Have you noticed how many gambling opportunities there are available today? No longer are games of chance limited to Vegas and Atlantic City. While these venues market themselves as entertainment, business looks at gambling very differently. Companies place bets every day. They gamble raw materials will arrive on time and will be what was ordered. They gamble customers will continue to buy products with a sustainable financial margin. They wonder if employees will be up to the task of running and if needed, adjusting production processes to maintain the quality. Every business rolls the dice with varying odds, but all share a common factor, risk.
Google recently gambled $2.6 billion cash for the software company Looker. At the time, Looker had around 1,600 customers While specific revenue numbers were not available, they claimed to be on a path to $100 million revenue annually. Google placed a 25 times earnings bet on Looker relying on market potential and reduced risk of missing an opportunity. Supporting this bet is IDC’s projection for the worldwide big data and analytics market to be $260 billion in 2022. A 1% wager seems reasonable. Google needs to differentiate their offerings versus Amazon and Microsoft. Looker is a tool that might set them apart. Even a company like Google, renowned for their ability to create and bring to market new ideas, can benefit from a well-timed acquisition.
Fortunately, supply chain logistics have advanced to nearly eliminate all risk related to the timeliness of incoming materials, but with every supplier change, new risks arise. Employees equipped to make informed production decisions also reduces the risk of increased scrap or the worst case a line shutdown. Industry or Quality 4.0 are driven by the idea that digitization and more data will reduce risk and have a financial pay off. Every year manufacturers wrangle with how they will make their bets.
What does this mean for Hertzler Systems, our clients or prospects? It demonstrates concretely the value of partnering with businesses and their teams to solve problems by bringing together all relevant data to reduce risk. Over 35 years, we have been a part of hundreds and hundreds company stories helping them reduce their risks and make their gamble (investment) on GainSeeker software pay off in as little as a few months. Odds everyone can embrace.
In recent years, we have further committed ourselves to partnering even more closely with clients to achieve their goals and further improve the odds of success. A required part of our engagement process is an onsite Design Day. We engage with the clients stakeholders, gathering them to dig into risks they want to reduce or eliminate. The Design process has increased engagement for everyone. The day results in a detailed plan that all parties embrace, own and work to bring to completion. We are a quality software company, but also much more. Every day we work with manufacturing companies to bring together data from all over their enterprise. That comprehensive data view reduces risk and improves your odds of solving nagging problems, quickly.
As 2019 wraps up and 2020 comes into view, what bets will your company make? There is a finite stack of chips on the table but rarely a shortage of possible bets. Where will the biggest payoff be? What risks will be eliminated? All of us at Hertzler Systems are ready and eager to help you improve the odds.
