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Introduction
This case study presents insights into one of the most prominent distributors in the automotive-related industry based in East Malaysia. With more than 45 years of establishment, this distributor specializes in tyre and automotive parts distribution, carrying a few of the globally renowned brands such as Michelin, Continental and Bridgestone.
Being in this competitive industry indicates that this distributor often requires instant and on-demand availability of information throughout its operations.
Key Challenges
1. Customer
Sub-par customer experience
The B2B industry highly depends on sales representatives when it comes to their sales operations. The heavy reliance on the manual workforce caused the distributor to be exposed to the risk of delayed order processes and tracking order statuses.
Customers and sales reps also faced struggles in tracking order statuses and access to important documents such as invoices, credit notes, statements etc.
The distributor faced a tough dilemma that is prevalent in the B2B environment: they were required to handle multiple credit terms and complex rebate structures for different customers, while also keeping up with credit extension and modifications on a regular basis. They had to verify these check-ins with their finance team, which took time and delayed the overall business operation.
2. Sales & Admin Team
Heavy workload
Sales reps were frequently required to obtain product updates, inventory information and pricing details that were requested by different customers, and this would normally involve back-and-forth communication between the sales reps and the admins. Order statuses are also manually updated from the admin to sales reps. This resulted in the customers taking a long time to finalize their decision, and eventually slowing down overall business productivity.
Low efficiency and speed
The distributor also found that their customers, comprising mostly automotive repair workshops, required their orders to be fulfilled in a time-sensitive manner due to the nature of the industry, at times within the same day. However, the distributor reported that it can take their sales reps and admins up to 2 hours to process a single order, not including logistics and delivery. This method of manual execution led them to recognize that they lacked an advanced, automated solution to speed up and optimize their sales operations.
The distributor often faced challenges when it came down to perform payment reconciliations. The tedious process of comparing internal records and sales documents with bank statements manually is not only time-consuming, but prone to errors and duplications as well.
3. Management
Escalating operation costs
The distributor was forced to deal with escalating costs in their operational areas due to the continuous increasing headcount to execute manual work. The difficulty of hiring and retaining employees was also a main factor faced by the distributor in escalating operation costs by increasing recruitment costs, extending the time to fill positions, increasing turnover costs, and requiring more training for new hires. High turnover also leads to decreased productivity and inefficiencies, adding additional costs to the overall business operation.
Slow and stunted growth
Even with an increased taskforce, this would also translate into a higher operating cost which will potentially hinder the growth of the company due to slow revenue growth.
Requirements:
Comprehensive digital solution that can seamlessly synchronize with ERP and optimizes sales operation
Advanced automated technology that can future-proof the business to stay relevant and competent in the market.
Beneficial Impact
1. Customer
Enhanced customer happiness
With a powerful sales automation platform in hand, customers are no longer required to solely depend on sales reps to view important documents, as they are now granted quick access to key documents such as quotations, invoices and credit notes.
Promotional updates and personalized rebate structures are now timely acquirable on Boostorder platforms in order to provide seamless clarity of information and data to the customers.
After implementing Boostorder Direct, it is reported that the company experienced a 79% increase in customer self-service frequency in activities such as order placements and payments.
2. Sales & Admin Team
Minimized workload
The implementation of Boostorder Sync allowed the distributor to seamlessly integrate data directly into their existing ERP system, which is Microsoft Dynamics NAV (previously known as Microsoft Navision). This has helped save a significant amount of time required to manually aggregate this data, allowing the sales and order stage to accelerate quicker and ensure error-free operations.
Manual communication is greatly improved with the deployment of automatic updates on pricing and inventory directly to the sales team. With Boostorder solutions implemented into their business operations, the distributor can now track orders and payments in a seamless manner.
The tedious payment reconciliation is also automated to optimize operation time and efforts.
Improved efficiency
From 2 hours, the distributor can now close a deal and process order in a good 20 minutes, all thanks to the agile automated integration that is embedded within our Boostorder platforms. The distributor can then proceed with completing more orders with minimal efforts as the admins’ manual workload of mining and recording data has been drastically reduced.
Boostorder Rep has also allowed the distributor’s sales team to access their customers' ageing reports and credit conditions within their fingertips anytime, anywhere.
3. Management
Optimized operation costs
The distributor is able to minimize their hiring efforts to increase headcount for the sake of executing repetitive tasks as their manual operations have been automated. Instead, the distributor can now retain its’ existing headcount to execute higher value tasks and pay attention to serving more customers with existing headcount.
With the utilization of technology and improving processes, a higher team morale is introduced as an increase in the overall satisfaction and motivation of a team is achieved when they are able to serve more customers with their existing headcount. As a result, team members feel a sense of accomplishment, see the impact of their work, and are motivated to continue improving, leading to increased morale.
Higher return on investment (ROI) is achieved when the distributor can maximize its profits while minimizing costs. Through executing high value work, the distributor is able to focus on tasks and projects that generate significant revenue, and at the same time, optimize its operational costs through efficiency measures.
Positive growth
The reduction in operation costs translates to accelerated revenue growth for the distributor compared to the previous year.
Boostorder is a SAAS company that provides an end-to-end digital transformation solution for B2B brands and distributors with our wide range of products and solutions.
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