|
Case Study: Smith-Miller & Hawkinson
Case Study Index
Small Architectural Firm Attracts Big Customers
 A business bursting at the seams with new clients. Runaway popularity. A "tres chic" reputation that's growing the business by leaps and bounds. For an architectural firm, that's good news. But it can be bad news when a burgeoning client portfolio strains small-company resources.
Smith-Miller & Hawkinson, a wildly popular architecture firm in New York's trendy SoHo district, has a modish construction style that's triggered an avalanche of demand for its services. Founded in 1988 with only three employees, the firm's hot style soon spread beyond local celebrity clients and caught the attention of national customers - Corning Glass, Princeton University, and The Los Angeles Cultural Center.
What should have been good news became a potential problem, as growth outstripped the ability to keep in touch with far-flung clients.
|
|
|
|
Scrambling on the Inside
A small staff of three struggled to keep control of the runaway success, while continuing to grow the business. Ultimately, Microsoft technology made it possible for this small business to look big on the outside while remaining lean on the inside. Expanded now to 25 employees, it has vastly extended its reach - and its clientele - across the nation.
"On the outside, we looked OK," recalls principal Henry Smith Miller of their fast expansion. "But internally, we were scrambling. Before, getting a blueprint to a customer was as simple as making a local phone call. Now we were suddenly working against a 3,000 mile distance and a 3-hour time difference. We faced some real challenges for keeping in touch with our clients."
| |
|
|
Help from Microsoft
SM&H contacted a Microsoft® Solution Provider, Creative Technologies, to build a computer network solution, one that would integrate their architectural and business software while linking staff and customers electronically. Creative Technologies had been trained in developing effective software solutions using Microsoft products.
Creative Technologies began by installing a flexible, scaleable Windows NT(tm) and Windows® 95-based network to integrate with their existing network. This allowed SM&H to share files and printers more easily and to interconnect their office with a reliable and powerful Windows NT Server.
At the desktop to provide easier sharing of documents and automating their everyday tasks, employees switched to Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Office for Windows 95 applications. They also adopted these applications for their built-in Internet features and easy Web browsing capabilities. Microsoft Mail and Microsoft Exchange added e-mail capability.
| |
|
|
Electronic Cabbies Save Time
In the old days, a blueprint could be cabbed across town to an eager customer. Today, SM&H uses electronic cabbies - a easy-to-use e-mail solution that delivers information across the room, or across the country, with equal ease.
Desktops in the New York office are hooked up to the Internet through regular phone lines via a local service provider, while an ISDN line links in the Los Angeles office.
SM&H also leverages the C-2 (Government approved level of security) security features of Windows NT to keep their designs and correspondence confidential and their server protected from outsiders.
| |
|
|
The Network Runs,
So They Don't Have To
SM&H staff used to run themselves ragged trying to keep up communications with distant clients and offices.
Now, instead of waiting for an overnight express package, documents can be requested and delivered electronically. And any employee visiting client sites away from the home office can dial up the SM&H server in New York. They instantly obtain documents, data, blueprints, or e-mail messages - it's a seamless flow of good communications that supports better decisions and faster customer responsiveness.
"Right away we noticed the difference in productivity," says Smith-Miller. "Our new communications links also enable us to fully maximize the resources of both our New York and Los Angeles offices and service our customers better."
| |
|
|
Next stop: The Web
SM&H is also planning to leverage the Web using their Windows NT Server, which includes Microsoft Internet Information Server to host their Web site, and Microsoft Internet-capable applications.
A Web page is a great opportunity to show an electronic "architectural portfolio" that reaches many more customers than one-on-one sales pitches, yet with the same fresh immediacy.
Internally, SM&H staff will be surfing the Web for instant access to building codes, industry trends - even scoping out the competition.
| |
|
|
Going Further with Less
SM&H aren't exactly armchair travelers, but these days they do let their electronic fingers do a lot more of the walking.
They get to concentrate on what makes their business competitive - award winning and trend setting designs - without wasting time or resources on communications errors and bottlenecks.
They've grown their business without the growing pains, and linked it efficiently using solutions from Microsoft.
For more information on creating a communications infrastructure and leveraging the Web, see Leverage The Internet section of this site.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbiz/communicate/hawk.htm (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)