Customer Solution Case Study
/ Direct-to-Consumer and Online Wine Retailer Increases Sales andCustomer Satisfaction
Overview
Country or Region:United Kingdom
Industry:Retail and distribution—Food and beverage retailing
Customer Profile
Direct Wines is a leading supplier of wines in the United Kingdom and has a global presence spanning Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States.The company has about 900 employees.
Business Situation
Direct Wines wanted an agile and scalable IT infrastructure for its business operations to help manage its customercatalog-based order-to-cash business across different geographies.
Solution
With help from Infosys Technologies, Direct Wines implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 in itsU.S. operations and plans to roll it out worldwide.
Benefits
- Increased sales
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Faster business processes
- Improved market reach
Simon McMurtrie, Chief Executive, Direct Wines Group
Direct Wines, a majorwine merchant based in the United Kingdom, wanted to promote business growth, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. In particular, the company sought to better manage its international catalog-based,order-to-cash business. Direct Wines engaged Infosys Technologies to implementan enterprise resource planning solution based on a single instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 and serving multiple languages, currencies, and locations. With the solution, Direct Wines is able to conduct its globalbusiness with agility, manage its vast customer network with efficiency, and scale up to meet future needs. The company has reduced customer call times by up to 30 seconds per call, increased sales per hour from outbound calls by 10 percent, and reduced the time from order entry to fulfillment processing by 47 percent.
Situation
Launched in 1969, Direct Wines is one of the world’s largest direct-to-consumer and online wine retailers. It is also the top home-delivery wine company in the United Kingdom. The company’s reach extends to Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States.
Direct Wines realized that to ensure efficient operations and further growth, it needed a globally agile, integrated, and scalable IT system for its successful direct-to-consumer wine retail business. The company wanted to better manage its customer catalog-based business across widespread geographies and improve customer satisfaction.
Direct Wines sought to:
- Replace its existing system and resolve scalability and integration issues.
- Streamline and automate core business processes globally to support acquisitions and achieve quicker time-to-market for new locations.
- Manage a complex network of stakeholders in the United States and other markets to facilitate the smooth shipment of wine.
- Meet statutory tax and compliance requirements in accordance with location-specific wine shipment regulations.
- Support multibrand marketing initiatives, business analytics, and reporting with secure access capabilities.
Solution
Direct Wines engaged Infosys Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to enhance the company’s existing Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 solution in Australia and Switzerland.Direct Wines also wanted Infosys to design and implement a new solution for the United States and toroll out the solution globally to help meet business objectives for the international business.
Infosys employed its InTrak methodology to reduce risks and costs and to speed implementation. It also used the Infosys Global Delivery Model to distribute activities within each project phase between offshore and onsite locations.
Infosys designed, developed, and implemented the solution to provide enhanced scalability, interoperability, security, accessibility, and agility. It also sought tolower total cost of ownership.
During the project, Infosys:
- Designed an ecosystem for the single instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 to support multiple companies across the international business.
- Incorporated a mechanism to track and report statutory regulatory compliance for shipping wine in the United States, improve federal and state tax reporting, and reclaim sales tax from states for returns.
- Built a wine plan management solution on Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 to support the sale of recruitment and upgrade wine plans with multiple payment options including installments.
- Performed location-specific integration with third-party warehousing partners to support order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and procurement processes.
- Integrated Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 with payment-processing companies to handle credit card transactions, General Interbank Recurring Order (GIRO) invoices, and recurring payments.
- Developed a “virtual inventory” solution to provide intercompany inventory access and operations, thus enhancing collaboration.
- Built a branding solution to support multibranded sales, inventory control, call center operations, customer communications, brand-specific compliance regulations, reporting, branded customer profiles, and business partner integration.
- Helped set up the production environment of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 at a third-party hosting site.
“The powerful combination of Microsoft Dynamics AX multicountry capabilities; the Infosys team’s expertise, professionalism, and dedication; and the drive and enthusiasm of the Direct Wines team proved to be an unstoppable force,” says Gary Isaacs, CIO of Direct Wines.
Benefits
The Microsoft Dynamics AX solution implemented by Infosys Technologies has helped Direct Wines improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. The company has increased its customer base and order volume and enhanced the ordering experience. Direct Wines is also reclaiming sales tax for returns faster than before and managing efficient holiday shipment programs.
“Microsoft Dynamics AX plays a central role in how we manage and control our expanding international business. With support from Infosys, we have made excellent progress in implementing the solution in five countries to date. I am confident of the central role that Microsoft Dynamics AX will play in the future of our direct-to-consumer business,” says Simon McMurtrie, Chief Executive, Direct Wines Group.
Increased Sales and Better Customer Service
Sales per hour from outbound calls increased by about 10 percentbecause of customer service interface improvements.
In addition, a new customer dashboard has helped to improve call quality and reduce call times by up to 30 seconds per call.
Faster Business Processes
With the new solution, Direct Wines has been able to reclaim sales tax faster, recovering an estimated U.S.$300,000 in sales tax.And by using efficient wine substitutions management, Direct Wines has saved about 20 person-hours each week. In addition, the order-to-cash cycle time from the online order entry to the fulfillment processing is about 47 percent faster now.
Improved Market Reach
Direct Wines has streamlined its core business processes across international locations to support acquisitions. It now has a global, standardized solution for multibrand initiatives, Web integration, wine plan management, and holiday shipments. This has ensured quicker rollout to new markets, thus increasing customer and sales volumes.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systemsthat your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
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