|
CD sales- There was little discussion of this during the formal presentation. Thirty thousand CD's were sent to Wonderwear on time, but wonderwear had some problems with their factory suite software, and did't mail out the TPRO cds until their own were ready to ship. Approximately 18 thousand were shipped two - three weeks ago, the remainder are being shipped during the next two weeks. A few "early arrivals" e.g. early orders for the disk have been received. They have also sold some through their own channels. Victor, what they were pushing at the SHM was that TAVA has the software and database to identify the problems, the engineers to be able to fix the problems - and those are both commodities. But what TAVA thinks is unique is that they have the individuals that understand how the two integrate. They kept emphasizing that they want to "efficiently" remedy the problem with a proven methodology. They spoke of companies that did not want to divert their own staffs to work on chip remediation even when the problem areas were identified. The disk represents "gettng our foot in the door" - Hurd. Fallon or Kelso noted the database now holds 10,000 items and continues to grow. When an item is found suspicious or non-compliant, it takes 2 1/2 hours per item to fix it. Accessing the data base costs $5000.00. The typical plant might have 100 items at $200.00 an item (or more) to fix. It is this integration that Jenkins views as one of the keystones of his company's success. One other thing, they said that they are not having any problems in finding engineers because of the speciality field, and because they are geographically diversified. They have added 75 engineers since June (7 or 8 engineers have left through attrition). CD sales are important, and they are using the idea in developing unique applications (Bake One and Bev One), but this is still an engineering company, and that is where they see their future. Bottom line, CD sales probably have not contributed as much to this quarter's profits as anticipated, but without a committment to purchase the CD, none of the other wanted services can occur. Jenkins referred to this tension build up caused by the time frame as a "tidal wave." The impression he left us with was definitely one of being posed on the very percipice of the wave, with the momentum moving inexorably forward. FMA |
