George Anderson, Author at Corevist

How To Automate Email Orders To Post To SAP ERP

George Anderson — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 15:20:36 +0000

No doubt about it, email orders cause friction for B2B companies. Even if customers use approved templates for their PDF orders, you can still encounter problems.

Granted, customers may appreciate the convenience of ordering via email, as they can export a document from their own procurement system. But the internal problems for the seller make email orders a thorn in the flesh.

Here are the biggest problems with email orders—and how to solve them through sales order automation.

Biggest problems with email orders

Whether email orders contain errors or not, they’ll always cause friction within your organization. Even a 100% perfect email order needs a customer service rep to type it into SAP. That’s an expensive way to consume orders.

But most email orders aren’t 100% perfect.

When your customers build these orders, they can’t check them against your SAP ERP business rules. This means there are infinite ways for email orders to cause problems. And every error adds to the time that a customer service rep has to spend on the order.

Here are the most common issues that SAP companies encounter with email orders:

Wrong pricing. The customer used outdated data that doesn’t reflect their latest negotiated pricing.
Wrong SKU. The customer chose an SKU that they aren’t allowed to buy, or one that’s been discontinued. They have no visibility into SKU substitutions, so they can’t see this issue before they send the order.
Wrong quantity. The customer doesn’t have access to minimum quantity information, or they assembled the order by hand and didn’t check minimum quantities.

It’s worth noting that customers can avoid all of these issues, provided 1) they place orders in your B2B ecommerce portal rather than through email, and 2) the portal has real-time SAP integration that provides 100% accurate data. (Hint: This is the thinking behind the Corevist Platform.)

Of course, not every customer is going to switch from email orders to self-service B2B ecommerce. That’s why it’s essential to automate email orders. Ideally, you should also plan to reduce email orders by launching a self-service B2B ecommerce portal too—but that’s a topic for another day.

In the meantime, here’s how to automate email orders.

Step 1: Choose an email automation solution

You’ll need an intelligent software solution that can read incoming email orders, compare them to the relevant business rules in SAP ERP, and handle them appropriately.

Ideally, your solution should recognize problem orders (those with wrong pricing, wrong SKUs, etc.) and log them for customer service to review.

For error-free orders, your solution should post them to SAP ERP automatically, hands-free.

(Hint: This is how Corevist BuyBot works.)

Once you’ve chosen your email automation solution, it’s time to configure it for your business.

Step 2: Identify your highest-volume email order accounts

Which accounts are costing you the most with email orders? Those are the ideal accounts to start with. They’ll provide the most ROI quickly so you can bake those cost savings into new initiatives.

Maybe you have 3 customers who each send you 100+ email orders per month. That’s a lot of lost productivity that you can address with automation.

Step 3: Gather PDF examples from these accounts

Corevist BuyBot comes with 5 email order templates in our standard package. Template-based processing allows maximum accuracy without driving up costs.

To make the most use of your templates, your implementation partner will need to examine how your typical email orders are configured. Data like ship-to, sold-to, payer, and materials all influence the configuration of your templates (and how many you’ll need).

When you’re gathering sample orders, you’ll want to present the most typical cases, but also edge cases. This will help your implementation partner determine how best to configure the solution for maximum efficiency gains.

Step 4: Configure and test your B2B email order automation solution

You’ll want to point your email automation solution at your SAP QA environment for testing, then set it up to read emails coming to an address that’s available for testing purposes.

Next, you’ll want to create PDF orders that are formatted like the target customers’ orders and send them to that email address. This is an iterative process in which you’ll uncover any issues with the solution—and your implementation partner will address them with configuration changes to your templates.

If you choose Corevist BuyBot, our SAP experts will manage the testing and refinement process, collaborating with you. They’ll also configure the solution, working with you to ensure it honors your unique processes and business rules.

Step 5: Launch (and watch your email orders post to SAP)

Once your email order automation solution is working properly, it’s time to turn it on for your customers and set it up to post orders to your SAP PRD environment. It’s an exciting day!

If you followed a rigorous testing and configuration process, you should have very few issues when you turn the solution on. Still, a partner like Corevist will work with you closely during a 2-week HyperCare period after launch, ensuring everything is stable. After that, you’ll transition to regular production support with the Corevist team.

