Digitally Transforming Sales in the Chemical Industry
Soudal’s sales team have increased their productivity using a mobile app to seamlessly process orders.
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Soudal has dramatically increased the productivity of their sales and admin teams by developing a cloud-based order processing app. This app eliminates tedious data entry work and ensures that all orders are correctly entered into the system. Thanks to the newfound efficiencies, the sales team can now concentrate on what they do best - closing deals.
Challenge
Soudal’s traditional way of submitting orders was a major roadblock to efficiency and productivity for their sales and admin teams. The old order system, writing up and phoning orders in, all led to wasted time for the teams. The logical solution was a mobile app that automatically processed orders and could work both on- and offline. They needed the right architecture in place to have this vision realized. That’s where Codit stepped in.
Architecture for a Smooth Sales Order Process
The first challenge for the team was having the right architecture in place so they could develop the sales order app. To process orders on and offline, the architecture had to be in the cloud . It was decided that an Azure-based platform would be the best solution for Soudal.
However, the SAP and Azure integration aren’t so straightforward. SAP and Azure both use entirely different protocols, so a system needed to be in place to facilitate the data flow between the two platforms.
Data integrity was the next challenge the team faced. If the synchronization isn’t configured correctly, the data can be corrupted by instances such as duplicate entries of the same order.
With a tight deadline looming, the Soudal team needed to quickly have this solution ready. While they had made some progress with the integration they realized that if they wanted a high-quality product, on time, external help had to be called in. The Codit team has expertise in Microsoft technology and integration, making them the first choice as a partner for Soudal.
We wanted to achieve our goals quickly. With Codit’s help we did. ”
Approach
An Azure-based architecture was developed to operate as the backend of Soudal’s mobile app. BizTalk was then used to integrate the data and facilitate the smooth communication between SAP and Azure. To ensure the continuity of all systems, a dashboard was developed specifically for alerting the Customer Care team when an issue arises.
The challenge of syncing data
An Azure-based infrastructure, capable of transferring data between multiple back-end systems, was quickly developed.
Codit then took on the difficult task of streamlining the flow of data between SAP and Azure. Because the two systems use different protocols BizTalk was put in place to translate the protocols and move data between the two systems.
Data synchronization must be done in a controlled way, or businesses risk polluting their own databases. Codit put in place a variety of triggers that work to maintain data integrity. The triggers check to see if any changes have been made to the data. If so, the data is then synced to the corresponding system. This ensures that data isn’t simply pushed from one system to another, blindly creating duplicate records.
Soudal also gains peace of mind by using Codit Customer Care, who monitor this infrastructure and the data sync 24/7.
Result
The results have been an astounding increase in efficiency and productivity. The team can offer their customers better service thanks to the app. The sales and admin teams no longer have to spend their time on tedious tasks like manual data entry or logging orders over the phone. With Customer Care monitoring all systems, Soudal knows that their systems are in safe hands.
A bright future
Soudal have seen some amazing results; increased order accuracy, an optimized order process, sky-rocketing productivity, and improved customer service.
The app was first piloted with their Polish sales team, who took to it with enthusiasm.
“Our sales team in Poland immediately switched to the mobile order entry application and stopped writing up and phoning in orders – much to the relief of the office staff who suddenly had more free time to provide additional support to our customers,” says Danny Verstraelen, IT Manager at Soudal.
22 locations are currently working with the app.
Soudal and Codit have now developed a new webstore and a Product Data Store so that sales teams can have access to product photos and technical sheets via the app.
The future is bright for the Soudal-Codit partnership, with more projects in the pipeline.
“Originally, we were uncertain about committing to working with just one supplier, but our positive experiences and the outstanding results quickly removed any doubts,” concludes Verstraelen.
A word from the client
“We couldn’t have finished the project to such a high standard without Codit. Codit was directly responsible for numerous performance improvements.”
Danny Verstraelen IT Manager, Soudal
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