Success Stories

Activant Trading Partner Connect Improves Manufacturer's Relationship with Distributors

Since the dawn of the distribution industry, manufacturers/suppliers and distributors have had to work together to be successful. In the past decade, shareholders and owners of manufacturers/suppliers have increased their expectations for profits. At the same time, growing demands for greater customer service and an inability to maintain, yet alone raise, prices have placed increasing pressure on distributors. Only by creating alliances between each other, have manufacturers/suppliers and distributors been able to profit and grow.

Saving Time and Money

No manufacturer/supplier is more aware of this fact than Henkel Loctite Corporation, a national industrial manufacturer/supplier based in Connecticut. Looking for a way to increase efficiency and effectiveness while improving the company's relations with distributors, Henkel Loctite joined Activant Trading Partner Connect B2B Buyer, an Internet trading network that streamlines the procurement process between manufacturers/suppliers and distributors.

"Trading Partner Connect reduces transaction costs for the distributor and the manufacturer/supplier," says Doug Lescarbeau, director of e-business for Henkel Loctite. "It is also a high-speed conduit for the business-critical information that improves customer service and support. We understand that by being more effective earlier in the supply chain our products will have greater value further down the supply chain. We believe this will give a direct positive benefit to our revenue."

At the first meeting with Activant, Henkel Loctite recognized that Trading Partner Connect had the ingredients to increase the business success of both distributors and manufacturers/suppliers. Henkel Loctite views Trading Partner Connect as an opportunity to further strengthen the relationship and collaboration with valued distributors.

The Relationship Advantage

Distributors who work with Henkel Loctite through Trading Partner Connect find the relationship especially rewarding. They note the ease of receiving purchase orders and advanced ship notices electronically through Trading Partner Connect as a major time and cost savings advantage.

Henkel Loctite looked at value-added networks (VANs), extranets, and proprietary systems as solutions to solve this issue. When comparing those solutions to B2B Buyer there was no comparison. B2B Buyer eliminates VAN charges and is easy to use. Best of all, since distributors can conduct all transactions with manufacturers/suppliers online from their Activant enterprise software solution, distributors benefit by reduced costs and elimination of re-keying errors.

Henkel Loctite benefits from the new insight they gain into the supply chain. For the first time, they can see the entire inventory channel all the way to the end. Instead of making educated guesses relating to future production requirements, inventory is now visible at the distribution and end user locations, enabling far more knowledgeable manufacturing decisions. This is all controlled by permissions that both trading partners agree to. So there is no need to worry about compromising existing business relationships.

"Activant had been a leader in providing distributioncentric business technology for almost 35 years," concludes Lescarbeau. "Unlike an untested dot.com, they understand what their customers want and they know how to deliver it. Trading Partner Connect members can leverage the experience and knowledge of Activant, its distributors, and participating manufacturers to reap the benefits of transactions online."

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