During rapid growth, lack of integration between Blendtec's CRM and ERP systems made it difficult for service teams to determine customer warranty periods, leading to higher warranty and service costs. Teams had to look in multiple systems to process warranty requests because the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system recorded replacement orders, and Dynamics CRM Online housed notes. The process was inconvenient, and information quickly became out-of-date.

The goal was to provide service and sales teams with product, purchase, warranty, and other data that was held in the ERP and other systems. To make the data integration possible, Blendtec turned to TIBCO Cloud™ Integration for pre-built connectors that made it easy to exchange data between the two systems. TIBCO's robust connectors provided real-time data synchronization between the cloud and on-premises applications.

Greater Efficiency

By integrating data across multiple systems, the TIBCO system in effect helped integrate Blendtec at an organizational level—eliminating processes that were inefficient due to a lack of information. Personnel across the organization can now access more complete information, and the company as a whole can provide a higher level of service and keep operations functioning more efficiently.

"It's so much faster and easier for our marketing department to push promotions and have them fulfilled in a timely manner than our previous e-commerce was," said Neil Shelley, CRM Administrator and Integration Specialist.

Improved Customer Service

The time to close customer service cases dropped dramatically because agents could handle customer inquiries without having to spend time looking for information. Customers now receive information on shipments and orders in real time—an important step toward creating a portal for customer self-service. As a result, Blendtec saw a 50 percent increase in e-commerce sales.

TIBCO Web Services tie website orders into the ERP and CRM systems, enabling more real-time visibility into the status of all orders and inventory. Sales and Service teams now respond faster to customer inquiries, quickly identify orders with incomplete information, and spot fraudulent orders.

"TIBCO Cloud Integration has made a dramatic difference to our customer service operation. It has significantly improved our ability to process website orders and to quickly handle customer inquiries without the need for additional research," said Shelley.

Lower Warranty and Service Costs

Warranty information (including serial numbers and information such as shipment tracking numbers) previously in the ERP system, is made available in the CRM system for the service team to access. Warranty costs have dropped because product warranties and returns are now tracked more accurately and return credits are granted only for products that properly qualify.

More Accurate Metrics, Better Decision-Making

"TIBCO Cloud Integration breaks down our organizational data silos so information doesn't live and die in isolated systems. With TIBCO, we can move data at will. It has vastly reduced the effort required to get the necessary data in front of our decisionmakers. It also enables our staff to look at any data from within the application they use most often," says Sven Haynes, director of information technology.

TIBCO Cloud Integration replication services push data into Blendtec's business intelligence (BI) platform to generate sales and inventory aging reports. Senior management can view reports, analyze KPIs, and make informed decisions on how to best run the company. The sales team gets a more accurate picture of gross and net sales (with returns taken into account), the shipping department gets a real-time view of inventory, and the accounting team and other personnel, who work primarily in Dynamics AX, have instant access to real-time information on customers and new accounts imported from Dynamics CRM Online.

Blendtec has set the stage to gain additional operational efficiencies because it can also use TIBCO Cloud Integration to bring data from other systems into its BI platform. As part of its cloud integration capabilities, Blendtec is also open to implementing API development and IoT tools. By enhancing the overall flow of data across the company, Blendtec has begun its journey towards data-driven decision-making because many more people across the organization have easy access to real-time, accurate information.