|
|
Cebrace restructures B2B portal on SAP basis
|
Electronic commerce tool, developed by Complex in .NET and in SAP environment, improves
existing functionalities in the old system of the glass manufacturer.
Cebrace is the biggest producer of Float glass in South America, with four lines of production,
two in Jacareí (SP), one in Caçapava (SP), and a Unit in Barra Velha (SC) and, with modern
generation equipment, has become one of the greatest and most modern plain glass company in the
world.
Cebrace remodeled its transactions B2B portal entirely (business to business), when implanted a
solution of e-commerce integrated to the SAP platform of enterprise management.
The new environment developed with Complex support, a great consultancy company specialized in
SAP solution projects, counts on more resources propitiating agility in the attendance taking
advantage of Internet fast communication means.
In fact, the implementation of the new platform represented a gain in quality in the activities
of Cebrace electronic commerce, that began in the year of 2001. At that point, the company
started using a solution developed internally making automatic the processes and controls of
online order, using a management software also developed by their own team.
The portal, among other tools, made available the consultations on the situation of the orders
and the status of shipments, besides supporting the invoicing and the payment receipts issue,
operating along with the transporting companies.
In this initial phase, however, the adhesion index was small, not reaching 10% of the customers,
since there was no spread culture of electronic commerce and access to Internet was precarious.
Due to this, in 2003 the board of the company decided to confer total priority to e-commerce.
Thus, by means of perfecting the resources in the site, availability of new tools and personalized
training, got a mass adhesion to the system, with multiplication of consultations, countable
orders and online operations. According to Marcos Peloggia, manager of Cebrace Center of
Ability SAP, “almost the totality of our customers started to use the tool, that in this way
became critical for our business”.
Advance in the automation of the processes
In May 2007, advancing in the automation of its internal procedures, Cebrace began the implantation
of the SAP platform, version ECC 6,0, in a project that demanded time, revision of processes and
great investment. This step resulted in the necessity of also rethink the infrastructure and the
application of e-commerce.
In this manner, right after that a new version of e-commerce would be installed and integrated to SAP.
To execute this Complex ,that had already participated in the installation of the ERP, was selected.
Complex was charged to develop the new version based on the platform Microsoft .NET, taking care of its
implantation and maintenance. Among the sensible tasks, there was the revision of the environment
due to technical differences in comparison with the legacy. As middleware tool (integration
software), SAP Netweaver PI/XI was used.
In accordance with Peloggia, besides having offered the best relation cost-benefit, “Complex was
also chosen by its expertise proven in platform .NET and the area of B2B, having already taken
similar projects”.
It was an initiative of enormous complexity, emphasizes the manager, “therefore the scope was to
interconnect an entirely new system to external environment SAP, making all the orders
accomplished under the standards of the ERP processes”.
Once the standards to the new portal were defined, then was initiated the stabilization phase, in
which were made adjustments and improvements. In this stage, that consumed a period of four
months, recalls Peloggia, the role played by the team that visited customers to get feedback and
to collect suggestions was essential. At the same time, the internal users of Cebrace were
trained to operate the new interfaces.
The great challenge to all the participants was to guarantee that this migration would not have
any negative impact in application B2B, and the use of the system continued transparent for the
customers. “We took care so that in the front-end one had no loss in the functionalities of the
main screens”, the executive stands out.
Improved resources
All the functionalities of entrances, consultations, accompaniment and control of orders in the
old system were kept and improved.
Among the introduced new features, suggested by the customers, Peloggia highlights the improvement
in shipment grating, resource that facilitates the scheduling of the transport of cargo with
support to the monitoring of the schedules and attendance to the order.
In the evaluation of Marcelo Fraile, executive director to Complex, the integration of e-commerce
with the ERP made possible the customers carry through their purchases directly with SAP. “It
eliminated wasting of time and it made faster the business-oriented processes for the portal,
besides having fortified the commercial relationship of Cebrace with its target public”.
|
|
