When an acquaintance wanted to start a clothing store, she wanted to convert a house for this purpose. The idea was to adapt a few smaller things, but in the end the building was almost demolished and rebuilt.
She originally wanted to do all these renovations without an architect, but converting a house into a shop has a huge impact on everything and you only have one chance to do it right. How can you be sure that you are working according to the legal standards and the latest techniques? How do you know that you can get subsidies? Who takes responsibility if something happens? How do you know that you are working with the right contractors? In addition, there is a commercial aspect: How do you ensure that the shop is attractive to customers? Is the building well located? Is there sufficient parking? In the end, she decided to hire an architect after all.
Now suppose there are no architects, who will draw the plans? The bricklayer? Who will then also draw the plans for the roof construction, the plumbing and the electricity? How can you be sure that the plans are much in line with the wishes of the contractor? Or do you have the plans drawn up by each contractor separately? How can you be sure that everything will come together to form a beautiful whole? A client usually only has to deal with the construction or alteration of a house once, for an architect this is daily business. Fortunately, these are questions that we no longer have to ask ourselves.
The installation of a new IT system, a WMS or MES is somewhat similar to the construction of a house: It has an enormous impact on your company and you take out a subscription for years to something that can determine the success or loss for the coming years.
However, the approach is usually different: people do not call on a system architect but make a selection of an IT system themselves and install it without asking themselves whether the system fits into their environment, ultimately it is then the unique opportunity to review all the processes and ask themselves whether they are efficient and whether the new IT system can handle the expected growth.
Here a consultant or an architect has great added value. Every company has its own culture, its own preference, its own taste and that must be translated into the IT systems. That is analogous to the architect’s plan: every plan is different because it depends on the size and shape of the plot, the incidence of light, the orientation, etc.
An architect does not sell models or type plans, the house should not impose a standardized lifestyle on you, but the space is furnished according to the taste and the needs and the technical limitations. A house or implementation of software is always custom-made and consists of combining standard elements to make everything into a whole and this within a predetermined budget.
That is the approach of Qwix Europe: not selling some software and then hoping that everything will be fine, but addressing the real problems of this company. The question is often asked: “What will change in the next ten years?” The question that should be asked is “What will not change in the next 10 years?” and that can be responded to. Every company wants to provide the best possible service to its customers, and regardless of all sectors and products, all customers want the following:
- A greater diversity and range of products, with more colours and sizes or even personalised products: “I want a pizza Margherita” without tomatoes, mozzarella and basil but with olives, anchovies, mushrooms and broccoli with extra cheese”
- Shorter lead times, there is less and less stock at the customer, delivery must be faster and faster (next day): “Pizza delivered within fifteen minutes, otherwise free”
- More flexibility Mixed pallets, mixed boxes, 4 flavours of chips in one box, …: “Delivery must be when I am home”
Better quality: More megapixels, higher resolution, more functions, …
But … all this must be at a lower price
Only the companies that can adequately answer this will survive the future, there is no point in responding to just one of these customer requirements, you have to tackle them all at the same time, this is comparable to insulating a house, you have to make everything energy efficient, the floor, the walls, the roof, … otherwise it is pointless.
That is precisely the strength of Qwix Europe, for each sub-domain, this is now optimizing energy consumption, improving processes and the supply chain, the ecological and efficient design of buildings, in each sub-domain Qwix Europe has a specialist to optimize all sub-aspects in one go in order to ultimately achieve the ultimate goal: a better service to the customer at a lower cost. This is not only at the start of the project, but an endeavor, together with the customer, for continuous improvement.