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When Canada's largest independent retailer of furniture, appliances, and electronics wanted to speed up its credit application process in order to generate more revenue, it looked to NetManage to create an application by which sales representatives could administer the whole process over the Web. The company's previous credit process was slowing down approvals and frustrating customers - a critical problem facing many retailers today.
Previously, when Brick customers applied for credit, sales representatives had to enter customer information into individual lender mainframes using "green screen" terminals via remote 3270 gateway connections. Sales representatives sometimes waited up to 20 minutes for a lender approval, forcing customers to wait to see whether they would be accepted or not. If a customer did not receive credit approval from the first lender, a second application was made, requiring sales representatives to re-enter the same information and wait again for a response.
Streamlining this approval process was needed to increase The Brick's business. "We faced tremendous problems moving forward with our previous credit application system," explains Dave Upright, Vice President of Information Services at The Brick. "We had nearly 800 sales staff that needed to link directly to our lenders' systems, all of which had unique 3270 interfaces. Through the remote gateway connections, our dumb terminals took on the appearance of the lender's 3270 systems. We were spending too much money training the sales staff to use these different systems."
Deployment in Three Weeks
Looking for a solution, The Brick evaluated a NetManage competitor. However, simplicity and speed of overall deployment were the foremost reasons they opted for an OnWeb solution. The Brick, with the help of the NetManage e-Business Consulting Group, had the new lending application system live and running smoothly in three weeks, in time for the Christmas shopping season.
The e-Business Consulting Group designed a new intuitive Web interface for The Brick, which incorporated common elements of their business partners' systems. They developed the application so that The Brick's own systems capture all customer demographic information entered by the sales staff - a key portion missing in their former system caused them to miss out on marketing opportunities. This enabled them to transform what began as a customer-driven initiative into business results.
Using OnWeb, the Brick created a new application that combined the mainframe information from their lending partners into a seamless, easy-to-use Internet-architected system. Sales associates can now use a single, integrated application and receive approvals within minutes over the company's extranet. The extranet allows the sales staff to access The Brick's lenders at any time.
The new application sends information automatically to the Brick's databases and directs it to the lenders. An intuitive single-screen interface virtually eliminates training - something that had been cumbersome and time-consuming under the old system. "One of the toughest challenges we were able to surmount was that we needed a new system up and running in an intensely short timeframe - before the rush of the Christmas holidays hit the stores," said Upright. "Now we are responding quicker, and have improved the chances of credit approval for our customers. A quicker, more efficient approval system makes our customers happier and more likely to purchase something at The Brick."
Benefits All Around
The Brick sales representatives have benefited because their entire credit application process is much simpler and faster. They no longer have to dedicate significant time to a customer only to find out that the application has been rejected… and then restart the process with another credit partner.
The old system required in-depth training. Sales representatives previously used specific codes and different combinations of keys for each credit approval system. Now, the new OnWeb credit application system enables them to processinformation with the click of a mouse. More importantly, The Brick customers benefit because the credit application and approval process is faster with fewer hassles and less waiting. And easier customer credit means more sales.
Dramatic Payback on Investment
Since implementing the OnWeb solution, The Brick has seen between $1 million and 1.6 million increase in sales per month (a three to five per cent increase) at each of its 50 locations across Canada. This is a tremendous cost benefit to the company, with the entire deployment paying for itself in two days. It has established a better, more efficient relationship with its lenders, which has enabled them to offer higher quality service to their customers. In addition, newly accessible customer demographic information enables The Brick to use that information for various marketing and cross-selling initiatives.
"The OnWeb application has allowed us to exceed all our revenue expectations in a timeframe we would never have thought to be realistic," explains Upright. "Our bottom line is proof that we made absolutely the right choice in OnWeb."
''One of the toughest challenges we were able to surmount was that we needed a new system up and running in an intensely short timeframe - before the rush of the Christmas holidays hit the stores.''
Canada's largest independent retailer of furniture,
appliances, and electronics.
As a result of its NetManage OnWeb solution,
The Brick has:
- Significantly improved customer service.
- Increased revenue by three to five per cent
per month in each of its store locations.
- Realized a payback on its investment in only two
days. Improved relationships with lenders.
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