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WendPartners Extends DUMAC's Point-of-Sale Systems Nationwide
Posted on January 4, 2002
EASY SYRACUSE - When Jeffrey Coghlan of WendPartners, one of Wendy's largest franchise groups, and Dumac's Howard McCarthy shook hands in an Elmira, NY, coffee shop one morning in 1989, neither grasped the signifi-cance. Soon, that handshake would be repeated in hundreds of restaurants throughout the country. At the time, Coghlan was a principal in a single Upstate New York Wendy's franchise consisting of eight restaurants, none equipped with a Dumac busi-ness system. During the next 12 years, WendPartners exploded into 39 franchises with 225 restaurants nationwide. Dumac's Panasonic Point-of-Sale systems are in almost every one of them. The business relationship grew because Dumac's foresight provided WendPartners with a POS system that matched the company's aggressive expansion plans and autonomous franchise business model. The system links the departments in each restaurant - from ordering to paying. This allows for quick, efficient cus-tomer service and customizes information breakdowns on such things as sales, customer flow, and inventory analysis for integrated franchise operation. The data is then transmitted to WendPartners' two administrative backrooms in Upstate New York for the company's centralized corporate business activities. At different ends of the corporation, for example, the sys-tem makes sure there's double cheese available in inventory for a burger for the customer and that the company that supplies the cheese is paid. Much of Dumac's success in keeping pace with WendPartners' mercurial expansion can be attributed to its stepped-up technical support group and rapid-response Depot Service structure. Together, they keep the point-of-sale business at the WendPartners restau-rants running smoothly from New Mexico to Florida to the one in Cortland, NY, about a mile from the chain's headquarters. "We expanded as opportunities presented them-selves and once Dumac became involved, it was appar-ent we were getting value-added benefits along with the company's top-of-the-line equipment," Coghlan says. "The entire Dumac package played an important part in our rapid business growth." McCarthy, he says, brought a genuine concern for WendPartner's business to the table. "Howard dedicat-ed himself to understanding our particular business model," Coghlan says. "He grasped our 'partners' model and actually elevated Dumac from a supplier role to a more vital vendor-partnership level that blend-ed with our corporate concept." McCarthy's understanding enabled him to tailor a POS system that could be tailored for each franchise but integrated corporate-wide, facilitating the group's expansion plans and centralized administrative require-ments. His energy revamped Dumac's vaunted technical group from a daytrip automobile operation into a high-tech international service center in Syracuse, supported by a bags-packed administrative, training, and technical staff ready to move on the fly. Extending the company's service core made it possible for Dumac to quickly and effectively react to any situation in any WendPartners location. McCarthy extensively researched other corporate service setups - and even experimented with outsourcing installation contracts - before settling on Dumac's home-based model. Since warehousing equipment was essential to the operation, it made sense to also centralize technical expertise for think-tank knowledge exchange and customer convenience. Supporting the service center with a swat-like ability to get equipment and staff swiftly to a customer's location completes the cycle. "When a customer calls our toll-free number, the problem is diag-nosed and usually solved during the conversa-tion," McCarthy says. "If it is a mechanical interrup-tion, we can overnight new equipment and walk the cus-tomer through the installation by phone. But, when a situation requires us on-site, we'll dispatch a team to the location and personally make sure all systems are go when it's time to open up the next day."
