Story Title: Nevada Industry Excellence Helps Nonprofit Manufacturer Grow Profitably

Client Profile: High Sierra Industries, Inc. (HSI), is a nonprofit manufacturer employing approximately 150 mentally and physically challenged persons who perform light manufacturing services for other area manufacturers. HSI has been producing wire harnesses and other electrical and electronic components in Reno, Nevada for over 25 years.

Situation: HSI challenged itself to increase production and thereby serve more of this largely under-served population, but found it was limited by its existing computerized accounting systems. These limitations included systems that they had outgrown and that were no longer supported by their hardware and software providers. Separate systems were not compatible with each other and weren't capable of the detailed labor and other cost reporting required for grants and job and product costing. HSI didn't have the cash and human resources it needed to professionally analyze its current and future computerized accounting system needs and contacted the Nevada Industry Excellence, a NIST MEP network affiliate, for help.

Solution: Nevada Industry Excellence serves as an Industrial Extension Program for the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). Nevada Industry Excellence engaged one of its NSHE partner institutions to provide assistance for HSI by bringing in the University of Nevada's College of Business Administration personnel. Stephen Kerr, Assistant Professor of Accounting and Information Systems, along with Simon Jooste, an undergraduate student intern, donated their time and expertise to assist the company in forming a cross-functional team using an evaluation matrix to organize competing perspectives and decide the goals of their first planned system development life cycle. This work took about 18 months to complete and resulted in the company successfully transitioning to a new computerized accounting system capable of meeting its current and future requirements.

Results:
* Increased revenue by over $3 million.
* Increased number of employees by 30 percent.
* Reduced customer lead time.

Testimonial: "Nevada Industry Excellence's Project Manager, Bob Bricca, helped us increase by over 30 percent the number of persons we serve by providing the link to technical assistance which enabled us to transition to our new computerized accounting system."
 - La Vone Brooks, CEO

Activity Period: 2007-2