Coherent :B2B Journey for Enhanced Partner Experience

Client

Coherent is a San Francisco-based organization, that is one of the leading providers of laser-based technology across the globe. They offer lasers, laser subsystems, and laser machines for commercial, industrial, and scientific applications. They cater to a wide range of applications right from cutting steel to microscopic-level investigations in biotechnical portfolios.

Business Objectives

Coherent was facing some challenges as they were unable to harness the complete power of B2B E-commerce and were losing on some deals in the process.

Challenges

Their major issues are outlined below.

• Partner orders/payments were handled in multiple silos which lead to observed delays in order processing.

• Separate pricing for their partners were not enabled which deeply affected partner relations.

• Partner payments and credit information were handled through emails, letter which had security concerns.

• Online payments were not possible in the existing system which was not advisable in the current scenario.

• Partner registration was a manual process involving multiple calls and emails which delayed the processing pipeline.

• Tax calculation for orders was handled separately which lead to tracking issues while handling payments.

Solutions

When Coherent approached us, a root cause analysis revealed the issues and we implemented the following solutions.

• With Salesforce B2B Commerce, a seamless web buying experience was implemented for the partners.

• Separate pricing implemented for each Account and based on Partner Type helping them leverage the economies of scale.

• Payments are handled through online payment gateways and payment credits are handled through reporting.

• Payment gateway integration is done for improving online payment functionalities.

• Partner registration and approval process is handled through a custom workflow built into B2B Commerce system.

• Tax Calculation, Shipping charge calculation are handled through third party integrations into B2B Commerce.

• B2B Commerce orders, payments information is integrated with Oracle ERP’s Order Management, Account Receivables Module.

Result

There seemed a substantial increase of 40% in partner retention while the new partners were onboarded with an 80% success rate.