Page 150 - DCAP307_PLANNING_AND_MANAGING_IT_INFRASTRUCTURE

Planning and Managing IT Infrastructure

Notes The firm was founded in 1952, has currently 25 employees and exports to most parts of the
world. The factory established its website in 2001. This website includes a company profile,
pictures of furniture products, and a contact page with a standard form for electronic
inquiries. The website has developed into an important communication platform for
customers to make inquiries, many of which are questions on where to buy certain products.
“We didn’t know how well-known we are”, says company owner Jørgen Kjersgaard.
Currently, the company receives around 10 to 15 inquiries a week. Increased communication
with final customers is one of the most important changes the Internet has brought to the
company. The firm’s website is linked to the Manufacturers’ Index in Danish Furniture
On-line. Kjersgaard could not say how many contacts are triggered through the
Manufacturers’ Index, but as long as it does not cost anything to be listed, he finds it is
worthwhile. His suggestion on how to improve the Index would be to include a search
function for furniture styles because many customers are looking for certain specific ones.
Aksel Kjersgaard does not sell online because the high-quality furniture they produce
does not lend itself to be sold through the Internet. “Our customers want to see and touch
our furniture”, says Jørgen Kjersgaard. “If anything goes wrong, it is expensive to send
furniture back and forth”. For this reason Kjersgaard prefers to sell through selected small
brick-and-mortar vendors who also offer customer service. Online procurement practice
at Aksel Kjersgaard is limited to goods such as machine parts and software. Direct production
goods, particularly wood, as well as metal fittings, are bought offline because, as Jørgen
Kjersgaard says, “there is no fixed price; you need to talk and negotiate”. However, the
Internet has been a valuable source of information about suppliers and their products in
the past six years. Kjersgaard found several suppliers through the Internet. Most of the
direct production goods come from Europe, but there are also suppliers from other parts
of the world like India, for example.

Three people dealing with administrative tasks work with computers in a local area
network with ADSL Internet access. The computers are used for common office purposes
such as document exchange. Computer skills are acquired informally, for example by
consulting friends and colleagues. In early 2004, the company introduced small CRM
(Customer Relationship Management) software, a standard solution from a large software
company, for accountancy and storage planning in order to improve customer tracing.
The current number of customers is 400, mainly furniture vendors. Since most of these
companies are small, they are not very advanced in e-business and improve their e-
business practice slowly. Most of the orders come in by fax, only around 2% by e-mail, but
the share is increasing.
Jørgen Kjersgaard does not see notable security problems related to the Internet, nor does
he complain about complicated or expensive technology. His greatest concern is that
competitors can look at his products online and copy them. In the future, he plans to search
for customers more comprehensively through the Internet. Currently he uses the Internet
mainly for verifying potential new vendors of his products. Their websites are an excellent
source for judging if a vendor is right for selling his high-quality furniture. Before the
Internet age, an agent had to look at the potential vendors personally – in this respect, “the
Internet saves a great deal of money”
Conclusion
The case study of Danish Furniture On-line and the Aksel Kjersgaard cabinetmaker factory
presents a good example of how small firms can use the Internet for customer service and
marketing. While comprehensive e-business use may not be useful for many small
furniture manufacturers, the Web offers opportunities for increasing the number of end
customers and intermediate vendors, selecting more and better suppliers as well as

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