Increase their sales volume without increasing the size of their sales teams? To meet this objective, Rocheleau launches an e-commerce website and to have all the advantages of a platform that is fully integrated to her ERP software, the director of operations, with the support of the management team, adopts Fidelio. The company’s online sales increase from 0 to 32% in 2012 and to 55% in 2020. How is Rocheleau exploiting Fidelio to implement its e-commerce and growth strategy?
The Challenge
Rocheleau, a Quebec wholesaler specialized in hardware for kitchen furniture and cabinets has, since 2007, depended on the automation of its operations to support its growth. In 2012, the company decides to integrate a B2B e-commerce platform with its ERP software system.
The SME aims to achieve two main goals:
- Competitiveness: automate its sales processes to compete internationally
- Human Resources: increase its sales without hiking up the number of employees and fill the need for specialized labour in Quebec
To meet this double objective, Marie-France, the director of operations, knows she has to change her ERP software. Indeed, the company quickly realizes that the management software they chose two years ago, despite its being a world-renowned brand, cannot easily integrate an online sales site. Problems in communication between the ERP developer and the integrator complicate the project that much more.
Marie-France thus decides to trust Fidelio: a Quebec developer – integrator.
Indeed, she wants:
- An e-commerce platform built into the ERP to make automation of her sales processes easier and to provide real-time access to information.
- The possibility of progressively adding to the system as the needs of the company evolve. In fact, Rocheleau provides its customers with advanced personalized options, a veritable trademark of this SME. The web site must, therefore, be able to evolve and adapt to customer demand.
- A close relationship with the developer and no intermediary to make communication easier and ensure the success of the project.
The measures implemented to ease the e-commerce transition and increase sales
Introducing an e-commerce platform remains a disruptive process for the teams, as well as for their customers, with the former having to adapt to new ways of working, and the latter, to a new way of placing orders.
- Project adoption and employee transformation
- Change management
To help its employees complete the transition with success, the management at Rocheleau focuses its efforts on effective communication. Good communication involves answering the most commonly asked questions and regularly explaining the advantages of a web site at the outset of the project and throughout its implementation.
“Our objective was not to cut personnel, but to transform their repetitive tasks into high value-added tasks.”
Sponsors of change are also designated from among the teams to regularly communicate the advantages of the solution and its objectives. As a result: it’s the overall organization that quickly embraces the project.
- A first return on investment: transforming repetitive tasks into added-value tasks
Fidelio helps Rocheleau progressively automate its sales processes and adapt to a new way of working. It’s not only the customer service teams who benefit from this new tool, but also the management teams and all the departments in the organization.
Up to this point, customer service mostly handled data entry. The time invested in employee training was not profitable for the company. Launching Fidelio changed the nature of their roles so today they can carry out tasks with real added-value. Customer satisfaction has once again become their main focus which has led to a whole new level of customer service.
- Change management made easier by the proximity of Fidelio’s teams
Customer adoption of the web site is also progressive.
"Customers had to get used to not receiving paper copies. It’s the whole culture that changed gradually.“
To help customers embrace the new web site, the organization carries out numerous actions such as the creation of various instructional videos and guides. As well, customer support is provided at all organization levels: from the sales representative, to customer service, to those in charge of invoicing. Throughout the various stages of the sales process, customers are progressively guided toward adopting 100% digital practises.
“With Fidelio, we were able to receive updates on an ongoing basis according to customer feedback and the evolving market. This also facilitated the adoption of Fidelio. “
What made change management easier is definitely Fidelio’s desire to work hand in hand with Rocheleau. As a result, it was able to progressively develop new functionalities that are perfectly tailored to the needs of its customers. And the fact that Fidelio is a developer-integrator with a complete mastery of its ERP system allowed Rocheleau to create a platform in line with its objectives.
- The Fidelio e-commerce site: perfectly integrated to the ERP software
The main advantage of the e-commerce site is its total integration with the Fidelio ERP software allowing the team to access information in real time. This was indeed important for Marie-France who absolutely wanted to avoid having to use any other software. Each department, from invoicing to operations and also sales, must be able to use Fidelio for all tasks. No more Excel and other accounting software!
A case in point is inventory: when an order is placed, Fidelio verifies stock availability directly. Customers can, therefore, know if the products they're interested in are available, and this, at any time. The quantities are updated in real time as orders are shipped and items replenished.
Fidelio automates and combines the order, price and inventory data. This has three main benefits: the Rocheleau teams save precious time, entry errors become almost a thing of the past, and customers place their orders with greater speed and efficiency.
“With Fidelio, 55% of our sales are now completed on the Internet and we expect a regular increase in this number over the next years."
Another advantage for Marie-France is rapid, real-time access to performance indicators which, in her opinion, is essential to optimizing management and facilitating decision making, ”We are very numbers-focused in all our departments at Rocheleau.”
The Results
Rocheleau’s customers can now place orders 24/7. Today, 55% of this company’s sales are online. This number has been increasing since the beginning of the health crisis and it reached 57% in April, a record peak.
Having more self-sufficient customers has allowed several departments such as customer service, invoicing, but also sales, to focus on true added-value tasks. This proves that it's possible to support growth without growing the sales team!
And Today?
In 2020, Marie-France continues to upgrade and modernize the online sales site in line with several objectives:
- Enhance the personalization of her online product offer by putting in place a number of advanced configurators for various made-to-measure products.
- Increase team productivity by enhancing customer autonomy through the implementation of product returns on the web. The objective once again is to eliminate those tasks with no added value for its teams.
- Increase the efficiency of salespeople and create customer loyalty.
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