Over the next few weeks, we'll be featuring detailed case studies on the winners of our Customer Innovation Awards, presented last month at the Pageflex User Conference.
These awards were given to customers who successfully combined innovation and technology to meet the business goal.
This case study features a project which earned Pageflex customer e-Integrity an award for Developing an Innovative Solution that Met Client's Needs.
Overview
Owens Corning works with a network of dealers and contractors across North America. Owens Corning provides these dealers and contractors with co-op dollars, marketing materials, and access to the product samples they need.
In an effort to better support those dealers and contractors, Owens Corning tasked TPA, a leader in administration for co-op programs, and e-Integrity, to build a dealer portal.
The goal was to create a site that would be a complete resource for their dealers and contractors. The site would need to include marketing materials and product samples that could be customized and ordered by the dealers. In addition, the site needed to serve as a place where as dealers could access information on their co-op accounts.
Specific goals of the project were:
- Allow contractors to customize/personalize marketing collateral online, and pay with available co-op dollars.
- Replace the phone-based ordering system for samples with a trackable, web-based system
- Replace the mail-in warranty forms with an online warranty registration
- Allow contractors to view details of their co-op program, including available balance and claims submitted.
- Allow the call center employees access to the portal so that they could use it to place orders or retrieve information on behalf of the contractor
Meeting Client's Needs Through Collaboration
The project was a joint venture between TPA and e-Integrity, bringing together TPA’s expertise in co-op management with e-Integrity’s experience developing dealer portals.
The dealer experience begins by logging into Owens Corning’s dealer intranet. Once they are logged in, a SSO is utilized to grant them access to their co-op information and/or the web store. Call center employees must log in to the system separately and can access information for any contractor after passing a security gateway.
Once at the portal, the dealer or call center employee has access to their co-op balance, and can drill down to see co-op activity, claims, and access forms and supporting documentation.
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In addition to co-op balances, dealers can customize marketing collateral by entering the “Ad-Builder” part of the site. Once here, they can customize and order marketing collateral, including ads, door hangers, and spec sheets.
This section of the portal also gives users the ability to register warranties. Here, the user enters in all information related to product warranties. If any exceptions are made to the way in which the product is used, then the system automatically sends that warranty information for approval. If no exceptions are made the warranty gets generated immediately.
The biggest time saver for Owens Corning has been giving users the ability to order samples at the portal. To order samples, users are presented with samples of products that are available to them in their geographic area. They can track the shipping status of their order, and the online sample ordering process has had an immediate positive impact on dealer satisfaction while reducing waste from duplicate shipments.
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At check out, they can elect to use their available co-op balance or pay via credit card.
Results
- Owens Corning is registering 10% more warranties than previously
- Owens Corning has reduced co-op inquiry calls by 15%
Bill Nicholson, Director of Professional Services at e-Integrity, talked about project and noted:
"There is great satisfaction in seeing the dealers embrace the solution. Our client really listened to their dealers and designed a toolkit that makes co-op management and marketing a much simpler process than it had been. The transaction volumes continue to increase, and gaining acceptance and trust from the intended user base is always rewarding!"
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