Corevist BuyBot: B2B email order automation for SAP companies

Corevist BuyBot is a powerful email order automation solution for companies running SAP ERP. You get our prebuilt, configurable SAP integration—which also supports customer portals and B2B ecommerce, should you decide to expand your offerings in customer experience.

BuyBot works fast behind the scenes to reduce your operational cost—while still supporting customers who prefer to send email orders.

Ready to learn more?

Schedule a demo of Corevist BuyBot.

Email order automation for companies on SAP ERP.

Schedule A Demo

The post How To Automate Email Orders To Post To SAP ERP appeared first on Corevist.

QUIZ: How Mature Is Your Customer Experience?

George Anderson — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 20:04:09 +0000

How mature is your #CX?

Dealers & distributors want a seamless experience in buying from manufacturers.

So how do you stack up?

Take our short quiz below to find out. We’ll ask you 4 questions covering the 4 key areas of manufacturer customer experience.

Be honest! No cheating!

[HDquiz quiz = “379”]

Understanding your results:

Our quiz is pretty simple. It’s scored out of 4 points.

0/4–Your customer experience has served you well for years, but it may be time to take things online.
1/4–Bravo! You’ve taken concrete steps to modernize your customer experience. What will you transform next?
2/4–Good work! Your customer experience is better than most manufacturers’. What’s your next transformation initiative?
3/4–Wow! You’ve taken great strides in offering a modern customer experience. Your portal gives you a competitive advantage.
4/4–No contest. You’re the leader in seamless, self-service ordering and account management.

The Takeaway:

Wherever you’re at today, you can always take a concrete step to improve your customer experience. You don’t have to launch an all-encompassing solution right away. When you adopt an Agile transformation mindset, as we do at Corevist, you can start with a quick win (say Order Tracking or Bill Pay), then add incremental value as you roll out self-service ordering and catalog browsing.

With a roadmap like this, you start providing customer value right away, then grow the portal with additional functionality as you gain experience. It’s a great way to accelerate your journey in digital transformation.

Moving forward: FREE case study

Want to see Agile transformation in real life? Download this case study on Blount International. You’ll learn how this leading manufacturer of construction equipment started their transformation with Corevist Order Tracking, then scaled up to add online ordering—and expanded to multiple brands and geographies. The result? 325% digital revenue growth.

[want_more title=”Learn more” subtitle=”FREE Case study: Blount International” description=”Learn how multiple departments came together as Blount International launched ecommerce.” button_text=”Download Now” button_link=”https://www.corevist.com/blount-international-inc/” button_class=”btn btn-primary blount-case-study” title2=”See it for yourself” subtitle2=”Talk to us” description2=”Curious what Corevist Commerce can do for you? Let us show you a personalized demo. You’ll see ecommerce with real-time SAP data.” button_text2=”Schedule Demo” button_link2=”https://www.corevist.com/demo/” button_class2=”demo-popup”]

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Watch Out For Adobe, SAP Commerce Cloud

George Anderson — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 12:55:51 +0000

The Future of CX for SAP Companies

Forrester recently named SAP Commerce Cloud a leader among B2B commerce suites for Q3 2018. In a sense, this is no surprise. And while SAP Commerce Cloud may be named a leader today, it’s worth dissecting that for manufacturers running SAP. Is Commerce Cloud the ideal solution for every SAP client? And if not, what choices do manufacturers have?

Adobe’s recent acquisitions of Magento and Marketo bring a whole new level of nuance to the question. In this article, we’ll analyze Commerce Cloud in terms of technical chops required, then compare it to the Adobe path—Corevist integrating Magento to SAP ERP.

Imagine Adobe + Corevist

Imagine the possibilities of Corevist’s Magento-SAP integration coupled to Adobe for customer experience management and marketing automation. At a fraction of the cost and complexity of SAP CX, that suite would have all these capabilities:

Best of breed B2B ecommerce (Magento)
Real-time Magento interaction with SAP for accurate contract pricing, inventory, ATP calculations, instant order-posting to SAP, and more (Corevist required)
Best of breed B2B marketing automation driving more revenue from ecommerce (Marketo)

Clearly, the future of digital transformation is bright for manufacturers running SAP. We get excited just thinking about the possibilities.

It’s worth comparing this path to SAP Commerce Cloud. For manufacturers with limited IT resources, how does Adobe + Magento + Corevist compare to Commerce Cloud?

SAP Commerce Cloud: Technical chops required

Yes, SAP Commerce Cloud is a Forrester leader this time around. But it’s critical that manufacturers contextualize that statement. Which companies will see Commerce Cloud as a leading solution?

Forrester reports this quote from Commerce Cloud customers: “The platform is only suitable for organizations with deep technical skills or a strong SI partnership.” Forrester then goes on to say, “SAP Commerce Cloud is a best fit for firms looking for an industrial strength, fully functional commerce platform and those with the technical chops to support it.”

This reinforces what we reported in an article on hybris competitors—that hybris (the old name for Commerce Cloud) requires no less than 12 full-time employees to support.

What if you A) don’t have the technical experts on staff, B) definitely don’t have 12 of them, and C) don’t want to form an SI partnership? Are you sore outta luck when it comes to SAP-integrated ecommerce?

Corevist Commerce: No chops required

Corevist Commerce exists for companies that answered “No” to the above questions. Where Commerce Cloud requires 12 full-time employees to support it, 1/3 of Corevist clients have no in-house IT resources dedicated to supporting our platform.

How do we achieve this? By working straight from your existing SAP system. Our market-leading integration between Magento & SAP brings critical ecommerce data to the web store, straight from SAP. We start with the real-time integration, keep your business rules in SAP, and add Magento on top for world-class B2B user experience.

For manufacturers that don’t want the cost and complexity of SAP CX and Commerce Cloud, Corevist + Magento + Adobe offers a welcome alternative.

Is Corevist + Magento + Adobe really a viable alternative to SAP CX?

Back to the Forrester Wave report for a moment. I guarantee you that every Corevist client evaluated every single leader and contender on that list—the ones that are relevant to SAP ERP, anyway. They looked at hybris, the precursor to SAP Commerce Cloud, and they chose us.

Rather than SAP’s offering, they chose Magento integrated to SAP through Corevist Commerce.

Why? Because Magento really is that good. Magento was named a Leader in previous Gartner Magic Quadrant and Forrester Wave reports. They were named leaders—without consideration of the value-add that Corevist provides in SAP integration.

In other words, Magento is an incredibly strong contender for B2B manufacturers running SAP. And that’s great news—because Corevist integrating Magento to SAP lower TCO, faster TTM, and lower maintenance than SAP Commerce Cloud (which, by the way, still requires you to complete integration to SAP).

Moving forward: FREE case study

Want to see Magento integrated to SAP in real life? Download this FREE case study on Mannington Mills. This leading manufacturer of flooring launched a Magento catalog with beautiful, functional UX, integrated to SAP in real time through Corevist Commerce. The result? 150% digital sales growth.

[want_more title=”Learn more” subtitle=”FREE Case study: 150% Sales Growth with Rich Content” description=”Learn how a leading flooring manufacturer more than doubled sales with a B2C-style catalog.” button_text=”Download Now” button_link=”/” button_class=”btn btn-primary mannington-ae” title2=”See it for yourself” subtitle2=”Talk to us” description2=”Curious what Corevist Commerce can do for you? Let us show you a personalized demo. You’ll see ecommerce with real-time SAP data.” button_text2=”Schedule Demo” button_link2=”https://www.corevist.com/demo/” button_class2=”demo-popup”]

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Continuous Improvement: The Corevist Quarterly Release Cycle

George Anderson — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 17:34:02 +0000

Corevist’s Quarterly Release Cycle

At Corevist, we’re totally committed to offering the best SAP B2B eCommerce solution on the planet. We do it at a fraction of the cost of our competition, and we get it up and running in a fraction of the time. Some companies might stop there—that’s plenty of value proposition already!

But we aren’t satisfied with that.

That’s why we launched our new Quarterly Release Cycle at the beginning of 2017. The concept is fairly simple: four times a year, we’ll launch a new and improved version of our app. This version won’t require any testing by our clients. It won’t impact service, functionality, or uptime negatively in any way. It will be pushed to all our clients’ live environments simultaneously. And it will mean a better experience than ever before for you and your customers.

Why quarterly releases?

Good question. Any enterprise software product undergoes updates and improvements. These can be ad hoc, as required, or emergency fixes. But what about bigger plans to improve our offering for all clients? That requires planning. Hence, quarterly releases.

We are constantly working behind the scenes to bring you the best SAP B2B eCommerce solution in the world. This new release cycle will help us organize those ongoing development efforts.

How does this benefit me?

Glad you asked! Our Quarterly Release Cycle brings many benefits to our clients. Some of these benefits are the kind of thing you would only notice if the benefit wasn’t there, or if something went wrong. Here are some examples:

Improved speed of our app and your eCommerce website
Improved stability and reliability for our app and your eCommerce website
Better user experience

What sorts of things have you already improved with the Quarterly Release Cycle?

Since every quarterly release will address different problems or improvements, not every release will include changes to every aspect of our product. However, here are some examples of things that we’ve improved in the past with our quarterly releases:

Completely redesigned the graphic user interface of our product for better usability. Since B2B eCommerce is complex, we find that improvements in our UI can make life easier for our clients and their customers. Since this was a night-and-day change, it was turned off by default in the new release.
Introduced business-oriented translation technology. In the past, our clients had to submit a ticket when they found a word that needed to have its translation adjusted. Now translations are a core part of the Corevist product, and they don’t require a developer to execute.
Introduced RFC monitoring. Our team uses RFC monitoring to determine whether a performance speed issue originates in the client’s SAP or in our app. RFC monitoring allows us to pinpoint the source of speed issues, which means faster time-to-resolution for those issues.This is an example of an improvement that is not a client-facing feature. It’s running in the background whether our clients realize it or not.

Couldn’t this impact me in a bad way?

Some clients have asked us if there are any dangers to accepting a quarterly release. The short answer is No. We test each quarterly release thoroughly. The new version will not impact the usability or performance of the Corevist app in any way.

What if I don’t want to receive the quarterly release?

Sometimes a client may think that the quarterly release requires testing and acceptance on their part. That looks like one more task to add to plates that are already full. The client may let us know that they don’t want to receive the quarterly release.

Here, we need to point out that quarterly releases are not optional. They are pushed automatically to all clients. They do not require testing and acceptance on the client’s part and will not impact service negatively.

What if I DO want to try out the quarterly release?

Great! We provide every client with a sandbox environment in which they can play around with the upcoming release before it’s pushed. This gives our clients the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the specific features of the release (which may or may not be noticeable to the end user).

However, it’s important to point out that this sandbox testing is for the purposes of gaining familiarity only. Quarterly releases are not optional, and sandbox testing is not an opportunity for a client to refuse a quarterly release. However, if you do find an issue, Corevist will ensure that it is addressed in a timely and effective manner based on the severity of the impact.

What if I only want some of the functionality in the new quarterly release?

There are two types of updates that can appear in a quarterly release.

Noticeable changes to functionality, UI, etc. that could potentially cause friction in your operations.
Invisible changes that run in the background and improve the efficiency of Corevist processes.

We have a simple philosophy that guides every quarterly release: if a new update will be noticeable or potentially disruptive to your operations, it will be turned off by default in the release. If a new update runs in the background and has no noticeable effect on your operations, it will be turned on by default.

When we communicate the details of the new quarterly release to you, we’ll outline which features are turned off by default, and which are running invisibly in the background and are turned on by default. You will have the opportunity to try out the default-off features and turn them on if you like them. If you don’t like them, you’ll be able to turn them off.

How will the Quarterly Release Cycle affect any outstanding customization projects?

Since no two SAP eCommerce solutions are identical, many of our clients need custom functionality. They have ongoing development work happening through projects or statements-of-work. The good news is, the Quarterly Release Cycle does not impact ongoing projects in any way. Ongoing customization and the Quarterly Release Cycle unfold in parallel, forming a complementary relationship.

It’s important to understand that we test everything thoroughly on our end before launching the release.

What can I look forward to in future releases?

We’re dreaming big at Corevist. We realize that moving SAP transactions to the web is complex and difficult. Our goal is to make it easier than ever so more companies can leverage the resulting efficiencies. To that end, here are some areas that we are actively pursuing for future releases:

We’re going to streamline our web A/R functionality out of the box. Handling accounts receivable online is a pain point for many SAP companies. We’re going to fix that.
We’re going to improve the payments process for SAP B2B eCommerce. You deserve it. Your customers deserve it. We’re actively working with our partners and our own team to make it happen.
We’re investing in configurable products. For SAP companies that sell large, highly configurable products, eCommerce has been the impossible dream. We’re working to change that.

The Takeaway

At Corevist, the Quarterly Release Cycle is here to stay. That means better functionality for us and you, and an easier buying process for your customers. We couldn’t be happier. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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