Optimizing Flower Delivery In A Small Business

music

phone ringing

>> Good morning, Hoogagian assumed spelling Flowers, this is Harold.

>> Harold Hoogagian has just received an order for a floral bouquet.

>> And that's for today's delivery -

>> From one of his best customers.

>> How do you want the message worded?

music

>> He needs to deliver the arrangement by two o'clock.

>> Great, we have email confirmation of your orders and deliveries.

>> And he's using IT to make it happen.

music

>> Hoogagian Flowers has been in business since the 1950s. They have ten employees and one retail store in the center of San Francisco.

music

>> Hoogagian took over the small business from his parents in the 1970s after getting a degree in genetics at UC Berkeley.

>> Harold, tell me why you decided to go into your parents' flower business.

>> Well it boils down to I was working at a flower stand one day, and deciding where I was gonna go to graduate school, and met a woman who was a funeral director, and decided that it was easier to stay in San Francisco and marry a funeral director and go into the flower business than go to graduate school someplace else.

music

>> In 2000 Hoogagian set up shop at a ten thousand square foot warehouse. This is where he coordinates his operations.

>> We do everything with the flowers. We take orders mostly over the phone or the internet, we produce them, which we call fulfillment, and then we deliver them.

>> For you, I just need your autograph here please.

>> I typical day at Hoogagian Flowers starts early in the morning, with sometimes as many as fifty calls and internet requests coming in at one time.

>> She'll get a nice variety -

>> Hoogagian and his staff enter the orders in the company's computer system. The orders are also integrated with mapping software, so his drivers can easily check where they need to go.

music

>> All of the drivers have walkie talkie wireless phones to stay in constant contact. They're also equipped with GPS so Hoogagian can track deliveries.

>> Hi, design center I'm leaving on the route.

>> Hoogagian can then manage the deliveries on his office computer.

>> What you're looking at is a non-graphic representation of where this driver's been for the last half hour. I can plot it on a map, and then you'll see a map with little vectors showing where he's been. He left our premises and went up, and he's downtown by Union Square right now.

>> Hoogagian has also built a website for his online customers. During peak periods, he says it can be a challenge meeting demand.

>> Especially during Valentine's Day.

>> Everybody wants their flowers delivered on Valentine's Day, and they usually want them first thing in the morning. Well that makes sense, but unfortunately we can't have every driver poised to make every delivery at nine a.m. on Valentine's Day. So we offer early bird specials.

>> Hoogagian's business has transformed significantly over the last twenty years, and IT has been at the forefront of the change.

>> In the old days when we took an order, you had a piece of paper. You had to make sure it was somewhere, and got put somewhere properly. Whereas when you take an order online or over the point of sale system, it's already where it needs to go.

>> Not gonna get misplaced.

>> Not gonna get misplaced.

>> Today his company is blooming. Hoogagian Flowers is one of the highest volume flower retailers in the city. Still, Hoogagian says every day is a new challenge with IT.

>> Do you have an IT person on staff? Or are you -

>> You're looking at him. It's amazing what turning something off and on will do. So you just deal with it. But by and large, technology is my friend.

>> One day he hopes to pass the business on down to his children.

>> What are the future plans for Hoogagian Flowers?

>> The future plans for Hoogagian Flowers is to convince one of my two children that the flower business is where they want to go in the future.

music

>> For V-Net assumed spelling, I'm Sumi Das assumed spelling.