Acon lifts revenues with realtime sales force automation solution.

Transcription

1 e-business on demand Acon lifts revenues with realtime sales force automation solution. Overview Challenge Fashion manufacturer lacked systems for responding to sales agents with realtime information, business intelligence and ordering capabilities, forcing them to lose productive sales opportunities and revenue Why On Demand? By enabling realtime ordering and inventory queries, the company could respond to the needs of its retail base; and by collecting and analyzing information, it could support effective business decision-making Solution Sales force automation application with data warehouse is more responsive to retail base and helps analysts determine future course of company Key Benefits Increased sales; better customer service; reduced administrative costs A multi-brand clothing manufacturer, Acon improved its productivity and competitive positioning by adopting an on demand sales force automation solution from IBM. Italian clothes have an unmistakable style that makes them popular worldwide, including in Italy. Consider Acon ( for example. Based in Verona, Italy, Acon manufactures clothing for men and women and sells brands such as Mash jeans, Fordocks and MSH throughout Europe, but principally in Italy. The company earned revenues of approximately 50 million euros (US$56 million) and has 130 employees, 2 factories and 35 field agents responsible for visiting retail stores to take orders. Our retailers were unhappy and so were we because we didn t know how we were doing compared to our potential. To stay afloat in a competitive industry and plan for growth, we needed to be more responsive to our partners and ask more of our own business processes. Enrico Bernadi, IT Manager, Acon

2 Rapidly deploying e-business applications in an open environment On Demand Benefits Reduced internal costs (telephone, fax and paper management time) Sales agents have ability to access realtime ordering and sales data, and other crucial information they need to do their jobs Automated order entry system and integration with iseries and ERP system have reduced paperwork, eliminated duplicate data entry into iseries server and supported expansion of sales without increasing internal costs and staffing Improved productivity in the field and enhanced customer relationships from use of product information enriched with statistical data Better customer service since field agents can access needed information practically anytime, anywhere But while the clothes sold well, until recently the field agents did not find it easy to order the clothing and ensure prompt deliveries. Acon s order-processing method was inadequate for several reasons. The sales agents had to utilize antiquated business systems connected with the home office on expensive dedicated lines that frequently failed. What s more, the system itself was difficult to use, and prone to error. To circumvent the system, the sales agents phoned or faxed in their orders, which were processed manually at the company s headquarters. In a business that is highly competitive and fast-paced, time is of the essence when it comes to making sure that shelves are stocked with the latest, most fashionable styles. Acon was not comfortable making its retailers wait, and retailers were on edge, eying competitors with faster fulfillment cycles. Seeking systems that inspire Furthermore, with all the information it collected from its retail base, Acon lacked the ability to isolate and analyze data in order to distinguish its best sellers from its worst, and its stellar retail shops from under-performing ones. Without this information, the company could not take action to stem losses and push winning trends higher, and had to be satisfied with less than optimum results. Our retailers were unhappy and so were we because we didn t know how we were doing compared to our potential, says Enrico Bernadi, IT manager for Acon. To stay afloat in a competitive industry and plan for growth, we needed to be more responsive to our partners and ask more of our own business processes. With less time to make decisions, we had to provide our sales agents and our business partners with the information they needed to react quickly to trends and changes in the business environment. Acon decided that an integrated business framework could solve its problems by enabling sales agents and retailers to access information and place orders online and allowing business analysts to collect and analyze performance data. In addition, by answering ordering and inventory queries in real time, the company would reduce some of its overhead costs and help provide better services to its retailers. And by collecting and analyzing sales information, it could capture year-to-year statistics that would shape successful marketing

3 plans. We needed to bring our information together, integrate it into a unified business process and leverage it to get as much value from it as possible. To do this and inspire our sales agents at the same time we needed to build automated systems to capture information and use it interactively, says Bernadi. Transforming paper into gold Pragma Management Systems (Pragma), an IBM Premier Business Partner, met with Acon s top management to assess the situation. It recommended that Acon reorganize its business processes and integrate them by enabling sales agents to communicate directly with its central planning system. Pragma then went on to develop an Internet-based ordering application for the field agents that provided new, realtime processes for placing orders, querying inventory, tracking sales by customer and obtaining sales statistics. With the new statistical reports, agents can determine company sales by category, product and season, and comparative sales performance by retail store. Soon retail partners will be able to perform the same interactions. With the new applications, sales agents can provide prompt, accurate answers to all the retailers questions and assure them of faster deliveries, says Bernadi. At the same time, our business analysts are able to focus on successful products and spend less money marketing losing ones, while providing more effective incentives to retail stores that are under-performing. Customers turn to manufacturers like Acon for the latest fashions, just as Acon turns to IBM for realtime business solutions that help it respond nimbly to changes in the business environment. IBM infrastructure boosts performance The solution gives sales agents online access to Acon s homegrown enterprise resource planning (ERP) system on its IBM ^ iseries 800 system. Pragma supplied a complete IBM solution to link up the field agents with the ERP system, including deployment of a firewall server using the native functionality of SuSE Linux for firewall security. Pragma also installed IBM Lotus Domino on a Linux server for and Web support, migrated the system from Microsoft Outlook to IBM Lotus Notes and developed Lotus applications that manage order entries and produce sales reports for the field agents. Pragma developed the Web-based Lotus applications using IBM Lotus Domino Designer. Our choice of WebSphere is strategic. We are in step with the WebSphere platform concept, which embraces many integrated products to support a wide range of technologies and business processes. Franco Breda, General Manager, Pragma Management Systems

