- Advertising – the owner of the company Dan Cintra sends adverts to English Skateboard magazines and then sends a cheque within 3 weeks of the advert being published.
- Events – the company holds skateboard competitions to get publicity.
The company does all this to help increase sales of boards, and other stock
Purchasing Function
Note sends an order form for what ever stock they need to companies, which is done via email which is set up by the creditors. They also use purchase orders to request for the manufacturers of the boards to create a certain amount with a design of their choice.
Purchase Order Decks
When they receive their products an invoice always comes with it as proof of the sale. This is then logged into the database, which by using formulas makes any changes to monthly profit and stock amounts.
The Finance Function
The finance function in the company is handled by Adam Hardman, he handles, the accounts receivable, payable and budgeting and forecasting. He keeps this data on a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel.
- He sorts out what money needs to be paid when
- He chases round for money the company is owed.
- After money is paid and collected, he works out a sensible budget and predicts profits for the next few months.
Below is a typical monthly accounts receivable spreadsheet.
When Adam has overlooked this spreadsheet he looks at a similar accounts receivable spreadsheet pictured below, then he pays wages to shop workers and works out how much money the company has to spend in following months.
It is important that the company keeps records of expenditures and income. If any money were to go missing it would be found straight away, or if the company thought they were more successful than they were, they would spend more money on research and development than they could afford and go bankrupt.
Here is a diagram of how stock and money is passed between manufacturer, new deal and Note
Design Section
Unlike many manufacturing companies, Note doesn’t employ designer’s to design their Skateboard decks, or clothing range, the company logo was designed by the Company owner Dan Cintra, which is used on a range of hats and tee shirts. The company tries to involve their customers as much as possible. They often run competitions for designing a deck. This is what the competition entailed.
- Customers had to design a new graphic for a deck
- It cost £1 to enter
- After 2 months the company would look through all the entries and pick out the best three
- The overall winner would get their design on a new board, to be sold in the shops the next month, and receive 5 of the boards free and £50
- Runners up would receive a free tee shirt and £20 each.
This is a clever method of keeping the customer involved and getting support and more customers.
Research and development
Over the last 3 decades skateboards have evolved rapidly, recently companies have been trying to find different ways of developing better sliding decks, which means a smother slide when your board is grinding. Some of the following have been done,
- New Wave – this means the board has ridges going vertically along the board meaning less surface area on the object enabling a faster slide.
- Super slide treatment – this is a chemical put on to the board to enable a smooth slide, its kind of a lubrication method.
Recently the note researchers have come up with a new, cheaper method of making smooth sliding boards. Concave. Making a board slightly concave means less surface area on an object. This method is much better than the other two; it’s just as smooth as super slide and new wave have been known to crack down the ridges. Designs are sent by Note to New Deal via Email. Designs are made on Pro Desktop by parametric technology corp. The introduction of this software is a great advantage to the company, because the 3d design allows new deal (manufacturer) to build a more accurate model.
New wave
Conclusion
I.C.T plays a big part in Note, purchases can be made faster, boards made better, money records more reliable and so on. Emailing invoices and purchase orders allows Note to give a more efficient company, the ‘what if’ function benefits customer needs and pro desktop means boards can be made exact to the last ridge on the wood. No people lost their jobs due to computers in the company so overall I believe I.C.T has benefited Note and allowed it to be a more reliable, efficient business.
