P8 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

ERIKS’ B2B motor

SaaS based solution

ERIKS is an industrial service provider with an extensive selection of mechanical components such as valves, caps, hoses, plastics, tools, etc. It has a dynamic range of products with more than 5,000,000 articles. In addition, ERIKS provides up-to-date product and usage information. The company also strives, together with its customers, to achieve a reduction in down time, cost and offer environmental and low-energy solutions.

xxxxx XXxxAuthor Suzanne Glorie ~ Photography ERIKS

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P9

BUSINESS INTEGRATION

SaaS based solution ERIKS consists of more than sixty companies, with offices in 25 countries and conducts

business worldwide with a wide range of customers, manufacturers and suppliers. In the Benelux area alone, this means an EDI message flow of around 25,000 messages per month.

When Manager Corporate ICT Infrastructure Jean-Paul Jacobs was confronted with the end life of the SAP Business Connector, the application ERIKS used for EDI, he decided to look for a more flexible, reliable and balanced solution to deal with the huge volume of EDI traffic. That’s when he found TIE Kinetix.

noT a produCT, buT a servICe Jacobs wanted a service, not a product. “ I did not want to be preoccupied with software and hardware specifications, neither did I want to have to think about implementation and maintenance. I don’t care what happens behind the scenes, only whether the system works, that our customers can access the correct information quickly and easily and that our EDI traffic runs smoothly.”

TIE Kinetix understood ERIKS’ requirements immediately. Jacobs: “We were one of the first ones buying the B2B messaging as a service, the TIE SaaS solution. It worked immedi-ately because TIE understood the challenges we face and knew how to translate them into a flexible and stable service.”

sTreaMlInIng More Than 25,000 edI Messages per MonTh At first, the classic EDI solution was implemented. ERIKS Benelux receives and sends more than 25,000 EDI messages per month, whilst also continually acquiring new customers and suppliers. In order to ensure business continuity, TIE sees to it that new contacts are, nine out of ten times, processed within less than 5 working days.

After close cooperation, the Service Level Agreement has been set up. There is monthly reporting and the results are discussed with the Service Manager on a quarterly basis. Jacobs: “The EDI traffic runs smoothly. With an availability of 99.9%, TIE works even better than what we had agreed at the SLA. Needless to say we are very happy with that.”

dynaMIC requesT porTal guaranTees 24x7 InforMaTIon servICe Previously, ERIKS’ Inside Sales department daily received hundreds of questions concerning availability and pricing of their products. Questions such as whether a particular product was in stock and if so, what was the net price and when could it be delivered? ERIKS wanted to reduce the pressure on

the Inside Sales, in order to enable them to concentrate on providing product specific information.

Jacobs: “That is why we, together with TIE, established a direct connection between our SAP ERP application and the TradCom MRO portal guaranteeing that customers could check real time, 24/7 price conditions, the availability of stock and, consequently, could order online immediately.”

Each month ERIKS’s web shop receives around 100,000 visitors. Thanks to this portal, the pressure on Inside Sales has been reduced and the service to the customer has improved. Jacobs: “The customer does not need to call us anymore. The information is always available, real time and it can be called upon at any moment. And what the customer orders today, will be delivered tomorrow. That is how we work.”

“What the customer

orders today, will be

delivered tomorrow.”

Selection of ERIKS’ mechanical components such as valves, caps, tools, etc.