BUILDING
BUSINESS:
Alco Ventures, a manufacturer
of specialty building products, invested $25,000 to launch its
business-to-business site, and online sales exceeded $100,000
in the first six weeks alone. Using Multiactive Software's
Entice, the site is integrated with Alco's back-end legacy
systems, so even custom orders can be designed, priced, invoiced
and sent to the shop floor for fabrication.
PRESCRIPTION
FOR CONVENIENCE:
Health insurance is practical, but it's not always convenient.
Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of South Carolina aims to correct that. The cornerstone
of 14-month-old site is My Insurance Manager, a section that gives
account information to members and authorized providers. Tied
to the company's mainframe claims-processing system, My Insurance
Manager delivers real-time information about claims status, deductible
and out-of-pocket expenses, and referral status. The self-service
tools alleviate the strain on customer service call centers.
CHEMICAL
REACTION:
A seven-day turnaround to process purchase orders faxed to
Eastman Chemical Company
was not uncommon in the old days of the chemical, fiber and plastics
producer. With the implementation of webMethods' XML-based
business-to-business integration software, purchase orders now
take just minutes. After a successful pilot project linking Eastman's
back-end systems to the IT infrastructures of a client and a supplier,
Eastman continues to bring more of its top trading partners into
the loop.
QUICK
STUDY:
Educational Testing Service
once had four different applications, and four different call
centers, to handle student registrations for its four testing
programs. Today, a single platform, implemented with the help
of management services provider esävio, integrates each division
with a common Web interface that's used by call center staff
as well as test takers.
DRIVING
CHANGE:
The General Motors business unit charged with e-commerce and Internet
initiatives, e-GM revamped its
business-to-consumer infrastructure to include RedCelsius e-commerce
and customer relationship management tools. Now e-GM can support
700% more concurrent users with 80% fewer servers than before.
The company is ready to deploy the setup to its international
business units, with support for multiple currencies and double-byte
alphabets, and to integrate its in-house systems with third-party
products, such as credit authorization systems and streaming media
feeds.
ALL
ABOUT PROCESS:
With help from Calico Commerce, the sales staff at Honeywell
can save up to 80% of the time they used to spend closing deals
and processing orders for Honeywell's PlantScape
industrial control systems. Customers now complete 50% of their
orders online, specifying complex, customized configurations in
the user-guided purchasing process at the PlantScape site.
SHOPPING
BY DESIGN:
MyPioneer.com not
only enables typical purchasing transactions, it also allows engineers
to select and specify components from Pioneer-Standard Electronics,
an international distributor of electronic components and computer
systems, for their custom-designed applications. Online tools
and services draw information from 7,000 dedicated extranets.
SHOPPING
APPEAL:
Staples.com polled
visitors to its office products site and launched several requested
features including a persistent shopping cart, shortened registration
process, and "breadcrumbs" which illustrates the virtual
path a visitor has taken through the site. But Staples.com isn't
just about office products. The company's business services
center caters to small businesses with a request-for-quote service
that allows customers to describe the service they need and request
bids from sellers.
CONSTRUCTIVE
COLLABORATION:
Construction industry leaders Estimation, Inc. and Trade
Service Systems (a division of Trade Service Corp.) together conceived
TradePower, a procurement
and estimating exchange for contractors and distributors - and
they brought to the deal their existing customers. Users can access
http://www.tradepower.com from existing business systems, the
Web or wireless devices. For contractors, TradePower software
can be integrated with their estimating, purchasing and accounts
payable systems. For suppliers, the software works in synch with
inventory, ordering and billing systems.
GOOD
CHEMISTRY:
A key ingredient in the e-commerce infrastructure
setup for Westlake Group,
a supplier of petrochemicals and polymers, is access. Customers,
suppliers and business partners can now get to real-time and historical
data from Westlake's back-office systems, including SAP R/3.
Data from third-party vendors is stored in a data cache so users
can check inventory, ordering and shipping status.
