SDCExec.com |

Pottsville, PA — July 22, 2008 — Citizen Watch Company has selected EXTOL International, Inc. to manage its high volume of electronic data interchange (EDI) and related transactions and processes. Citizen is the market share leader in the mid-priced watch category in North America.

Citizen exchanges a high volume of electronic transactions with 30 large trading partners using 21 different transaction types. All of this is handled by just one person who is responsible for managing all EDI-related processes, including deploying and maintaining integration with internal business applications and high-visibility reporting.

Citizen said it now uses Extol to make business information visible throughout the organization. Staff members in the Warehouse, Order, Credit and Finance Departments can simply press a designated Function key to access order, shipment and payment information. Dozens of people use this information access to improve the functioning of their departments, and ultimately enhance the engagement experience with customers and partners.

"As the only EDI person, I rely on Extol's products to perform flawlessly. They enable me to rapidly respond to the demands of internal departments and external customers and partners," said Amapola Yeung, e-commerce manager for Citizen Watch Company.

Commenting on the end users who access EDI transaction data, Yeung explained: "All they have to do is type in the purchase order number, and they get all sorts of relevant information. A non-EDI person can look at an English version that lists details about the order, including quantities and shipping information."

Also important to Citizen is the capability to eliminate custom code for application interfaces and provisioning new trading partners. This capability, provided by their Extol solution, brings both an efficiency and accuracy benefit.

"For Citizen Watch, EDI is not just a customer-facing activity. Extol's EDI solution supports a wide range of information needs throughout the Citizen organization," stated Steve Rosen, Extol vice president, marketing. "This has led to improved customer relationships built on accurate, timely answers to current status queries. The integration has resulted in rapid resolution of disputed transactions, fully informed service and sales teams, as well as accurate shipping and billing information to those departments," Rosen said.