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Beamish & Crawford has been brewing and distributing premier beers throughout Ireland and around the world for over 200 years. With 180 employees, the company serves over 5,000 hotels, pubs, and restaurants in 30 countries. Beamish & Crawford is also Ireland's franchisee for the Miller Brewing Company. In the highly competitive beer industry, Beamish & Crawford's main competitor is Guinness, which is also located in Ireland.
Difficulties Faced by Midsize Companies
In today's business climate, midsize companies in particular are struggling with a difficult economy coupled with increasing competitive pressures. Many are looking to reduce expenses, increase efficiencies, and grow revenue from existing and new customers.
Beamish & Crawford is a prime example of a mid-tier enterprise striving to increase sales productivity by streamlining their sales process. The company wanted to capitalize on their existing AS/400 applications and laptop systems to achieve maximum results with low capital investment.
OnWeb Meets the Challenge
Beamish & Crawford found the ideal solution to their pressing business needs in OnWeb from NetManage. The company was able to streamline their entire sales process by deploying an OnWeb-powered, fully-automated, sales order entry system that integrates the Lotus Notes-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application running on their sales representatives' laptops with the AS/400-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system back at headquarters.
The host integration process was quick and painless, requiring absolutely no changes to existing systems or applications.
Improving the Sales Process
Beamish & Crawford's field sales force visits many different customers throughout the day, entering orders into their laptops as they make their rounds. Prior to deploying their new OnWeb solution, the sales representatives would have to interrupt their sales activities several times a day in order to call headquarters and relay sales orders - placing some 60,000 phone-based orders each year.
At headquarters, customer service agents would manually re-key the orders into the AS/400-based order entry system. Thanks to OnWeb, Beamish & Crawford now has a streamlined sales process resulting in a solid competitive edge. The sales force has been able to double their productivity, spending more time face-to-face with existing customers and new prospects - and spending less time transmitting sales orders.
At headquarters, the manual task of re-entering sales orders into the AS/400 has been eliminated, reducing potential re-keying errors and allowing the customer service agents to redirect their efforts towards enhanced customer service and outgoing tele-sales activities.
The Evaluation Process
Beamish & Crawford were searching for tangible results. They asked a short-list of vendors to prepare proofs of concept so they could conduct extensive testing prior to selecting a final solution.
"For a company our size, every technology choice is significant, so a solid proof of concept and initial testing were critical," explained Dave Dilloughery, Information Technology Manager.
As it turned out, NetManage was the only vendor able to rapidly show tangible results through a proof of concept. In fact, Dilloughery reports that none of the other vendors were able to deliver their proof of concept in the required timeframe.
"After a thorough review of major vendors, NetManage was the only vendor to show rapid and tangible results in the concept phase," said Dilloughery "In fact, no other vendor was able to deliver a proof of concept in the required time frame. NetManage clearly understood our business needs and demonstrated they could deliver a tailored solution faster than anyone else."
Raising a Glass to Net Results
Today, Beamish & Crawford is benefiting daily from a number of bottom-line advantages from their OnWeb host integration solution. The newly-empowered field sales force can now spend more time selling and less time phoning in orders. The company estimates that the OnWeb-powered solution is saving the field sales force 3,500 man-hours per year.
Back at headquarters, the customer service agents used to spend much of their time receiving orders from field sales and re-keying them into the AS/400 system. Now this group has also eliminated 3,500 man-hours per year. The total savings to Beamish & Crawford is therefore 7,000 man-hours per year.
What's more, Beamish & Crawford has been able to transform the customer service agents into a proactive customer service and tele-sales organization.
Direct labor savings have also been realized. To accommodate summer vacation schedules, the company used to employ a number of temporary customer service agents during the summer months to help with sales order entry. These positions have now been eliminated, saving the company direct labor costs.
The bottom line is that the OnWeb-based order entry system has provided Beamish & Crawford with the increased sales productivity and competitive edge they were seeking. The company expects to achieve a 100% return on investment in only six months.
Headquartered in Cork, Ireland, Beamish & Crawford
is a division of Scottish & Newcastle PLC, the second
largest brewer in Europe. With annual sales of about $140
million, Beamish & Crawford markets its beverage products
in over 30 different countries.
As a result of its NetManage OnWeb solution,
Beamish & Crawford is:
- The field sales force has been able
to double their productivity, eliminate 3,500 man-hours
previously needed to phone
in 60,000 orders per year, and engage in
more face-to-face time with customers and prospects to uncover new sales
opportunities.
- At headquarters, the customer service agents
have also been able to free-up 3,500 man-hours per year,
transforming their
focus from order processing to customer service and proactive
tele-sales.
- Beamish & Crawford has been able to directly
reduce labor cost by eliminating seasonal positions.
- The
company expects a 100% ROI in only six months.
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