Technology with a dash of “old-school”
Dan Nesmith acknowledges having what he calls "old-school tendencies" -- especially for the owner of a technology company. But in his opinion, that's one of the strengths behind the success of Bend, Oregon-based Paladin Data Corp.
Technology's mission is simple: to help people. And that can only happen, Nesmith explains, through intimate knowledge of how people work, and what they're trying to accomplish.
"We are not a company mission-bent on computerizing everything in sight," Nesmith told HBSDealer, during a telephone interview.
That means a lot of the research and development behind Paladin's products comes from old-school methods -- taking the time to understand the markets, meet the customers and find out what's going to help the store.
One of the company's hallmark products -- market driven inventory management -- is an example of technology-for-the-sake-of-results thinking. The product is designed to improve the management of the single largest expenditure of a dealer's business, it's inventory.
"While inventory management has largely been computerized, it's usually nothing more than the computerized version of the old manual," Nesmith said. "The old-fashioned system did the same thing at probably a lower cost."
What computerization brings to the table is "pattern recognition technology" to sift through every order, every quote from an ocean of data, leading to truly automatic stocking. "How do you manage 40,000 items every day?" Nesmith says. "You need a computer. This is the kind of thing that helps businesses and helps their customers."
The technology solutions Paladin and others provide don't exist in a vacuum. All around the retail business, the impact of digital store fronts is gaining traction and retail is changing.
Nesmith describes one new challenge facing business owners is to be successful in an environment where the importance of brick and mortar locations is slipping. And customers are expecting to have the power of the full store at their fingertips in the form of a mobile phone. More will be done from the job site and from the customer's vehicle.
"It's almost as though the store becomes the invisible component, just one more tool on their mobile device," Nesmith said. "And while the store will still be there for all the usual purposes, the mobile empowerment is going to continue to explode with new ideas new opportunities."
And also, it will involve thinking differently about ways technology is used. A classic example in this area are truck drivers, once seen as
an unlikely group to adopt high-tech tools. Those hurdles were cleared by introducing interfaces with large print, sharp contrast and bold colors, he said.
"Technology solutions have to be written for people, not for computer programmers, not for web designers, but for the people who actually work in these industries," he said.
These business ideas have kept Paladin in growth mode since it was founded in 1980 -- before the mouse, before Windows, and well before the web.
"Compared to the length of time our stores have been in business, 35 years isn't long," Nesmith said. "But for a tech company, we're one of the older ones out there."