Employee Spotlight: Lynn Lewis and Ashok Sunkavalli

Think, think, think and resolve.

That’s what Lynn Lewis, a business systems analyst, and Ashok Sunkavalli, an IT business analyst, did in tackling a complicated task related to a large customer's move to a new fleet of machines. Thousands of used machines would be returned to Tennant. How could Tennant keep better track of these floor scrubbers as they were returned and potentially reconditioned and sold?

Initially, Tennant concluded it would need to hire several full-time employees to manually input data in its system to track and manage the machines. An expensive and slow proposition. But a conversation between Lynn and Ashok changed things.

Ashok knew of a software tool that could interface with Tennant’s existing operating system and create a repeatable program to perform automated data entries.

Lynn knew that such an efficient process would work wonders with this project. From that point, she worked diligently to learn and test this platform to ensure it would meet the needs of the customer without impairing Tennant in terms of speed, capacity or accuracy. She realized immediately that this was a “game changer.” 

The ability to automate data transfers quickly and easily would minimize manual data entry and free people to work on other important tasks. Lynn saw many ways this software tool could be used for other processes at Tennant. And it is. Customer service, field sales support and field administrative support teams have adopted the software, and are using it to support other customers that turn over large fleets of equipment.

Lynn said that pushing to find a new way of doing something to serve our customers better is just part of what Tennant employees do. “Tennant is an innovator. We are always trying to understand what customers are looking for and how we can proactively get in front of them by delivering something that our competitors are not able to do.”

Lynn and Ashok are proof that innovation doesn’t just happen in a lab or engineering. Innovation happens when people are driven to find a better solution.