Kintone Customers A-B Emblem and McCormick Distilling Named Finalists in Business Transformation Operational Excellence Awards

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Kintone, provider of a no-code application development platform used to quickly connect, organize, and visualize workflows, today announced that two customers -- A-B Emblem and McCormick Distilling -- have been named finalists in the Business Transformation Operation Excellence (BTOE) Award program.

Award winners will be announced at the Business Transformation & Operational Excellence World Summit on March 22 in Orlando, Florida.

Both organizations sought an affordable solution to modernize outdated processes and meet organizational goals for continuous digital transformation. North Carolina-based A-B Emblem, a custom manufacturer and distribution company that produces emblems, patches and insignia for companies around the world, is the North American division of Conrad Industries. It includes seven separate divisions, including three factories and four distribution divisions. The company produces over seventy million patches per year.

Heather Johnson, compliance offer at A-B Emblem, was named a finalist in the "Best Achievement in Operational Excellence to Deliver Digital Transformation" category due to her team's efforts to completely modernize and transform the company's supply chain using Kintone's no-code platform. A-B Emblem migrated their predominately paper-based system to Kintone in about two months, building a Supplier Portal which consists of 12 suppliers, 14 users and approximately six applications to help them manage internal purchasing processes.

"What used to take three days we were able to reduce to about three minutes," said Johnson. "And not only did we save a tremendous amount of time by using Kintone, we saved the company a good deal of money too. Supplier Portals can cost upwards of $1 million; we were able to build ours from the ground up for a tiny fraction of that and what we built in Kintone is far more customized than any off-the-shelf solution."

Johnson and her team also used Kintone's platform to redesign the company's quote system and the redevelopment of A-B Emblem's large, multi-company design team processes as well. The design team consists of three of Conrad's own companies (U.S., Mexico and China), as well as individual and third-party contractors, a total of 16 designers and digitizers. This created a seamless process between Conrad's customers, sales team, design team, and purchasing team through to the suppliers.

Betsey Thurlo, network administrator at McCormick Distilling, was named a finalist in the "Best Operational Excellence Project Under 90 Days" category. Founded in 1856, McCormick Distilling is the United States' oldest distillery west of the Mississippi River still operating in its original location.

Thurlo and her team struggled with organizational challenges due to the company's reliance on traditional processes, such as a paperwork, manual phone calls and email. Using Kintone's no-code platform, Thurlo and team first built an effective alternative to update the company's workflow process management and audit capabilities, then went to work building a no-code application for onboarding new McCormick employees which included everything from securing new computers to granting system access. Using Kintone's form creator plugin, the new onboarding applications lists all the new hire's needs, training components, and necessary safety equipment. By organizing several steps into one portal, Thurlo and her team streamlined the onboarding process and improved interdepartmental communication as well.

"Shifting time and attention to new tools - like Kintone-- only helps to revolutionize age-old processes," said Thurlo. "It doesn't compromise the integrity of the product, nor does it invalidate the operations that helped the company get to a certain point. This virtual shift is just simply the next step that will help companies like McCormick keep their focus on the timeless operations that truly matter."

Thurlo and her team also created Kintone applications for managing and streamlining McCormick's visitor log, media contact list, mileage records, daily notes for sales, purchase requests, account focus for sales, maintenance requests, and a capital expenditure purchase request app.

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About Kintone Corporation
San Francisco-based Kintone is making teamwork better with its no-code application platform that provides organizations with a customizable workspace that integrates multiple data sources for deeper insight into business processes. Kintone eliminates the cost and maintenance requirements of traditional off-the-shelf applications while dramatically increasing team and workflow efficiency. More than 10,000 companies have built, deployed and use over 500,000 applications on Kintone. Kintone is provided by Cybozu Inc, a Tokyo-based public company founded in 1997. Both Kintone and Cybozu are designated as great workplaces by Great Place to Work, a global authority on high performing workplace cultures. For more information, please visit https://www.kintone.com/

SOURCE Kintone Corporation