Business Exchange and eCRM System Developed for Aerospace Manufacturer

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Business Issue
This client is a $500 million manufacturing company for the aircraft and aerospace maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) industry. A key part of the company’s business is the selling of new and refurbished replacement parts to helicopter owners through an exchange program in its Mechanical Division. Most of the program’s customers purchase small orders using a credit card.

In order to produce better back-office efficiencies, the client needed an online channel that would allow customers to purchase needed parts over the Internet. There were three primary goals for the project. First, the site had to present searchable catalog information to clients and allow them to pay by various methods, including invoice and credit card. Second, the fulfillment system would need to be integrated to the back-office order management system to manage the parts exchange process. Finally, the system was to facilitate a comprehensive eCRM view of the customer by allowing business users to review complete order history and call center data across online and offline channels.

CEI Solution
CEI created a solution that used commerce tools from Microsoft to create a private business-to-business exchange. Buying convenience was achieved by creating a site that leveraged the buying concepts within Site Server and offered business invoicing and credit card payment options through Cybercash. Shipping calculations were based on the weight of the products, and the new system architecture allowed for later integrations with UPS.

By integrating the web solution to the back-office order management system through a messaging system, the web solution created orders that could then be routed to the back-office for fulfillment and processing. CEI consultants worked with internal client staff to create a system/process to route the messages to the VMS-based MANMAN system. The new system enabled business customers to purchase products from the client and have access to reference information on buying patterns and past orders from both online and offline channels.