2005 Press Releases
Glovia in the news
Munters Corporation, Americas Manufacturing Divisions, Enhance Order Management with eBusiness Solution from Glovia
eBusiness Initiative Reduces Time to Manage Orders, Improves Order Accuracy, and Enhances Customer Experience
El Segundo, Calif., June 22, 2005 - Glovia International, a subsidiary of Fujitsu (TSE:6702) and a leading provider of extended ERP solutions for engineer-to-order and high volume manufacturers, announced today that Munters Corporation is successfully utilizing Glovia's eBusiness solution, glovia.com Customer Self Service, to enable faster and more efficient business while providing customers a proactive business tool for improving their purchasing experience.
Munters is one of the world's leaders in providing humidity control products and services. The company has manufacturing and sales operations in 28 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The manufacturing divisions in the US and Mexico, part of Munters Americas, implemented glovia.com eBusiness solution in 2003 and currently has five North American locations running the solution.
Moving to eBusiness
glovia.com Customer Self Service makes it easy for Munters Americas to do business while minimizing service-related costs with 24/7 access to sales quote, sales order, and order status functionality through the Internet. Users now have immediate access to timely and accurate information about their orders instead of having to wait for a response from a sales or customer service rep. The "shopping cart" interface supports the entire order entry process by managing customer order addition and maintenance as well as simplifying order entry so users can find the products they need quickly and easily.
glovia.com, in addition to recording, maintaining, and tracking sales quote information, also automates complex products and services pricing. The seamless integration with other glovia.com modules enables Munters Americas to convert sales quotes to sales orders instantly, including order number generation as well as automatic population of forms with information from customer master files to save time and eliminate data entry errors.
"Glovia's eBusiness solution enables us to conduct faster and more efficient business while providing users with a proactive business tool for improving their purchasing experience," stated Keith Sauder, IT manager for Munter's Florida and Mexico locations. "The new modules are seamlessly integrated with the other components of glovia.com to enhance the functionality of the overall solution while allowing one consistent interface for all users-whether it be a customer, sales rep, distributor, or an internal Munters' customer."
As Munters Americas transports or "sells" large amounts of components between their facilities to manufacture many of their finished products, the company decided to take a two-phase approach to implement the solution. The first phase was to roll the solution out within Munters to make sure it ran smoothly internally and to provide customer service reps time to become familiar with the system. The second phase is to enable customers and outside vendors access to the system.
A Successful Solution
Munters implemented the solution internally in four and a half months and is currently using the system for their inter-facility transactions of components. Now confident the solution is effective and easy to use, Munters plans to start rolling it out to external customers by the end of 2005.
The solution is already making a positive impact on Munter's business. Customer service representatives receiving orders no longer have to enter the order they simply have to review and confirm it. The company found that one third of the time it took for customer service reps to manage an order has been eliminated entirely, equating to a significant cost savings per representative.
Accuracy was another area that has been greatly improved with the new system. "When you talk to manufacturing personnel, they see less change orders due to data entry errors because the buyer is more focused on what they are purchasing and is now the one actually placing the order," continued Sauder. The increased order accuracy and access to information has also lead to unexpected benefits for Munters Americas including a smoother production schedule on the plant floor due to less change orders. In addition, some manufacturing personnel want access to the system because it improves their demand visibility, which allows more time to prepare future orders.
"With this application, Munters Americas can continue to maintain their competitive advantage by offering an effective, efficient method of conducting business that streamlines the order management process," stated Yuji Nakasu, president and CEO of Glovia International. "Our focus is on providing rich and dynamic applications, such as our eBusiness solution, that will help our customers optimize their business processes and streamline workflow for heightened productivity and profitability."
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About Munters Group
Munters is the world leader in humidity control with products and services for water and fire damage restoration, dehumidification, humidification and cooling of air. Customers are found in a wide range of segments, the most important being the insurance, utilities, food, pharma and electronics industries. Manufacturing and sales are carried out via the Group's own companies in more than 25 countries in Europe, Americas and Asia. The Group has 3,064 employees and net sales of SEK 4,543 million. Munters is listed on Stockholmsbörsen (the Stockholm Stock Exchange). For more information please visit www.munters.com.
About Glovia International
Glovia International, Inc., a subsidiary of Fujitsu (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6702), is one of the world's most experienced and solidly backed providers of extended ERP solutions for businesses of any size - from small and mid-sized companies to global enterprises. The powerful and flexible Glovia ERP suite, glovia.com, provides for the unique needs of engineer-to-order, make-to-order, high volume and mixed-mode manufacturing environments through comprehensive, end-to-end functionality for the entire product lifecycle. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Glovia has helped manufacturers to cut costs, improve productivity, and meet customer demands for over 30 years. For more information, please visit www.glovia.com or call (800) 223-3799.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting device technologies, highly reliable computing and communications platforms, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts uniquely position Fujitsu to deliver comprehensive solutions that open up infinite possibilities for its customers' success. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.7 trillion yen (US$44.5 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com
