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High-Tech Manufacturer Improves Customer Responsiveness, Partner Communication With Microsoft Software
REDMOND, Wash., Jan 14, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ --
To improve its business
processes and set the foundation for a new social computing framework, leading
computer peripherals company Roland DGA Corp. chose to consolidate the vast
majority of its finance, customer relationship management (CRM) and
collaboration IT infrastructure on Microsoft software.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090114/AQW515)
As a global manufacturer supporting companies in industries such as fine
art, photography and 3-D modeling, Roland DGA needed to upgrade its
infrastructure because legacy systems were creating a strain in the company's
ability to provide an integrated set of business tools for its employees and
nearly 400 channel partners. The resulting solution is a combination of
Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
"We have limited interaction with our customers, so it's critical that we
give our partners the tools to communicate proficiently as our company
representative," said Bob Castle, chief information officer at Roland DGA.
"For example, we are now able to automate the delivery of customer inquiries
from our Web site to the most appropriate dealer with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
This improves the time it takes for customers to get a response to their
questions."
To further strengthen communication between employees and channel
partners, Roland DGA consolidated its disparate databases into a single one
supported by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Dynamics
CRM. This reconfiguration removed the need for employees to enter data into
two separate systems and gave Roland DGA the ability to control portal user
rights for each partner directly from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In addition,
working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner speakTECH, Roland DGA was able
to further improve the collaboration between employees, customers and dealers
by developing internal and external team sites through SharePoint Server.
"The flexibility for our employees to set up team sites using SharePoint
and invite channel partners to participate in the conversation has spread
across the entire organization, boosting productivity," Castle said. "We have
three team sites for our primary management groups, a site for our Canadian
and Latin American dealers, more than 20 employee sites, and our external
customer-facing Web site. These sites have drastically improved the way our
employees and dealers communicate. They are now able to share documents in
real time and access them from any Internet-connected computer."
As part of its future plans, Roland DGA will further strengthen its
communications structure between employees, partners and customers. The
company will be implementing a social computing platform consisting of wikis
and blogs in 2009. This open platform for user-generated dialogue will be
supported by SharePoint Server and will seamlessly integrate into the
employees' and partners' Microsoft Office suite.
"We knew Roland DGA planned to enhance collaboration through social
computing, so we developed the platform right alongside the team sites using
the built-in tools from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server," said Michael
Jarvis, senior account executive at speakTECH. "By having its business
operations managed by a single platform, it gives us the flexibility to roll
out the social computing platform at any time without disruption to employees
or partners."
The integration of Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office will
enable employees to work from their existing Office applications or directly
from SharePoint Server to create a wiki or blog.
"A company and its channel partners need to operate as one organization in
how they market and sell to customers," said Drew Gude, director, U.S. High-
Tech and Electronics Industry Solutions at Microsoft Corp. "Companies that can
quickly and effectively collaborate with their channel partners in selling
situations have a competitive advantage that should drive both improved
business performance and increased levels of customer satisfaction. The
objective of Microsoft and its partners is to provide the IT platform and
sales effectiveness business solutions that make such a competitive advantage
a reality."
About Microsoft's U.S. High-Tech and Electronics Group
Microsoft's High-Tech and Electronics Group provides innovative software
solutions that help high-tech companies achieve success by leveraging their
greatest asset -- people -- as a competitive differentiator. Solutions
provided by Microsoft and its vast partner ecosystem are designed to help
companies innovate new and better products quickly while keeping costs down;
increase collaboration across the manufacturing value chain; improve sales,
marketing and customer service performance; and streamline plant-floor
operations with visibility from the shop to the top floor. More information is
available at http://www.microsoft.com/hightech.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their
full potential.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
http://www.microsoft.com
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