An online store for Timken distributors is changing the way manufacturer collects information about product demand and the level of service its customer service reps offer.

Timken – along with Rockwell Automation, SKF USA and INA USA Corp. – owns PTplace.com, an online mall with individual stores for each of those companies' North American distributors. CoLinx, the joint venture formed by those companies and the owner of PTplace.com, also operates integrated warehouse space for each.

More than 70 percent of Timken® bearings and related parts distributors in North America now use the Timken Store. The company says electronic sales reached a critical mass in 2002, and approach 10 percent of Timken's total sales volume since it rolled out PTplace and Endorsia, the version for Europe and Asia, to more distributors. While Timken does not disclose revenue figures, it reports seeing a 40 percent increase in e-sales through the site so far in 2003. The increase does not include sales via Electronic Data Interchange.

Betsy Engels, global manager of eBusiness integration, says the online store is a growing resource for Timken and its distributors. E-communication among them involves finding assembly graphics, catalog searches, ordering, inquiring about order status and more.

"The Web becomes an efficient way for them to interact," says Engels. "Some are direct connections (such as through private networks) but all are through PT Place."

After using the site to research products, distributors often call with higher-level questions. During the past 16 months or so, customer service reps have seen a 12 to 15 percent drop in the number of calls asking for product availability and price.

"That allows us to use the customer service time for more strategic customer service things than reactive activities," says Kari Groh, Timken general manager of global logistics and customer service.

Distributors often "have more information to share with an agent; they have questions, say, to substitute one part for another. That enables us to go further into our tools to match that need,'' Groh says.

Engels says the high-quality detail distributors now provide in their calls also helps Timken determine what product content should go on the site. "We can communicate the change, the most needed products," Engels says.

Timken also expects to have the catalog of The Torrington Co. — acquired early this year — online sometime this summer.