Page 51 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

(L-R) Alex Diaz & Mike Lasater built Peterson’s version of the EZ-Tech laptop for truck diagnostics
nology and what we could possibly use out in the field. Since Bill Nicholson took charge, things have really changed. It’s a night-and-day difference.”
Finding ideas and tools that make technicians’ lives better is what the IT Service Group is all about. Tackling the daily service report, howev- er, has been a tough challenge. “One of our main goals is to minimize the time technicians spend typing out their service reports,” says Diaz. “Most techs hate to type. It takes up a lot of time they could be working on machines. We’ve tried several different speech-to-text apps, but the technology just isn’t there yet 100 percent. We’re still looking for the right tool for them.”
Redundancy and risk management are also a big deal for the IT group. In 2017, they added a new cloud-based backup system to their toolbox. It can create an image of a technician’s computer while he’s still using it. “With Carbonite, we don’t have to take their computers away to create a backup for their system anymore,” says Diaz. “It’s a low-band- width, low-impact program, so the technician doesn’t even see the backup running in the back- ground. That’s the beauty of it.”
BEING THE DIFFERENCE
The collaboration between Peterson’s six hundred service techs and the IT group is just one example of proactively shutting down old silos and working more as a team. It’s also a great illustration of get- ting Peterson’s Strategy off the poster and down into the day-to-day operations.
In November 2016, Kevin Culligan, VP of sales strategy for Peterson Machinery, received an email from the equipment director of Baker Rock Re- sources, Brian Young. They had decided to spend the extra million dollars and buy from Peterson instead of Volvo or Komatsu. “The sale was made long before we spoke,” read the email. “It was made by the parts people who identify and pull the right parts; the service group who dispatches quality mechanics who work efficiently and accurately; and the sales staff that understands our business needs.” That sale was an eight-machine package worth $4.5 million. And Peterson got it because Peterson people were doing their job, day-in and day-out, with excellence, accuracy, and teamwork.
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