Today we continue our new feature to “Outside the Box with FSI” with our routine employee interviews. Our employees are excited about what they do for our clients, and we would love to share some of their views and experiences with you. Our last interview came from our customer service department, and today, we will switch over to our IT Department. Let’s see what’s on the mind of FSI’s Director of IT, Daryl Gramling.
· How long have you worked at FSI? I joined FSI at the end of 2001.
· What is your role at FSI? My job title is Director of IT, but I see myself more as an assistant to the FSI Sales Team. The whole point of having an IT department at FSI is to enable us to bring in new Clients as seamlessly as possible, and to support FSI’s primary goal in keeping those Clients satisfied year in and year out.
· What did you do before FSI, and how in the world did you get roped in with these guys? Prior to coming to FSI, I was an independent software developer and consultant. Before that, I was a programmer at a printing and fulfillment company originally known as American Graphics, which I joined in 1989.
· What separates FSI from other fulfillment companies? What makes FSI different? It’s a chicken and egg question. Which came first, the innovation or the people? I would say the people came first and brought their innovative ideas with them, so it’s ultimately the people that make FSI different. It has been great seeing new people come in and grow into key parts of the team.
· FSI is unique from other fulfillment companies by having fulltime IT employees, such as, yourself. How does this benefit our clients? Clients love it because they know they are investing in flexible capabilities that can grow with them, rather than being tied down to a system that can’t change as fast as they do. Every business evolves, and when it does, having the behind-the-scenes resources to make adjustments or even develop entirely new systems is a great help to Clients. I think most Clients understand that they don’t need a fulfillment provider, they really need a partner. Some of our competitors certainly can ship packages just fine, but FSI can help ensure that when the unexpected happens, we’re on their side working toward a rapid solution rather than saying, “Deal with it and let us know when we can start shipping again.”
· FSI has enjoyed some growth (13,000 ft² - 150,000+ ft²), longevity (14+ years), and won some awards along the way since the business began in 1996. What would you attribute FSI’s success to? It goes back to people and innovation. I like the fact that FSI has a number of incentive programs that drive a constant stream of new ideas across all departments. It forces people to re-think what they do rather than get stuck in a process that worked great years ago but has outlived its usefulness. Granted, not all ideas will fly, such as the one where employees use GPS and jet-packs to pull inventory faster. We lost a couple of good employees that way (laughing). Seriously, some of the ideas we get through those incentive programs have made a huge impact in keeping things streamlined so our overall value to Clients remains high.
· How has the fulfillment business changed since you started with FSI? One challenge is that fulfillment has become too much of a commodity. The constant need to streamline, plus the state of the economy, have conspired to make it much harder to highlight the value-added services that help our Clients distinguish themselves from their competitors. FSI has gotten so much business over the years from fulfillment companies that refused to invest in things like barcode technologies because it cost too much money. Well, it cost our soon-to-be Clients to the tune of a nearly 20% error rate, so they switched to FSI because the cost/value ratio was so much better. Does it cost more to do things right? Of course it does. But we can look at customers who have been with us for 5 and 10 years through innumerable changes, and their continued confidence in FSI is enormously rewarding.
· What do you envision for the future for FSI? The FSI model definitely works for our Clients, so I see continued growth, not only for our small business Clients but also an increase in the number of Fortune 500 brands we support. Just last month we rolled out a brand new system called FSI Promos to position FSI as the place to go for sweepstakes and prize fulfillment programs. It literally lets our CSR team set up certain types of new fulfillment programs in minutes, and we’ve already set up about 30 programs with it. I think it will really take off, especially as the economy recovers. And of course we’ll continue to keep our primary focus on what we do best: core product fulfillment. So FSI’s future continues to look good.
· What do you enjoy doing with your spare time outside of FSI? I love spending time with my wife and two kids, and in my free time I write extensively, with a long-awaited book about to be published and several more already in the works. People always ask, “where do you find the time?” I guess I burn a lot of midnight oil.
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