contract is drawn up. The legal department reviews and approves all
contracts.
!

Human Resources department is responsible for maintaining all state
certifications for engineers and notifying all internal support members when
employee statuses change.
!
Landscape Engineering team has garnered a number of awards in the
industry.
!
Drafting group is a separate profit center that is usable by any line of
business.
!
Majority of clients pay promptly and in full for services.
!
Average tenure of nonbillable new hires: 7 months.
!
Consultants are issued a company vehicle for travel to customer's sites.

Future Business Directions and Plans
In an effort to increase revenues and profitability, Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. is
considering forays into the following areas:
!
Construction
!
Property leasing
!
Real estate
!
Legal services

Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study 57

Other goals include:
!
Current lines of business
• Focus on higher-margin complete design contracts, such as architecture,
landscaping, and engineering.
• Increase repeat business percentage.
• Launch national advertising campaign to increase name recognition in
architectural, engineering, and project management fields.
• Get on government preferred agent lists in every state where there’s a
satellite office.
!
Offices
• Open four new offices, for a total of ten, over next 18 months.
Eventually, open satellite offices in 40 major metropolitan areas.
• Open offices in Europe.
!
Staff
• Add 250 people, for a total of 1050 (more than a 30% increase), over
next 18 months. Long-term goal is 2000+ people.
• Set up systems so that all salespeople can work from home and the road
(no offices).
• Streamline support staff needed in each satellite office.
• Train more internal support people to move into consulting.
• Create a family-friendly workplace.
• Lease vehicles for senior employees.

Corporate Challenge
The intense commitment to customer service that prevails at every level of

Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. creates a number of challenges as the company
grows in different areas. Information has become increasingly harder to
disseminate to the consultants at the central office, let alone those at the satellite
offices. The Information Technology (IT) department has needed to learn a
number of new technologies to continue to support existing customers, as well
as compete in the increasingly diffused world of the Internet.
Technology
Recent Staffing Changes
In 1998, the board of directors and senior management came to the conclusion
that the firm’s IT efforts were inadequate. One board member, who was
familiar with studies of effective business uses of technology, contacted a
consulting firm that had been involved in several business and technology
studies. After examining Ferguson and Bardell, Inc.’s IT practices and
accomplishments for two months, the consultants brought a set of
recommendations to the board.
58 Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study



The most controversial recommendation was to remove the position of IT
Director, which at that time reported directly to the Chief Financial Officer
(CFO), and to create instead a Chief Information Officer (CIO) position within
senior management. Several board members, including the CFO, wanted to
keep the organization chart as it was, but the consultants were insistent, and the
board agreed to the change.
The new CIO, who came aboard in October 1998, was highly recommended by
his former employer, a regional law firm where he had risen in five years from
Network Manager to CIO.
Current Technologies
The former IT Director, who had decided to leave rather than take on the

redesigned position, had spent the previous year putting a new network
infrastructure in place and enabling Internet connectivity across the enterprise.
The following table describes the computing technology currently in use at
Ferguson and Bardell, Inc.
Technology Description

Desktop
Minimum configuration is a Pentium 233 with 32 MB
RAM and a 2 GB hard drive. Most systems run Microsoft
®

Windows
®
98; approximately 25% run Microsoft Windows
NT
®
4.0 Workstation.
Laptop
Minimum configuration is a Pentium 200 with 32 MB
RAM and a 1.2 GB hard drive. Most systems run Microsoft
Windows 95; approximately 15% run Windows 98; and
approximately 5% run Windows NT 4.0 Workstation.
Network
100 MB ethernet, primarily switched. T3 between most
offices. TCP/IP protocol. Usage peaks at 10 A.M. and 1:30
P.M. with load of about 55% at those times.
Servers
Minimum configuration is a Pentium 233 with 128 MB of
RAM and a 2 GB hard drive, except for certain machines
used for testing. All systems run Microsoft Windows NT

4.0 Server.
Internet/intranet
All fixed users have Internet access through the network,
going through both Microsoft and IBM firewalls. Company
intranet, which has been in place only since Summer 1998,
is hosted by Microsoft Internet Information Server.
Electronic
messaging
Exchange Server.
Corporate
database
Corporate standard is SQL Server
™
6.5.
Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study 59



Technology Description

Other notes
Extranet was brought up and fully functional on February
12th, 1999.
40 CAD workstations run several different versions of
AutoDesk AutoCAD for Windows.
Most communication is via e-mail between administrative
and management staff and consultants.
Many consultants use company-provided personal digital
assistant (PDA) with built-in synchronization with MS
Outlook

®
to track hours.
Accounting system in use for 3.5 years; runs on SQL
Server 6.5.
Sales team uses networked sales tracking and contact
management software.

