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| Grand & Benedicts |
Grand & Benedicts
Grand & Benedicts has realized greater efficiency and increased profits with ISM's eStylez products.
For almost 60 years, Grand & Benedicts has been meeting the fixture needs of a variety of companies ranging from small,
family-owned businesses to large, publicly traded Fortune 500 companies.
With locations throughout the Pacific Northwest and almost 100 employees, Grand & Benedicts provides both made-to-order
fixtures as well as custom fixtures to their customers. In the early 2000's, Grand & Benedicts' customers started asking for
on-line purchasing options. In addition to giving customers what they wanted, the on-line ordering application played a
major role in increasing company revenues.
The Need for e-Business
"Before moving to Sage MAS 200, we had been using Sage MAS 90 for almost two
decades," said John Phillips, CEO of Grand & Benedicts. "We were getting to
the point where we were taxing the system in terms of number of users and the
amount of records we were processing. We also were hearing from our customers
that they wanted to order over the web. Sage MAS 200's e-Business Manager product
would be a good fit for our company's on-line initiative." The upgrade from
Sage MAS 90 to Sage MAS 200 was straightforward and all of Grand & Benedicts
data was converted successfully. The next step was to begin the e-Business Manager
implementation.
"We were initially interested in offering on-line services as a way to improve the service that we offer to our customers.
We wanted to be able to allow customers to order however they wanted, by phone, fax or online," said John. Grand & Benedicts took
their requirements to ISM, a firm noted for its e-Business Manager expertise. "ISM has a great understanding of how processes
should flow through the system and how we could gain internal efficiencies with an implementation. They also have the ability
to customize the system and integrate data."
Customized e-Business Solution
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| Grand
& Benedicts Products |
"e-Business Manager enabled our customers to do all the order entry instead of us having to do it internally, which allowed
us to increase revenues without having to add more people.
"This actually improved customer service too as customers had more control over the ordering process," said John. Customers can
check their order status and account status online.
With the help of ISM, Grand & Benedicts integrated StarShip with e-Business Manager. This allows the tracking information to be
sent back to e-Business Manager so the customer can access these details.
Now there are fewer calls to customer service for this type of information as it is available to customers on line.
"We are able to send this information out automatically as an email to customers who want it. ISM also helped integrate the
PC Charge credit card module. We are able to capture funds for payment before the order is sent out to the warehouse to be fulfilled.
We are not releasing any orders to someone who does not have a valid credit card with funds available."
"Where ISM really shined was in the area of customization," said John. "Many companies want to work with businesses
that understand image and branding. Our ordering web site had to have the same look and feel as our current web site
as well as the underlying functionality.
"I wanted to be able to go to one firm for this instead of working with a design firm for one piece and a technology firm for
another piece. We did not want our customers to feel like they were dealing with a canned product, but one that was elegant
and looked custom."
What ISM was able to provide was a customized Web site that was elegant and
affordable utilizing the eStylez products. "We show the ordering Web site during
our sales process. We tell prospective customers that they have information
at their fingertips 24/7. They can order online, look at open sales orders and
shipping information. This is an extension of our customer service and something
that differentiated."
Another challenge Grand & Benedicts faced was making the ordering process as easy as possible. "We have some customers who order
the same products over and over. We wanted the customers to be able to log in and have an area on their page that said 'my items'
on the welcome screen. They can buy general inventory too, but this way they can quick shop to the items that they most often
purchase," said John. "ISM helped us find a way to do this. It greatly increases the speed of the ordering process for our customers.
"We also have created entire custom stores for customers. For example, when a new store location is being opened, and since they are
set up the same with the same merchandise, we have set up a variety of 'my items' that they can simply click on and order.
It takes them about 2 minutes to order fixtures to outfit an entire store. Our customers love this. We have an advantage over
our competition because the customers now expect this level of service and ease of use from their vendors. It has definitely
helped us be more competitive and bring more value to our customer relationships.
"In some cases our customer's headquarters will order fixtures for the individual stores, but for others, they
let the store location order product directly from Grand & Benedicts. With ISM's help, we have been able to set up
ordering pages for the individual stores to log into and place their orders. The store and headquarters are notified of
the orders. This has created efficiencies within our customer's organizations so they are not bogged down ordering supplies
and they can focus on their business," said John.
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| Grand
& Benedicts Web Site |
Another area that Grand & Benedicts needed help with was with searching capabilities
for more efficient access to the more than 3,000 items sold on line.
The addition of eStylez Mercury greatly
improved the searching capabilities for customers in terms of speed and accuracy.
"We process between 30-50 orders per day," said John. "It has to be easy for
customers to order from us."
"The goal of our e-Business implementation was to enable us to handle more volume
and create greater efficiencies, while maintaining accuracy within our organization,"
said John. "Some pieces of the solution made us more accurate; some pieces made
us more efficient. The end result has been the doubling of revenues without
adding employees and a short return on our investment."
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Copyright
© 2005 Information Systems Management, Inc. A 
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