AUTOMATION LIGHTENS THE LOAD AND DEEPENS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS AT STANDARD ELECTRIC

Standard Electric, a division of USESI, in Wilmington, Massachusetts teamed up with Conexiom, an IMARK service provider, and generated the following results:

• Replaced manual data entry with automated sales order processing
• Accelerated order processing speeds by 88%
• Redeployed staff to high-value customer service tactics
• Achieved 100% data accuracy

Background

Ensuring the right products are always available for contractors, engineers, facilities managers and homeowners means stocking more than 15,000 products. To ensure that its 220,000-square-foot distribution center runs smoothly with maximum efficiency between inventory management, purchasing and warehousing, Standard Electric invested in a robust ERP system with Epicor Eclipse.

The Challenges

Find a Way to Significantly Shorten Order Entry Time

Standard Electric relied heavily on manual order processing. This time-intensive process became more burdensome as the company’s customer base grew. Customers submitted orders in all shapes and sizes and a team of internal staff worked around the clock to ensure a smooth transition into sales orders in their ERP system. "When we looked into the workflow, we quickly realized the amount of time we were spending on re-keying orders was much too high," said Mick Gianetti, systems operations manager.

Alleviate Hiring Pressures

Like most distributors, Standard Electric experienced fluctuating customer demand levels. In response, the company worked tirelessly to predict demand and align staffing levels accordingly. However, finding, hiring and training a steady stream of new staff proved to be a very labor-intensive approach. "Discovering a scalable solution that reduces our reliance on human intervention was important to creating the right infrastructure for the future," Gianetti said.

"It used to take the team up to 40 minutes to return a quote to a customer depending on the order complexity and size. With Conexiom, the same order takes less than five minutes!"

Mick Gianetti, systems operations manager, Standard Electric

The Solution

Standard Electric discovered Conexiom and understood the potential of sales order automation to eliminate manual order processing. "We were ready to change how we did things at Standard Electric in a way that was better for our customers, our staff and our bottom line," said Gianetti. "Conexiom was the solution we’d been looking for."

Right away, Conexiom drastically sped up the customer ordering process and removed Standard Electric’s dependency on manual entry. Conexiom was able to capture essential data from customer orders and automatically convert it into a sales order in the existing ERP system with zero manual intervention. The Conexiom solution was able to replicate the decision trees and complex business logic that a star customer service representative would deploy when manually entering an order, meaning there was no loss of tribal knowledge.

Getting Started

Standard Electric decided to begin with the biggest customers who frequently submitted large volume orders that required a substantial amount of time to re-enter. They found the mapping and setup process extremely easy to navigate and started to see a variety of benefits instantly.

88% Faster Turnaround

One of the biggest advantages is that the speed of order processing has dramatically accelerated. By eliminating the need to re-enter each customer order line by line, Standard Electric is enjoying the fastest turnaround times the company have ever seen. "It used to take the team up to 40 minutes to return a quote to a customer depending on the order complexity and size. With Conexiom, the same order takes less than five minutes," Gianetti said.

Reallocating Staff

Conexiom processes up to 80% of customer orders without involving a customer service rep. This frees customer service representatives from the energy-draining, low-value task of manual data entry. Eliminating data entry has enabled a big shift in priorities for Standard Electric. Reducing the number of hours dedicated to processing the company’s highvolume customer orders has created the opportunity for staff to spend more time building relationships with their customers.

Improved Accuracy Rates

Anyone can make a mistake. When manually re-keying large volumes of unique data, it is practically impossible to be perfect. "We’ve taken our previous accuracy index up from a rate of 97% to our best performance yet of 100%, which is incredible," Gianetti said. "In distribution, any margin of error can cause you to lose a customer. So, it’s a big win for the company to know we’re getting customer orders right every time."

The Future

Standard Electric is impressed by the return on investment achieved to date and is excited to enroll additional customers on Conexiom. "In a sea of technology boasting big promises, Conexiom is a solution that delivers real results," Gianetti said. "I would highly recommend Conexiom because the entire team is 100% committed to helping customers succeed by being easy to implement and optimize. They are unbelievably helpful, and the product really works well."

About Conexiom

Conexiom is a SaaS platform that delivers a sales order automation solution that eliminates manual order processing. Manufacturers and distributors across the globe, such as Grainger, Genpak, Prysmian, Rexnord, USESI and Compugem, trust Conexiom to deliver touchless order processing with 100% data accuracy to eliminate unnecessary cost and resource burdens and to redeploy human capital to provide the highest levels of customer service. Conexiom is based in Vancouver, British Columbia and has offices in Kitchener, Ontario; London, England and Chicago, Illinois. For more information, visit conexiom.com.