Future Technology Directions
Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. wants to implement the following technology
improvements in the near future:
!
Build training and skills tracking system.
!
Narrow approved technologies list.
!
Deploy Windows 2000 in fourth quarter 2000 at the earliest. More likely
date is mid-2001.
!
Move more administrative tasks to intranet/extranet-based applications.
!
Provide interfaces between company phone system and desktop computers
in all offices.
!
Standardize fleet of notebooks and PDAs.
!
Migrate all company documentation to intranet/extranet.
!
Reduce cost of maintaining fleet of notebook computers.
!
Add computer imaging technologies to sales information.

!
Provide more timely and accurate financial information to middle
management at satellite offices.
!
Utilize more advanced features of Microsoft Office to streamline
consultant’s communications.

60 Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study



Time and Billing
Resource Scheduling
Billable resources are scheduled using a Master Scheduling Sheet. This large
Excel spreadsheet has dates across the top and names down the left side. Each
person who manages resources maintains a smaller scheduling sheet that lists
all the resources for which he or she is responsible, such as engineers,
designers, and administrative assistants. They are listed alphabetically, by last
name then first name.
When a project needs resources, the manager checks the scheduling sheet to see
who is available during the project’s time frame. If someone with the skills
required to do the work is free, the manager blocks out that person’s time by
filling in the appropriate dates with the name of the project. If nobody is
available, the manager has to either juggle resources or negotiate project date
adjustments with the salesperson that sold the job.
Difficulties arise in the resource scheduling process because the spreadsheet
does not include a column that indicates the abilities of each resource. Even if
such a column were added, the information about a resource that could be listed
in the spreadsheet would be limited. For example, if a resource’s primary
qualification is as a civil engineer but he or she also has electrical engineering

experience, it is difficult to list both in such a way that either skill or a
combination of the skills can be searched for or sorted on.
A further problem is that the scheduling sheet is not integrated with the
calendar system. Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. uses the calendar features of
Outlook and Exchange, but very few people keep their Outlook calendars up to
date. As a result, managers cannot judge the availability of resources by
checking people’s calendars. When managers plug resources into a schedule,
they either send an e-mail to the people affected, telling them what they are
doing and when, or try to page or call them. Because there is no link between
people’s calendars and the scheduling sheets, the sheets don’t reflect vacations,
meetings, and so forth. If a manager schedules a resource who has another
commitment, the manager has to go back to the spreadsheet and start over.
The system worked when each manager was responsible for fewer than 30
people. Now, with Ferguson and Bardell, Inc.’s drive to create a flattened
organization, some managers are scheduling as many as 100 resources and can’t
possibly keep track of everyone’s skill set, much less everyone’s calendar.
Timesheet System
The timesheet system is basically a manual process. Consultants use a Word
table set up as a template to create a new timesheet each week. At the top are
places for the employee’s Name, ID Number, Department, Title, Status, and
Supervisor. Below is a table with columns for Date, Job Number, Category,
Phase, Total Hours, Billable Hours, Mileage, Meals, Lodging, and Description.
Consultants fill in, line by line, how they spent their work time during the week.
Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study 61



Each task is supposed to have an associated Job Number, which is assigned by
the Accounting office to each job or project. Consultants are supposed to be
told the Job Number when they are assigned the work. However, sometimes

