2 page Case Study - Posted 5/2/2008
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Health Products Company Steps Ahead of Competitors With Microsoft-Based e-Commerce and Service-Oriented Enterprise Solution
Introduction
GF Health Products (GF) had relied on paper catalogs to market products to wholesalers and resellers in the medical, rehabilitation, long-term care and homecare sectors. But catalogs did not distinguish GF from competitors, who sold similar products under different labels. Working with Intellinet and Microsoft technology, GF set up an e-commerce capability. With more than $10 million in e-commerce sales over two years, GF has a new competitive advantage.
Business Needs
GF Health Products (GF), one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of medical products, traditionally sold its 4,000 medical, rehabilitation, long-term care and homecare devices through a printed catalog. Often, the paper-based catalog would become outdated as products were modified and new versions entered the market. Moreover, many of the products offered by Atlanta-based GF were available under different brand labels from GF’s competitors.
The company was looking for a way to distinguish itself in a commoditized market, expand sales and keep its customer base of distributors and resellers updated on new products. GF decided to pursue a new sales channel by offering its catalog online and establishing an e-commerce platform for transactions. Its goals were to create a comprehensive and customized electronic product catalog where customers and customer-service representatives could view and order items; view inventory, availability and warehousing data; and track the status and history of orders and accounts.
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Product orders have dramatically increased, while customer service calls and faxes have decreased, because customers are taking advantage of the online ordering system. Our Microsoft e-commerce solution not only is differentiating us from competitors, but it is allowing us to save costs on customer support. |
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Scott Lerner
Director of Information Technology & E-commerce
GF Health Products, Inc. |
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Solution
GF Health Products (GF) chose Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Intellinet to transform these goals into a customer-centric e-commerce capability. Intellinet, headquartered in Atlanta, worked to ensure that the site would be accessible to all GF customers, some of which used dial-up services and others that had high-speed connections. Some were very large institutions and others were mom-and-pop homecare dealers. The system needed to fit the capabilities of all the customers.
Intellinet built a custom e-commerce site, which GF called the “Marketplace,” using a Microsoft .NET 3.5 framework. Included in the solution was Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, which provided a crucial link between the front and back ends of the e-commerce system to enable orders to flow into the fulfillment and distribution functions. Intellinet developed the Marketplace platform using a service-oriented architecture, which allowed components of the e-commerce solution to be leveraged in the creation of a greatly streamlined customer-service-representative (CSR) interface.
“Our customer-service reps and our customers needed to be in lock step, seeing the same things on the screen, while allowing our CSRs access to a host of information to give fast and accurate responses,” said GF Director of Information Technology & e-commerce Scott Lerner. “This application suite allowed us to further our level of customer service, which has been one of our hallmarks for more than 60 years. By leveraging the same ‘core components’ in both our external e-commerce solution and our internal operations, we were able to save costs and decrease wait times dramatically for our customers.”
The Marketplace also incorporated Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, which GF’s outside reps would use as a repository for information about customer experiences in the field, providing reporting to senior management. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 housed the e-commerce database, and Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 enhanced the display of images that showed all the aspects of various products.
A final core element of GF’s strategy for the integrated systems initiative was Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 1.0, Microsoft’s business intelligence (BI) suite . This BI toolset enabled board members and senior management to monitor profitability and contribution margins from the e-commerce channel and all other channels acoss the business. PerformancePoint allowed the company for the first time to determine whether an order with all attributed allocations would be profitable, because managers could look at the margins on each order and plan a strategic direction. The result was the creation of a more robust accountability structure for managers, who had responsibility for ensuring the profitability of online orders.
Benefits
GF Health Products (GF) has significantly improved its revenue and its customer service through its Microsoft-based e-commerce channel while simultaneously reducing costs. Product orders have increased dramatically and the numbers of customer-service calls and faxes have dropped. Beyond the lower cost of servicing its customers through technology innovation, GF has succeeded in differentiating itself from competitors by establishing an e-commerce capability for its customers. Its integrated e-commerce solution allows GF to reach new customers and channels and improve its productivity while doing so. The company has more insight into its performance and can use transactional information as well as narrative from its CRM solution to proactively make more-strategic business decisions.
The e-commerce site has brought in more than $10 million in sales in less than two years.
Within nine months, GF’s Web site traffic increased from its original 15,000 hits per month to between 700,000 and 900,000 hits per month.
The volume of customer service calls has not increased, even though the volume of sales has soared. As a result, GF has saved the costs of hiring additional personnel for its customer-care center.
The company has realized cost savings from infrastructure and software changes that reduced server, helpdesk and licensing costs.
Executive reporting and visibility into the health of the company both have improved.
Customer loyalty has deepened as a result of self-service through e-commerce and immediate responses to online queries.
Sales representatives report very positive feedback from customers who appreciate the online catalog and the ability to place an order anytime from anywhere.
Customers indicate that the Marketplace allows them to order products without a wait and saves them time that they can devote to focusing on serving their consumers.
The company is experiencing significantly fewer returns and credits with product orders placed online by the customer, saving time and dollars.