Dumac did just that for WendPartners in Pennsylvania. "While not the norm, I received a call around noon one day and the customer wanted to upgrade the system immediately. We were on-site that day, began disassembling the old system right after the 11 p.m. closing," McCarthy says. "The new one was installed and serving the first customers at 10 a.m." ~ Hardware service people worked through the night on installation and troubleshooting. Then, training and support people took over preparing the staff on the system before opening. They remained throughout the day for support. "While equipment breakdowns are few, we have this service strike capability when necessary," McCarthy says. Dumac's Depot Service caught on quickly because it also saves a customer the cost of the industry-standard annual maintenance/retainer contract. Dumac is on call around the clock but only charges for specific jobs, which means large sav-ings, particularly for multi-operations such as WendPartners. Panasonic took notice of Dumac's national potential. It is now the exclusive Panasonic distributor in 12 states. i Dumac's dependability made it a known quantity as Coghlan and his partner, Louis Topper, managed their company's exponen-tial growth. When Coghlan and Topper expand, they find a quali-fied person - usually with a Wendy's background - with ties to the franchise area to join them as the franchise's operating partner. McCarthy was a quick study analyzing WendPartners' business structure and developing an adaptable program that each operating partner would understand and be comfortable installing. This was a key element for Dumac's success since individual operating partners determine vendors and suppliers. McCarthy positioned his company so its selection was as close to a "no-brainer" as -possible. Coghlan and Topper looked at others but found their plans centered on systems that were more convenient for their company, rather than WendPartners. "It was obvious to me that Dumac's approach differed because it was customer-oriented," Coghlan says. The company's transition to de facto global technical support capabilities not only made it relevant to WendPartners, it opened a g world of corporate doors. Dumac now actively markets to a num-ber of national accounts and has serviced accounts as far away as Central America and The Virgin Islands. "The WendPartner's account revolutionized Dumac by moving us into the big leagues in both service capabilities and corporate planning and objectives," says McCarthy. "Dumac was no longer the little Central New York cash register company. Our success at Wendy's showed we were ready and able to play on the national scene, just as long as we didn't lose sight of the little things that made Dumac successful historically." Those things are the essence of Dumac's corporate culture - provide customers with the best equipment, develop it into a crisp functioning system, and back it with service like no one else in the field. Since it's easier said than done, the successful transition to national prominence exemplifies the determination Dumac brings to any job. When he shook hands with Coghlan at breakfast 12 years ago, McCarthy was given the green light to call on an about-to-be fran-chise, WendCello, in Monticello, NY, about 225 miles from Syracuse. After installing a Panasonic POS system there, the loca-tion became the furthest Dumac had wandered from its roots. "As things took off from there, it was such a departure from business as usual, I actually had to learn how to book business trips from scratch," McCarthy says. McCarthy knew business travel would be integral in servicing the WendPartners group in order to keep the relationship interac-tive and on-point with each franchise operation. While important for upgrades and new product introduction, McCarthy's field availability was essential, establishing confidence in Dumac's Depot Service throughout WendPartners' far-flung franchise operation. McCarthy didn't just become a vendor, he became a business part-ner who happened to be a vendor. As Dave Thomas epitomizes Wendy's good burgers and chicken sandwiches to TV viewers, Howard McCarthy personalized Dumac's good business and solid support to the 35 franchise operating part-ners in 39 locations. Paul Gronbach, an operating partner with 12 restaurants in New Mexico and Texas, had some apprehension about the long distance factor when he opened in 1993 but was won over by McCarthy. "I liked the POS Panasonic system and was confident about Dumac's service capabilities because of Howard's determination," Gronbach says. "I believed him when he said that Dumac would do whatever it took to get the job done." Gronbach, who actually began flipping burgers with Dave Thomas in one of original restaurants in Columbus, OH, in 1971, hasn't been disappointed. "We never had a register go down that a phone call to Dumac's headquarters would clear up any system glitches. When equipment is required, it's overnight expressed and running the next day." Marty Roberts, operating partner of nine-month-old WendTal, a group of 11 restaurants in Tallahassee, FL, had genuine concerns about how geography would affect Dumac's ability to both ade-quately train his people and then provide on-going service to keep the system running. "I certainly wondered if I'd be better off with a local company," Roberts says. "But, during the on-schedule installation, I began to realize Dumac people weren't satisfied with just doing what the job called for. The technicians went beyond the scope of the immediate work and found things in the system that were functioning fine, but could cause problems in the future. They didn't have to do that and I was impressed." So impressed, he says, that his early apprehension about long distance service was eliminated after the installation and training stage. "After seeing the extra diligence of Dumac staff, I had no concerns they would keep my system running and my doors open," he says. "Many vendors can do a good job, yet still not quite meet a client's high expectations. Dumac met all of my expectations and frequently exceeded them." Dumac won't be able to sit on its laurels though. WendPartners will add four restaurants to the chain this year and has 27 new ones in the development stage. Hopefully, McCarthy has developed a taste for airline food. He may be one of the few people around who eats on a plane on the way to a Wendy's. |
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