e-Business initiative reduces time to manage orders, improves order accuracy
El Segundo, CA — June 23, 2005 — Munters Corp., a manufacturer of humidity control products and services, said this week that it is using Glovia International's eBusiness solution, glovia.com Customer Self Service, to enable faster and more efficient business while providing customers a proactive business tool for improving their purchasing experience.
Munters has manufacturing and sales operations in 28 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Its manufacturing divisions in the United States and Mexico, part of Munters Americas, implemented glovia.com eBusiness solution in 2003. Currently five North American locations are running the solution.
The company said the glovia.com Customer Self Service software gives users access to timely and accurate information about their orders instead of having to wait for a response from a sales or customer service rep. The "shopping cart" interface supports the entire order entry process by managing customer order addition and maintenance, as well as simplifying order entry so users can find the products they need quickly and easily.
glovia.com, in addition to recording, maintaining and tracking sales quote information, also automates products and services pricing. The integration with other glovia.com modules enables Munters Americas to convert sales quotes to sales orders, including order number generation and the automatic population of forms with information from customer master files.
"Glovia's eBusiness solution enables us to conduct faster and more efficient business while providing users with a proactive business tool for improving their purchasing experience," stated Keith Sauder, IT manager for Munters' Florida and Mexico locations. "The new modules are integrated with the other components of glovia.com to enhance the functionality of the overall solution while allowing one consistent interface for all users — whether it be a customer, sales rep, distributor, or an internal Munters' customer."
As Munters Americas transports or "sells" large amounts of components between their facilities to manufacture many of their finished products, the company decided to take a two-phase approach to implement the solution. The first phase was to roll the solution out within Munters to make sure it ran smoothly internally and to provide customer service reps time to become familiar with the system. The second phase is to enable customers and outside vendors access to the system.
Munters implemented the solution internally in four-and-a-half months and is currently using the system for their inter-facility transactions of components. Now assured the solution is effective and easy to use, Munters said it plans to start rolling it out to external customers by the end of 2005.
The solution is already impacting Munters' business. The company said that customer service representatives receiving orders no longer have to enter the order. Instead they simply review and confirm it. The company found that one-third of the time it took for customer service reps to manage an order has been eliminated entirely, equating to cost savings per representative.
Accuracy was another area that has been improved with the new system. "When you talk to manufacturing personnel, they see less change orders due to data entry errors because the buyer is more focused on what they are purchasing and is now the one actually placing the order," said Sauder. The increased order accuracy and access to information has also lead to unexpected benefits for Munters Americas, including a smoother production schedule on the plant floor due to less change orders. In addition, some manufacturing personnel want access to the system because it improves their demand visibility, which allows more time to prepare future orders.
"With this application, Munters Americas can continue to maintain its competitive advantage by offering an effective, efficient method of conducting business that streamlines the order management process," stated Yuji Nakasu, president and CEO of Glovia International.
For more information on the supply chain execution market, read "Demand Management," part of the Global Enabled Supply Chain Series, in the December 2002/January 2003 issue ofiSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.