4 Key Components Software IBM Lotus Notes IBM Lotus Domino R5 IBM Lotus Domino Designer IBM WebSphere Host On-Demand, Version 7 IBM WebSphere MQ, Version 5 IBM DB2 Universal Database for iseries, Version 5.1 IBM DB2 Universal Database for Windows, Workgroup Edition, Version 7.2 IBM DB2 Warehouse Manager, Version 7.2 IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Version 5.1 SuSE Linux 7.1 Servers IBM ^ iseries 800 IBM ^ xseries 342 IBM LTO Ultrium 3580 Tape Library Business Partners Pragma Management Systems For comparative sales statistics, the sales people access a data warehouse based on IBM DB2 Universal Database running on the iseries system. Pragma installed IBM DB2 Warehouse Manager on the iseries server to build the data warehouse. Another DB2 database manages information for the ERP system, while a third transactional DB2 database manages customer and product information on 5 IBM ^ xseries 342 systems. This data is integrated with the ERP system using IBM WebSphere MQ, Version 5. The data warehouse draws from the combined ERP and transactional data to help management better analyze order activity. To back up the servers, Pragma installed IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Version 5.1. The Tivoli Storage Manager solution backs up 30GB of data to an IBM LTO Ultrium 3580 Tape Library. The agents can also see the ERP system directly over the Web using IBM WebSphere Host On-Demand Version 7, a component of the WebSphere Host Integration Suite, Version 2 client package. The smooth integration of all the IBM components has helped us to realize our goal of a resilient, scalable solution that gives our employees and agents the tools they need to work efficiently, says Bernadi. Open standards mean peace of mind about the future Pragma chose IBM technologies because they provide a robust, open standards architecture based on the WebSphere software platform. According to Franco Breda, general manager, Pragma Management Systems, Pragma has used WebSphere components extensively and found them to be flexible and scalable, with outstanding price/performance ratios. But our choice of WebSphere is also strategic. We are in step with the WebSphere platform concept, which embraces many integrated products to support a wide range of technologies and business processes. In addition, being based on open standards, the IBM offerings are the easiest to integrate with other hardware and software platforms on the market.

5 Lastly, we also use all the other components in the IBM software stack, such as software products from Tivoli, Lotus and DB2, and our clients appreciate the coherent and consistent approach that we can offer them by bringing together IBM components. Tailored for success By receiving orders directly from its field agents, Acon has eliminated the manual order process entirely and improved the quality of order information for management. Other benefits include reduced internal costs for telephone, fax and paper management time, and increased efficiency. This translates to improvements in customer responsiveness and better business relations, since field agents can access needed information practically anytime, anywhere. While we have not calculated ROI, says Bernadi, we believe that we are establishing a new model for our IT infrastructure that will support the company in achieving the new standards of productivity that the global market is driving. Due to the success of this project, Acon is now considering implementing its solution at its foreign distribution locations in Spain and Germany. We ll proceed from there to support the integration of our suppliers into our business processes, as well as a new factory that recently joined our organization. We now have the flexibility and agility we need to be responsive to new partners, challenges, stresses and opportunities in the economy, says Bernardi. Acon chose to work with IBM software and hardware products because they are based on open standards and easy to integrate with other companies products as well as with one another. For more information Please contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner. Visit us at: ibm.com/websphere For more information about Pragma Management Systems The smooth integration of all the IBM components has helped us to realize our goal of a resilient, scalable solution that gives our employees and agents the tools they need to work efficiently. Enrico Bernadi

6 Copyright IBM Corporation 2003 IBM Corporation Corporate Marketing New Orchard Road Armonk, NY U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America All Rights Reserved DB2, DB2 Universal Database, Domino, e-business on demand, the e-business on demand lockup, ^, IBM, the IBM logo, iseries, Lotus, Lotus Notes, Notes, Tivoli, WebSphere and xseries are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. This case study is an example of how one customer and Business Partner use IBM products. There is no guarantee of comparable results. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates.