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Stone Construction Equipment
Industry
Manufacturing – multi-use light industrial construction equipment
Customer
Stone Construction Equipment, Inc. is a leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of light construction equipment since 1967. The company manufactures more than 350 products for worldwide distribution through a channel of dealers and rental chains. The company is market-driven with an intense customer focus that has allowed it to hold a leadership position in the construction industry.
Situation
With a corporate philosophy of encouraging strong partnerships and a history of investing in efforts to drive greater customer satisfaction, Stone decided to implement a comprehensive eBusiness portal to improve support and services for their worldwide dealer network. The goal was to improve the ability of dealers and distributors to access product and company information and services and, in turn, to lower the cost of doing business with Stone.
Solution - SmartEnterprise Suite
Stone selected Conduit’s SmartEnterprise Suite (SES), a powerful and comprehensive set of e-business applications to create and manage their new web-based tools. SES offered a way for customers and their dealer network to access product data and related documents, product confi guration tools, online ordering of whole goods, parts, and used equipment; interactive schematics of parts diagrams, warranty registration and claim tools – all integrated with their existing backend IT structure. Conduit’s solution was fully confi gured to support both dealers and rental chains and allowed Stone to centralize its entire product marketing portfolio. Conduit’s deep expertise in developing web-based applications for the construction industry was also a key factor in the selection of the solution.
Results
Stone’s dealer network can now access all the functions necessary to view, build, quote and order products and aftermarket parts directly online via Stone’s portal in real-time. The system has allowed the sales and marketing organization to not only streamline the ordering process and increase profi tability of existing channel partners, but also add a number of major dealers to its worldwide network. The company is reaching further into international markets and is reducing errors previously experienced through verbal and hand-written confi gurations and orders. The centralized content management functionality has reduced by more than 50% the time necessary to store, manage and updated product and parts information, schematics, pricing, and content associated with product and corporate marketing to its channel partners globally. Stone’s website was awarded fi rst place in the American Rental Association (ARA) e-Web Awards, recognizing the best use of Internet technology in the rental industry.
“I have absolutely no doubt that our investment in Conduit’s software has made Stone a more competitive company and a more valuable business partner. In a matter of only six months, because of our eCommerce site, we have gained new distributors and improved the loyalty and profi tability of our existing channel partners – from the small local distributor to the large national rental chains.”
