|  Devastating
Natural Disaster Triggers Need for Real Asset Management
International
Wink Companies, LLC spends 3,000
man-hours evaluating destroyed assets after Hurricane
Katrina
Wink Companies, LLC (www.winkinc.com)
invested in Real Asset Management International’s
(RAMI) inventory and tracking management software during
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Established in 1970,
Wink has 870 clients and specializes in commercial and
industrial engineering, architecture, surveying, project
management, and procurement services
In the midst of a tremendous growth period, Wink now
has over 630 employees located in 9 separate offices.
Initial considerations for an asset management system
began back in 2003, although the project never came to
fruition. Two years later on August 28, 2005, Hurricane
Katrina demolished Wink’s corporate headquarters
in New Orleans. With no record of what was in the building,
it was impossible to estimate the value of what had been
lost. After 3 months of evaluating and recovering destroyed
materials, estimating replacement costs, and processing
paperwork, Wink finally placed the $2.6 million insurance
claim they needed to finance their rebuilding efforts.
The recovery process was considerably more difficult due
to the lapse in time between when Katrina hit and when
the company actually received the insurance funds.
“About six weeks after the hurricane we decided
that we must implement an asset tracking and inventory
management system, no matter what the cost – it
wasn’t an option,” said Russell Carter, Wink’s
Purchasing Manager. “We truly experienced the failure
of not having a system in place beforehand.”
After evaluating ten separate software solutions, Wink
selected RAMI. “Series4000 was the most complete
solution for our need,” said Angie Ogden, Asset
Control Specialist at Wink. She continued, “Right
now we’re using Track4000 and Inventory4000 to manage
7,300 assets. Within 6-8 weeks we expect to bump that
number up to about 10,000.” Angie can now produce
a report that lists every asset, and its replacement value,
on every floor of every building. “Our main goal
was to have a complete and accurate record of all assets,
a goal I can confidently say we’ve attained,”
said Angie. Wink went live with Track4000 and Inventory4000
in July 2006.
Only six months later, in December 2006, they realized
how accurate each office’s asset inventory was.
“In one hour, I can run a report that says the
first floor of building X has X amount of dollars worth
of assets. If we'd had these systems in place before Katrina,
we would have saved three months in our recovery process.
It’s too bad that it took a real disaster for us
to realize the value of a company like RAMI,” Angie
explained. In addition to the aforementioned benefits,
the company is now enjoying much lower insurance premiums.
Every month they provide their insurance company with
updated coverage values for each floor of every location.
“We can also track items by employee. For example,
if a staff member leaves the company, their manager has
a list of all items assigned to them, such as a cell phone
or BlackBerry, even keys to the office or remote login
access,” Angie concluded. “It's an added security
feature.”
Wink is experiencing phenomenal expansion. Estimating
25% growth per year for the next three years, the asset
base is obviously increasing as well. Next they will implement
Lease4000, which provides complete control over finance
and operating leases. Implementation of Asset4000 and
Document4000 will come further down the road. “We
have the entire Series4000 suite at our fingertips. It’s
just a matter of implementing the modules one-by-one,”
Russell remarked.
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