SDD announced the appointment of Toni Gorlei to the position of managing director, effective 12 March.
Gorlei, who has considerable experience in production and logistics management, channel management and sales and marketing in the motor industry, says his intention is to focus on making SDD the best distributor in the country through a renewed focus on customer service and support.
"Our single biggest opportunity right now is to address internal challenges, including the replacement of systems which caused a deterioration of service levels," states Gorlei. He says the focus will initially be on these internal challenges, then external, resulting in SDD being able to offer the right products, at the right time, at the right price.
Key to this strategy is the implementation of the Profitability suite from Ability. "We have been testing this business system throughout March and are ready to go live on 2 April - this has created a great deal of optimism within the organisation as an opportunity to do it right this time," he says.
Gorlei believes the key to delivering appropriate service levels lies in establishing how forgiving the market has been throughout the difficulties encountered over the past eighteen months with the previous business process. Teething problems, he says, are inevitable, but with most hiccups ironed out in the testing phase, he is optimistic that the superior system will deliver. "One needs to be pragmatic. We previously created a huge expectation in the market and, sadly, we short-delivered. SDD now must address the gap between the expectations and the delivery; at the outset we must establish what dealers and retailers expectations are and strive to meet and exceed these," he states.
Gorlei observes that other challenges facing the IT industry include the aftermath of Y2K - there has been a significant decline in sales since this great non-event, evidenced by plummeting technology markets. "No-one has been untouched by the changing markets, but SDD is determined to take the bull by the horns, knowing that continued profitability is about becoming better than the competition," he notes.
He stresses that customer care is one of his favourite subjects. "Early in my career I realised that people often make promises they cannot meet. From this I learnt there are those you can rely on and those you cannot," he says. He believes this to be a common problem within the IT industry - massive expectations are set, and then short delivered upon. "While I believe there are many authentic visionaries who sincerely believe in what they're selling, there is a real problem with delivery. To avoid this situation, it sometimes is better to walk away from a deal than to short-deliver on a customer's expectations," he says.
Dealing effectively with customers and the products they are buying from you is crucial. "I believe customers can be forgiving; and the higher the technology involved the more forgiving the customer will be. While we do have areas where we can improve at SDD, I believe with a renewed focus on customer service and honouring the commitments we make, SDD can become the distributor to boast the best service and convert this into a tangible business advantage," he concludes.
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