Every order started another search
Orders came through outside salespeople, phone calls, emails, and faxes to customer service. Customers and employees both needed help looking up items. Because the products were custom, pricing and specification checks added more delay.
The business was doing about $40 million in annual revenue and had historically relied on direct sales. Customers had little visibility into their own product information without asking someone for it.
Connect the customer to information already in the business
I built customer-specific ecommerce portals fully integrated with the existing ERP system. Customers could access specifications, pricing, purchase history, and analytics.
Those analytics helped them see purchasing trends and support stocking agreements. The portal became useful beyond placing an order: customers used it broadly to find and understand their own information.
The initial portal work took approximately two to three months.
The harder connection was with the sales team
Getting salespeople’s buy-in was the hardest part. They were concerned about giving up control of customer relationships.
At the same time, I built a salesperson portal that gave them access to their customers’ information and helped them work more efficiently. We also adjusted the compensation plan to encourage adoption.
The change gave the sales team a practical reason to participate. Their role had a place in the new way of working.
A different way to serve customers
The business transitioned and added new customers quickly. Direct EDI connections with major customers also allowed orders to move between their systems and ours.
A business built around direct sales now had another way to take orders and support its customers. The useful change was the connection across customer information, sales activity, order entry, and the existing operating system.
The lesson
A system change has to work for the people whose routines and responsibilities it changes. Giving salespeople useful information and aligning incentives mattered alongside the software integration.