Turbocharging Sales Ops via automation

This US-based tire manufacturer has built a strong reputation on industry-leading fill rates and dedicated customer service personnel. They are part of a wider global family, which manufactures, distributes, and retails tires for passenger cars, light trucks, SUVs/CUVs, and commercial vans.

This US-based tire manufacturer, distributor, and retailer struggled with using manual processes, legacy systems, and Excel spreadsheets to manage orders, inventory planning, and allocation as well as product distribution. These were time-consuming and prone to human error. The company wanted to automate these processes to improve customer service and operational efficiency while reducing fulfillment times.

Initially, the company deployed Salesforce, however, at the second attempt, the platform lacked the needed out-of-the-box infrastructure and failed to deliver the automation and transparency required. The tire manufacturer wanted to find a partner that could enhance the customer experience, improve inventory control, and forecast market demand.

The company issued an RFP outlining its key requirements: a scalable, cloud-based allocation system which will enable a balance between demand and supply; optimized inventory usage; warehouse and order management; customer collaboration; B2B ecommerce portal; loyalty management; and ERP integration.

The company chose FUJITSU GLOVIA OM, a cloud-based end-to-end enterprise solution built on the Salesforce platform. Following a proof of concept (POC) exercise, Fujitsu worked with the customer to launch the most critical features of this digital transformation in a limited timeframe, integrating it with existing SAP systems without the need to overhaul legacy systems which are the backbone of the business.

The new solution delivers order management on a simple, intuitive platform for customers and internal users with access for specific users to place orders through multiple channels, while tracking the entire order cycle. It also supports B2B commerce with reports for clear demand forecast, visibility of B2B order fulfilment, and streamlined business processes and data availability.

In addition, GLOVIA OM provides end-to-end allocation management with user-based permissions for specific tasks, demand prioritization, and collaboration between factory on-demand and production confirmation. The solution supports loyalty management, enabling the company to track customer behavior and award points.

 Now, GLOVIA OM automates the inventory planning process, eliminating time-consuming manual tasks and freeing up resources for strategically important activities. Also, an online company branded customer portal provides the company and its customers with complete visibility of allocations, so it can more efficiently combine shipments and get the products to shelves 20% faster, reducing bottlenecks and ensuring on-time delivery.

The new solution can scale seamlessly to accommodate expected growth without incurring high costs. This will enable the continued expansion of the company. This growth is encouraged by the creation of a digital experience platform that allows customers to easily enter and track their orders and access all account information in one place. With new product lines coming onstream all the time, process lag can become an issue, however, GLOVIA OM helps the company forecast market demand to ensure accurate inventory distribution of these new products.