they are given the wrong Job Number, and sometimes the project is so new that
a Job Number hasn’t yet been assigned to it.
The Category and Phase columns are primarily for larger projects. Category is
the generic type of activity, and Phase refers to the part of the project being
worked on. Sometimes these columns are left blank. For smaller projects that
have no discrete parts, there is nothing to put in the Phase column. For some
projects, consultants may think it is obvious what the activity is and leave the
Category column blank, assuming that an administrative assistant will fill it in.
Consultants also sometimes leave the Total Hours and Billable Hours columns
blank. Not all of the work done by everyone in the company is billable. For
example, billable resources may sometimes go to training sessions.
Occasionally, someone may decide that a task took longer than it should have,
and they list the time but do not list it as billable.
Consultants use the Mileage, Meals, and Lodging columns to record expense
items. They have to turn in receipts for all meals and lodging.
The last column, Description, is important because it goes onto the customer’s
invoice.
If consultants are logging an expense that doesn’t have a column on the
timesheet (for a book they purchased, for example), how they list the expense
depends on its purpose. If the expense is billable to a client as part of a project,
consultants list it under one of the three expense columns and then explain what
the expense really is in the Description column. If the expense is not billable to
a client but is an internal expense, it isn’t logged on the timesheet at all. Instead,
it’s handled through an internal purchase-order system.
After consultants finish filling in their timesheets, they e-mail them, either
through Outlook or via the Internet, to the central office using a Timesheet alias
that has been set up in Exchange.
One of the biggest problems with the current system is the possibility of error.
When consultants enter their own time in the Word table, the program can’t
check the data as it is entered, and consultants often mistype or miscalculate

their hours, especially when the table runs to two or three pages.
Consultants frequently enter wrong Job Numbers or no Job Numbers at all. If
the Job Number is wrong, the time gets billed to the wrong project. Sometimes
errors are caught before the invoice goes to the customer, but occasionally they
are not, and the customer receives an incorrect invoice.
The timesheet is static data. In other words, nothing on the screen changes as
people enter data to give them feedback about what they have entered. They can
total the numbers manually, but often they are hurrying to finish the timesheet
and e-mail it before a deadline, and they do not take the time to check it
thoroughly. As a result, they might leave out an entire day, or they might enter
hours twice. If a total on the table were updated every time consultants
completed a line, they would be more likely to get their timesheets right the
first time.
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Consultants’ timesheets are not linked to their Outlook calendars. Some people
use these calendars, and others use other calendar programs or hand-held
devices. Whatever time-tracking method they use, they have to open it up, read
its data, and then re-enter the data into their timesheets. There is no quick-and
easy method for importing calendar data into the timesheets, even as a starting
point that can then be edited.
The current system often leads to duplication of data. Consultants store data in
various devices and documents. Then, they re-enter the same data into their
timesheets. Later, an administrative assistant will enter the data again
somewhere else.
Because of problems with the timesheets, employees often complete their
timesheets at the last minute. The timesheets are often late, which makes the
rest of the process late.

Timesheet Data Entry
The administrative assistant’s role in the process begins when the timesheets
are received in the Timesheet alias in Exchange. Because of the volume of
timesheets, eight administrative assistants have access to the alias. The process
is time-consuming, so they rotate the task among them. No matter who is doing
the work, the process is the same. The administrative assistant opens the e-mail
and saves the attached timesheet in a directory named for the employee. The
administrative assistant then renames the file to the date the e-mail was opened.
Finally, the administrative assistant opens and prints the file.
When the administrative assistant has a paper copy of the timesheet, he or she
enters the data into the time and billing add-on software for Ferguson and
Bardell, Inc.’s accounting package. Each week, the administrative assistant
prints a summary of each project team’s time for the week and faxes or hand-
delivers the report to the appropriate manager for approval. The manager
reviews each consultant’s time totals and either approves or disapproves the
time for that consultant. The manager then faxes or hand-delivers the signed
summary back to the administrative assistant, along with any notations of
approval or disapproval. Timesheets are disapproved about 5 percent of the
time, usually because consultants have not entered all their time, or they have
miscalculated it in some way.
If a timesheet is disapproved, the administrative assistant e-mails it back to the
consultant with a note explaining the manager’s reasons and asking the
consultant to correct the timesheet and resubmit it. The original timesheet is
deleted so that two timesheets do not exist for the same time period. Then all
the approved timesheets are posted into the time and billing system.
Some weeks, the administrative assistants enter over 10,000 line items into the
time and billing system. Although they are skilled typists, they make mistakes.
Most of the errors are caught in the review process, but some get through to the
customer.
Three problems occur with the current timesheet system. First, the number of

errors in data entry is high. Second, the amount of time needed to process the
timesheets each week takes too much of the administrative assistants’ time.
Third, the timesheet data is stored in at least three locations: the employee’s
computer where the timesheet is created, the central directory where the sheet is
stored, and the time and billing system where it is re-entered. As a result, data
integrity is difficult to guarantee.
Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study 63



