"A Degree of Excellence," by Tom Larrison

At Crystal Computer Corporation, it is our goal to foster an environment that will produce a “degree of excellence” from our products, our services, and our people.

It is impossible for us to define for you a quality Network Management & Control System. However, as you define and negotiate the process of selecting the right system for your operation, quality will be an unspoken goal that will become the ultimate influence.

Some of the factors that impact quality may be:

• “ Cost is supreme.” Of course your selected system must fit within your budget. However, as cost narrows the potential vendors from five to three, you must still decide among those remaining.
• “ Delivery time is critical to this project.” Without doubt, meeting your schedule or customer’s schedule is imperative.
• “ We expect to grow; flexibility and expansion is at the top of our list.” Without these qualities, a system will render itself useless to you in a short time.
• “ Support is critical to our operation.” A responsive, professional support staff and flexible plan is a critical component of your decision process.

At Crystal, we would say that each of these is an element of Quality. You may choose to pay more if your quality standards are not met by the least expensive vendor.

While you’re evaluating prospective M&C vendors regarding their degrees of excellence, you’ll be considering issues such as:

• Does the prospective vendor strive to work with you on schedules while still maintaining its quality standards?
• Does the vendor’s sales engineer explore your future plans with you so that your system is designed to meet your needs both now and in the future?
• Does the prospective vendor provide experienced staffing, a 24-hour response center, guaranteed response times, a back-up of your system on servers, and more? If not, what is your perception of their service?

Our company slogan includes the word quality. To us, this word means much more than a good product. It is part of our company culture and environment: from our product, CrystalVision NMC, to our employees, to our customers.