Case Study: All American Driving School

Challenge:

All American Driving School is in the business of providing driver's education to Nevadans and has offices in Reno and Las Vegas. Since 1987, Nevadan Ken Kruger has owned and operated the busines

Every year, All American Driving School makes the majority of its revenue in summer, while drawing from its savings to make it through the rest of the year. Adding to a highly seasonal revenue stream was increased competition from high schools that were teaching more and more driver's education courses throughout the school year.

Visit All American's Website

With about 80 percent of its business coming from the new driver market, the company needed to get ahead of the competition and stop the roller-coaster sales cycle.

Additionally, All American's internal processes were manual. In place was a paper-based system for scheduling driving lessons, tracking student progress, billing, and driving instructor payroll. The result: Inefficiencies on both the employee side and the customer side.

All American realized their first profitable winter immediately following implementation of the online courses.

Opportunity:

In 1999 the Nevada legislature required all new drivers to take driver's education prior to getting their license (NRS 483.255). While the requirement raised market demand for driver's education, new courses offered at high schools meant increased competition for the School.

And in 2001, a new law (NRS 483.725) gave instructors the ability to conduct driver education courses online. Kruger saw this as an opportunity to reach individuals with a need for driver education and a preference for web-based learning - basically every teenager under 16!

Solution:

Kruger saw the opportunity to capitalize on the new online market segment while also improving the company's internal business processes. He called on Erlach Computer Consulting to create an e-business model centered on Internet-based technology to benefit both the School and its clients.

"I had a good idea of what I wanted to do," Kruger said. "Erlach figured out what we needed to make our idea work!"

All American realized their first profitable winter immediately following implementation of the online courses.

Using its ability to see how technology can improve business operations, Erlach researched the company's internal and external processes and created multiple custom applications conducive to the company's interest in increasing efficiency and profitability. The School's new e-business development included two phases.

Phase 1: Offer online courses and increase sales

The goal of the first phase was to capitalize on the newly passed legislation to allow online driver education. To do so, Kruger first wrote his own driver education curriculum and then worked with Erlach to deliver the courses via the web while adhering to legislative requirements. Available courses are:

For Adults:

• Driving Instruction
• Traffic Safety
• Nevada Handbook
• Nevada DUI Level 1

For Teens:

• Driver Education
• Driver Instruction
• Traffic Safety

Because the majority of Kruger's business comes from the teen market, the teen Driver Education course is the most extensive course. The course is self-paced, but is tracked to show the student's progress through the 30 hours of material. At the end of each section, there is an interactive quiz to test the student's learning.

While the site tracks how long the student spent online, the main legislative requirement Kruger has to meet is to make sure the person who takes the final test is the one who receives the certificate. Instead of building an elaborate online verification check, students simply come into the company's office to take the final test.

Result:

The 3-month development project launched on time and on budget. Now that the classes can be conducted online anywhere at anytime, Kruger is no longer on a roller coaster sales cycle. The revenue stream has evened out and increased 30 percent. Most importantly, last year they saw their first profitable winter.