After the timesheets are posted to the time and billing system, the
administrative assistant creates trial invoices and prints them. He or she sends
the trial invoices to the appropriate managers and salespeople for review. After
they all sign off on the invoice, the trial invoices are posted to the main
accounting system, which runs the actual invoices.
Some of the firm’s work is billed on a project basis, and some is billed on an
hourly basis. Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. bill the time for all projects the same
way, no matter how much time consultants spend on them. When the time
allotted for a project is exceeded, the company loses money. Because of the
way time is tracked, often no one knows the project is over its budget until the
administrative assistant does the invoice. There is no way to track time by
project and compare the amount of time actually spent to date with the amount
of time originally budgeted for in the bid or contract.
Business Issues Related to Time and Billing
(from an interview with the CFO)
Four basic business issues relate to the current time and billing system.
The first issue is the inefficient use of resources. Each resource has a certain
skill set, but there is no adequate record of that skill set. For example, one
person may be marginally competent at a given task, and another may be
exceptionally competent at that same task. A manager might assign the

marginal person to a project because he or she doesn’t know that the
exceptional person is free at that time.
Ultimately, an inefficient use of resources leads to loss of revenue. Customers
want a resource adequate to the job at hand, but only adequate. The goal is to
send the appropriate resource to the customer. If a manager sends a $200
resource to do a $50 task, either the company bills the customer $50, in which
case the company loses money, or the company bills the customer $200 and
risks losing the customer.
We recently lost a job because a manager thought he didn’t have a resource
with the required skills available. In fact, someone was available, but the
manager just did not know it. This sort of situation sends salespeople and
management absolutely over the edge. One salesperson quit over that particular
incident. She had spent six months trying to get work from that firm, and when
she finally negotiated a contract, our internal systems were not coordinated
sufficiently to deliver a qualified resource to the customer, even though one was
available.
There are two additional issues with the current system. The first is the cost of
the time associated with filling out, entering, and reviewing timesheets, and
then generating, reviewing, and mailing invoices. Although spending a certain
amount of time is inevitable, there must be a way to reduce it. Cutting just 15
minutes a week from the time spent filling out timesheets adds up to over ten
hours of time saved a year. Multiply that by 800 resources, and the savings is
over 8000 employee-hours a year.
The area most in need of improvement is data entry. If the process were even
partially automated, we could cut one or even two administrative assistants.
Considering the loaded cost of even one of those positions, that alone could be
enough to justify the cost of writing a new piece of software.
64 Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study

Another option is to assign the administrative assistants who are no longer
needed for data entry to other, more productive work. As we grow, those two
people, who already know Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. and who already
understand the work, would be available for new assignments and could be
productive from the beginning.
Another more esoteric business implication that can, in some cases, have a
major impact on the bottom line, is the cost of money. A contributing factor is
the current invoice cycle. We send out invoices twice a month, with terms of
net 30 days for almost all clients. Most clients actually pay in around 45 days. If
we are having a fiscally tight month because we’re waiting for large invoices to
be paid, we sometimes have to move money out of our line of credit and into
the payroll account to cover payroll. We pay interest on this money. The rate is
not high, but over time the interest can add up.
We currently process invoices twice a month because the entire time and billing
cycle takes two weeks. If a week could be shaved off the time required to
process an invoice, the money for that invoice would come in one week sooner,
and we would pay less interest. Over the course of a year, the savings could
really add up. The current estimate of those savings is approximately $500,000
a year.
Another factor is that we are constantly losing money on projects that go over
their time allotment. We lose thousands of dollars on some of these projects
because they are fixed-bid projects. Most of the project managers complain that
they cannot get good data on how much time has been spent and how much is
left. Before they even realize it, they are over the allotted hours on part of the
project, or even on the entire project.
Additional Interviews
Chief Information Officer
Ferguson and Bardell, Inc.’s dedication to becoming the premier architectural
and project management company in the Midwest has put it in a number of

interesting positions from a technology perspective.
The company has always stressed communication throughout the organization
as a way to stay focused and ahead of the curve in dealing with clients. In line
with this philosophy, all of Ferguson and Bardell, Inc.’s employees have access
to the company’s intranet and e-mail system. If they work from home or in the
field, they are provided with notebook computers and are expected to maintain
at least daily contact with the company. This level of contact within the
company, and the flow of information throughout, is evident in our level of
repeat business with clients.
Ferguson and Bardell, Inc.’s goal of staying ahead of the curve in the client’s
mind mandates that we vigorously pursue new technologies and identify how
they might benefit our processes. The company has hired a number of driven,
intelligent developers over the past several years who are responsible for
solving any business problems we encounter and for streamlining the
organization.
Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study 65



