In today's evolving business environment, it is imperative that companies look for ways to strengthen and solidify their partnerships with customers. Towards this end, many manufacturers have developed electronic portals for their distributors to facilitate ongoing one-on-one communication, and to reinforce the relationships with their business partners.

Ultimately, the goal is to make the portal the most effective form of communication between manufacturer and distributors. The portal should be the first place customers think about going. It is not good enough to say, "If we build it, they will come." By building the portal with speed, efficiency and innovation, customers will have a reason to embrace the new technology.

Prior to launch, any new process should be tested by its potential users, with select distributors offering valuable feedback.

Getting the word out is the first step in gaining adoption of a new technology. As soon as the portal is officially up and running, various communication materials can be used to promote the features and benefits, as well as to reinforce and encourage use of the portal.

Using a portal site has a number of benefits, including providing "on-demand" service. Manufacturers can offer their distributor partners a variety of benefits, including: advanced knowledge of new products; customized placing and tracking of orders; and the ability to check on shipments and shipment specifications. The portal can be customized to interface with each distributor partner's operating software, streamlining all operations. Credit references and price lists could also be conveniently accessed.

Adoption of technology is evolutionary, not revolutionary, and the adoption of a portal is no different. At Ridge Tool's portal, for example, participation continues to grow—with nearly two-thirds of distributor locations having registered to the site. To date, 500 of these registrants are visiting the portal each day, with 20 percent of these registered users logging on to the portal multiple times a day.

To be effective, distributors must find any portal easy to use and have it show direct benefit to them. To get started, distributors register using an already established account number, for instance, and their zip code. The first time the distributor user logs on to the portal, they should be able to establish an ID name and password, since there can be a multiple number of users from one account number/zip code combination.

The portal can be built to let the distributor assign different users to different levels of access to that portal, so functionality and access can be controlled. In addition to real-time access to prices and product availability, connected visitors can also be privy to special distributor and end user promotions, for example, as well as product updates, and exclusive online promotions. Users can also obtain credit statements and invoices on demand.

The portal should continually be modified for potential improvements. Input from users can be evaluated and provide direction to make the information in the portal more valuable—which, in turn, can result in making distributors' lives easier, more efficient, and can promote better communication between both parties.