News
"Tightening the Ship: A Small Plymouth Firm gives companies finger-tip control over their carrriers and the lowest cost always wins" By Pam Berry
Corporate Detroit
Mark Taylor was a young sales manager at Pitney Bowes in 1981 when he bought his first computer — a now obsolete XT — for $7,500. He used the computer to automate some of the functions at Pitney Bowes, and soon was placed in charge of marketing a computerized shipping system for the office machine manufacturer.
Taylor recognized that he wouldn't be able to climb much higher on the corporate ladder without a few gray hairs so he decided to leave Pitney Bowes in 1989 to start his own firm, TAYLOR Systems Engineering Corporation. Taylor's Plymouth firm provides computerized systems that help manufacturers and distributors select the best — and least expensive — method of shipping for their specific needs. For a company that ships a lot, the savings run in the many thousands of dollars.
"We call mainly on people who ship out more than 50 packages a day," Taylor says. "We've been able to make a huge difference in the way that they are able to save money and increase their profits by reducing their freight charges, improving their customer service departments and eliminating a lot of the time people spend keying in shipping information from their shipping area into their invoicing area so that they can print invoices on-line."
The company started small, with Taylor at the helm and his wife as office manager. A year later they added an engineer/technician. But despite the company's small size, it did a brisk business from the start. Taylor attributes their early success to the company's advanced technology.
"When I left Pitney Bowes, people had floppy disk systems when hard drives were already out," he says. "We were already networking computers three years before they were able to do that. Anyone who saw what it was that we could do and saw that nobody else could do it was willing to take a risk on us," Taylor says, noting that the company's small size also worked to its advantage. "We would tell people because we're small and specialized we can take care of you better," he says.
Today, TAYLOR Systems Engineering Corp has more computerized shipping systems operating in the Detroit area than its former arch-rival, and includes some heavy hitters on its client list: Code Alarm, Ford Motor Company, Unisys and Valassis, to name a few.
All of TAYLOR Systems Engineering's technicians are engineers who have specialized in computer programming. Taylor is considered an expert in the industry and is frequently asked to write for trade magazines, speak at national conventions and serve as an expert witness.
Taylor has a favorite joke he likes to tell his clients;
"Do you know what the difference is between a used car salesperson and someone who sells computer software technology?"
Answer: "A used car salesperson knows when he's lying."
There's more than a nugget of wisdom behind the joke, Taylor says. Many computer salespeople promise far more than they can deliver, figuring that because what they're selling is a computer, it can do just about anything. These days, the joke is on those competitors whose sales pitch falls somewhat short of the truth. While TAYLOR Systems Engineering is still considered a small company, it is shaking up the industry.
To compete, shippers like Federal Express and United Parcel Service are offering customers free computers to handle their shipping operations. The marketing ploy, Taylor says, has driven much of TAYLOR Systems Engineering's competition out of the marketplace. After all, not many companies can afford to give away free computer systems to all their customers.
But, as the old sayings go, "You don't get something for nothing," and "There is no such thing as a free lunch." The systems are set up in such a way, Taylor says, that most business is directed toward the company that sold them the system.
Recently, Taylor has replaced free systems at Unisys, Ford, Valassis and Publishers Storage with his own systems. "The reason why they're replacing the free systems is these people were able to see that our system is worth the money because they are able to get better discounts, better pricing or rate shopping," Taylor says. "These companies that are offering the free systems are trying to complicate and confuse the marketplace by locking someone into a free system."
Many business people, he adds, aren't aware of the large number of carriers available and the variance in pricing they offer, nor are they aware of the rate shopping concept.
"Some people think that UPS is the only company that ships out packages or Federal Express is the only air carrier," Taylor says. "That's just not the case."