Customer Case
By Ben Bottram, CIO at Diffutherm
January 2009
Diffutherm uses a
SharePoint Sales Portal integrated with the ERP system.
Diffutherm B.V. in Bergeijk, the Netherlands,
is since 1965 a respected and successful producer of anti-corrosion, stone
chip- and sound deadening coatings, adhesives and sealants, cleaning products
and of an extensive range of chemical products for the building and automotive
industry.
Our sales process is focused on delivering customer specific products.
This requires good communication with our customers and fast response time to
their questions and requests.
Our sales people had to consult different systems
(ERP, Network drives, MS Outlook, paper filing systems) in order to get all
information to take a decision on a customer’s quotation request or an answer
to customer’s questions. This took too much time.
The use of ERP data is very important in our sales
process. It contains most of the
relevant data: pending orders, open invoices, customer price lists, planned
delivery dates,… As Sales people are not always very thrilled using ERP
systems, we tried some optimization making (weekly) downloads in MS Excel from
het ERP. These lists were used by the Sales Team, but there was a problem of
outdated information.
So, we started looking for some kind of CRM system,
but with the possibility to link it to our ERP system (BaaN). We came in
contact with Ometa. They had a solution of a Sales Portal built in MS
SharePoint Technology. This Sales Portal offers the basic CRM functionalities
(Proposal documents, Action lists, Customer list, Contact list) but with a
complete integration to our ERP system. Now our sales people have in one portal
all data to help our customers, instead of searching through shared drives and
opening different ERP sessions.
Company Profile Snapshot
Diffutherm is Private Label specialist and the
customers are mainly well-known multinationals, focusing on the automotive
industry and the building industry. In addition, several adhesive manufacturers
are supplied with products to complete their own line. The products are applied
in cars, busses, trains, trucks, caravans and also in the petrochemical industry.
Other products find their way on roofing and facades of buildings. Diffutherm
is an export oriented company (90% export), where products are distributed
worldwide.