We are now faced with both expansion at an unprecedented rate in our core
businesses and expansion into new business arenas. Our IT team has been given
the challenge of migrating the internal systems to distributed technologies and
creating new systems to facilitate our expansion.
We are very focused on continuing our relationship with Microsoft and using
their technologies to streamline our business, increase our visibility and, as
always, promote our relationships with our customers. New technologies will
allow our development staff to make distributed computing a reality. The Web
has allowed us to offer more services to our team of consultants without
requiring them to install new software. Workflow and collaboration tools have
improved our communication both between satellite offices and internally.

Consultant
With these timesheets, the dates aren’t there, job numbers and project categories
aren’t there, I have to total hours for the day to know what to bill, and then I
have to add a description. The length of the description depends on how much
time I have, and then sometimes they ask me to add more. The Category and
Phase fields should just go away because I work on the same things all the time.
And giving me a list of descriptions to choose from would make filling in
timesheets easier.
Clients have complained about our process, and sometimes they get the wrong
bill. I don’t know how billing works, but sometimes you look at the description
on the customer’s invoice and it’s wrong, or my description has been mistyped.
Sometimes hours are missing so they can’t see what was used to calculate the
amount they owe. Customers notice the discrepancies, especially if they think it
should be less than they’re being billed for. Sometimes we over-bill by
accident, and it makes my job hard. Usually, I don’t care about billing; I just
want to do my job.
Right now all the information ends up in a SQL Server 6.5 relational table with
information on projects and project categories, but for some reason only a
certain number of categories. There’s information about each consultant and
who they’ve done work for, and there’s information about what consultants do,
but it’s not hooked up with other information, I don’t know why. The only way
to change data is to add additional journal entries. The accounting table stores
all this stuff about the data for invoices.
Manager
I need to have at least 60% billable time for each consultant to make money, but
I would like to achieve 80-90% utilization based on a 50-hour workweek. For
reports, I just want to know that people are on site and working. I want to know
the hours they’re working and the hours they’re billing. I have to figure out
when to hire people, and the only way I can do that is to have the consultants
send me their timesheets when they submit reports through Outlook, and then

key the information into Excel.
66 Appendix A: Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. Case Study



Administrative Assistant
My typical day’s work with invoicing is a nightmare. Customers and
consultants call and complain about wrong bills. I e-mail and call 60
consultants a week to remind them to turn in their timesheets. I’m always on the
phone. I get a timesheet and print it. We have 600 consultants, and we use a lot
of paper on Monday afternoons. Sometimes it takes until Tuesday to get it all
done. Then we key all the data from the timesheets into the accounting system.
Sometimes consultants don’t put in categories or descriptions, and I have to fill
in those columns. Sometimes I even make things up, just so that there are no
blanks. Then I print out pro forma invoices. I put them in the managers’ boxes,
and they sit there until I call all 50 managers to come and look at them and
approve them. Managers sometimes scribble on the invoices so that I can’t read
them, or they tell me they’re wrong but don’t say why. So I have to call the
consultants. Sometimes a manager tells me I’ve missed one of the consultants,
and then I have to re-key all the changes, print out the new invoice, and give it
back to the manager. They seldom really make changes, or at least not until a
customer calls and yells.
Support
My biggest concern with where the company is headed is Web server
stabilization. Our Web server and e-mail systems are integral to the business
environment. We don’t have extensive experience working with ASP files and
components. We will need to pick up additional training to be able to add
functionality using these technologies.
The only other area of concern I have is the fact that Ferguson and Bardell, Inc.
is expanding at an enormous rate. We have plans for foreign offices, and I don’t

want any new applications to become a staple of the company and then have to
be taken down while international support is added. “Robust” and “flexible” are
what I need.
Oh yeah, and any new applications need to give real error messages. I hate code
numbers.