Conexiom
Background
Originally founded in 1940 in the Netherlands, ERIKS has grown
to become a leading international supplier of high quality
mechanical engineering components, technical services, and
efficient logistics. The US division, ERIKS Seals and Plastics,
provides solutions for seals, engineered plastics, and bearings
for demanding applications. Based out of Texas, they serve a
wide range of industries including heavy equipment, oil and gas,
pharmaceutical, power, semiconductor, transport, water, food and
beverage, and consumer products.
In order to effectively meet the needs of their diverse customer
base, ERIKS Seals offers an impressive portfolio of quality products
combined with development services. To manage their massive
inventory and extensive internal resources, they turned to Epicor®
Prelude™. It enables unparalleled information exchange between
departments and instant visibility into business operations. This
streamlining created heightened synergy and more efficient operations,
while also emphasizing the need to improve order processing.
Challenges
Need to Improve Workflow
More than 90% of customer purchase orders were received via
phone, fax or email. Once a purchase order arrived in this manner,
it needed to be manually entered by one of the Customer Service
Representatives (CSRs). As a busy supplier, ERIKS Seals received
an incredible volume of orders daily, including large, complex
orders with many line items that each needed to be manually
keyed. Not only did this process demand valuable employee time,
but it created the problem of dual entry, which in turn, slowed
processing speeds considerably.
Need to Reduce Keying Errors
Each step in the transition process from purchase order to sales
order created an opportunity for natural human error. From
difficulties understanding customer part specifications and
quantities to keying and pricing errors, mistakes began to add up
over time. Finding a solution to standardize ordering and minimize
dual entry would easily reduce errors by 50% or more, while
ensuring customers received the right parts every time.
Key Results
• Increased rate of order processing
• Reduced order entry errors
• Reassigned CSRs to customer service
• Accelerated order cycle times
The Solution
Excited to find a solution to improving productivity around order
entry, ERIKS Seals decided to implement Conexiom® Sales Order
Automation. The goal was to automate order entry so that the
CSR team could shift their focus away from entering data to
other important business priorities, such as serving customers.
“We wanted a solution that would leverage our existing team
and workflow, but would not disrupt our customers’ existing
processes,” explained Eric Cuellar, Manager of Administrative
Logistics. ERIKS Seals selected 10 customers for their initial pilot.
Conexiom captures computer-generated purchase orders
and automatically transforms them into electronic sales
orders. Immediately this solved the problem of dual entry
without requiring any changes to existing business processes
or specialized IT infrastructure. “We could see Conexiom was
incredibly responsive during set-up, testing, and the move to
production,” shared Cuellar. Once up and running, the benefits
were instantly visible to ERIKS Seals, both in terms of cost
reductions and business value.
Benefits
Boost Employee Productivity
After implementing Conexiom, ERIKS Seals noticed an immediate
improvement in employee productivity. Since the CSRs were no
longer burdened with dual entry for their larger customers, the
Boosting Employee Productivity
with Order Automation
ERIKS Seals and Plastics
866-860-3388 [email protected]
speed of order processing accelerated dramatically. A big business
win for ERIKS Seals was the ability to increase the number of
orders processed daily without needing to add extra staff. The CSR
team was able to handle even more accounts than before.
Reduce Order Entry Errors
Thanks to Conexiom’s ability to capture data with 100% accuracy,
ERIKS Seals enjoyed the confidence that orders were captured
correctly every time. Not only did their customers appreciate
receiving the correct items every time, but the CSR team found
themselves spending less time processing rush re-orders, which
boosted productivity further while saving the company money.
Increase Focus on Customer Service
As ERIKS Seals began to enrol additional customers in Conexiom,
they noticed a big reduction in the amount of time it took to
process orders, which accelerated order cycle times substantially.
Being able to process orders automatically left the CSR team with
free time despite handling increased volumes. “Since installing
Conexiom, we’ve shifted our CSR team away from manually keying
orders and created space for other tasks, like in-depth customer
service. It’s the biggest business advantage by far,” shared Cuellar.
The results have been impressive and the value of Conexiom has
impressed ERIKS Seals. “We’re extremely happy with Conexiom.
The solution is reliable and it works well,” concludes Cuellar.
About Conexiom
Conexiom® allows manufacturers and distributors to focus on
serving customers and managing supplier relationships instead
of entering data. The patent-pending Conexiom solution was
created by ecmarket, a cloud solutions developer. Conexiom
revolutionizes critical sales and accounting business practices
by automating manual entry with 100% accuracy. Conexiom
effortlessly converts emailed and printed customer purchase
orders and supplier invoices into automated sales orders
and invoices, enabling companies to focus on driving growth.
Conexiom helps organizations across the globe maintain a
competitive edge. For more information visit conexiom.com
“Since installing Conexiom, we’ve shifted our CSR team away from manually keying orders and
created space for other tasks, like in-depth customer service. It’s the biggest business
advantage by far.”
Eric Cuellar, Manager of Administrative Logistics at ERIKS Seals
