Case studies at the Center
Continuing series...
Subject:
Extranet applications: Cut costs, improve customer service and ROI
Learn how to streamline your sales department with Dextranet™
September 16, 2002
Case study: Milval Printed Circuits Inc., an electronics contract manafucturer in Toronto ON., was looking for an interactive e-business approach that would both largely engage its customers and cut internal costs at the same time. It chose Dextranet™, a powerful extranet portal solution from GCIS.
Extranet applications decreased the company's reliance on its CSR's
"Extranet applications helped receiving orders over the Web and largely decreased the
company's reliance on the customer service representatives (CSR's), who typically
get orders over the phone or fax and then key the orders back into the computer system
a second time, sometimes creating human errors", says George Bales, Milval Printed
Circuits MIS manager. "It saves time & money for us, and for our customers it means one less
chance for error in the data transfer of the order. And because it's linked to our
SAP ERP system, all our customers get specific, real-time pricing on every order,"
Bales adds. Milval Printed Circuits has annual sales of about $ 400 million.
"We initially contacted two different IT consultants firms, both in the Toronto area. After three presentations, a question period and two final proposals from both vendors, none was retained. The first solution called for a proprietary, closed-end solution that relied on ordinary phone lines to directly connect between our 4 main offices located in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. The second proposal we got from the other firm did call for a Web-based solution, both could not be integrated to our SAP ERP system in any way", says Bales.
Extranet applications cut internal costs and increased ROI
"We had been looking to find a better system. At the outset, we were almost convinced
a good Web-based extranet application could both serve as a portal, both for our
customers and our own people, be it in the office or in the field.
Dextranet™
is a rapid and ergonomic extranet-based, portal ordering system developed
by the people at GCIS. Right from the initial trial period, it succeeded with high
marks, even surpassing our expectations. The extranet portal is fast, easy to use,
requires little training and helps our people give better customer service", says
Bales.
"Since Dextranet™ went live in April of 2002, it now accounts for about 17 per cent of the firm's off-the-shelf printed circuit business, or about 6 per cent of total annual revenue", Bales says. "That success came partly because Milval aggressively marketed its extranet portal to its customers even before the implementation of Dextranet™ took place", adds Bales. "The people at GCIS even helped us in getting a head start at that", says Bales.
Extranet applications yield the fastest payback
"In our first initial meeting with GCIS, they told us they estimated the payback period
to be approximately 18 months. Since we implemented
Dextranet™,
our sales went up about 2% because our sales people are less busy shuffling paper, wich
means they can now really devote more time to every customer, wich is really what
customer service should be in the first place" says Bales. "Our accounting now tell us
our payback period is looking more like 12 months instead of the original 18 that GCIS
initially estimated", says Bales, smiling.
"Our SAP ERP system has been in place since the end of 1999, so we know exactly what is happening inside our company's finances. Another element we like a lot about Dextranet™ is its ability to integrate smoothly with any ERP system. We were very doubtful about that in the beginning. We heard so many negative stories and problems about that fact in the past it made us skeptical", says Bales. "As a whole, most ERP systems we know of are not always easy or flexible when you want to tie-in additional outside systems such as an extranet application or portal", affirms Bales.
"We are totally satisfied with Dextranet™ and so is our accounting people. But the ones that are really seeing a big improvement is our customers. In fact, we think we will even gain some market share since the deployment of Dextranet™" concludes George Bales.
See all the difference Dextranet™ can make in your company. Get more information by clicking here or contact us today. A dedicated team of extranet professionals will rapidly visit you at your premises.
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