At Manutan, we equip businesses and communities with the products and services they require to succeed. Headquartered in France, our company has three divisions, serving companies, local authorities, and tradespeople, employing 2,200 people across 27 subsidiaries.
For more than 50 years, we’ve stayed one step ahead of market trends to shape a compelling product and service offering. Today, our goal is to deliver a consistently excellent end-to-end customer experience on every channel—which means keeping customers informed about the status of their orders every step of the way.
Optimizing customer communications
As we grew our business, we saw an opportunity to standardize our approach to customer communications across all 17 countries that we operate in. With 12 different languages and specific local rules and regulations to address, harmonizing our operations was no simple task.
At the same time, we wanted to improve our approach to communications in another domain: B2B integration. Effective collaboration with our partners is essential to orchestrate our supply chain effectively and deliver to customers on time—particularly during peak retail periods. So, we also looked for a way to engage more effectively with our 3,000-strong supplier base.
Finding a winning formula
Our relationship with OpenText began more than 15 years ago. It started with us deploying OpenText™ Exstream™ as our centralized, company-wide customer communications platform. Since then, we’ve augmented our capabilities—enabling us to orchestrate omnichannel customer experiences at scale.
As Manutan has evolved, so have the OpenText solutions we use. With around 65% of all orders now coming through our e-commerce site, OpenText is helping us to deliver tailored digital communications at scale.
Keeping customers and suppliers in the loop
Today, our customer communications platform is closely integrated with our Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP solution. We’ve created multi-language templates with 107 different themes to meet the needs of our international subsidiaries. By taking advantage of the flexibility of the OpenText solution, we were able to include a high level of customization without compromising on the quality or consistency of our content.
We’re also using OpenText to help manage B2B transactions and enhance collaboration across our supply chain. Customers and employees can now access the information they need quickly and easily, from updates on purchase orders to delivery notes, credit requests and order statuses.
OpenText empowers us to connect customers and employees with the information they need—for example, updates on purchase orders, delivery notes, credit requests and order statuses. Through OpenText™ Notifications, we provide invoices to customers in their preferred format and language. With the built-in traceability feature, we can keep track of when emails are delivered, opened, and downloaded. In the future, we plan to add more channels, such as WhatsApp and mobile push notifications.
Seeing loyalty soar
Thanks to consistent, timely communications enabled by OpenText, and the guidance of their Professional Services organization, we’re developing deeper connections with our customers. By customizing these communications to the requirements of each region, we elevate the customer experience without sacrificing efficiency.
We’ve improved our ability to communicate with trading partners, too. By enhancing data exchange with suppliers, we’re promoting transparency and traceability throughout our supply chain. That helps us plan more effectively, maximize sales opportunities during periods of peak demand and provide fast deliveries.
Working towards greater sustainability
With consistent, ultra-personalized digital communications from OpenText Exstream and OpenText Notifications, we’re cutting our use of paper dramatically. Environmental sustainability is an important part of our promise to customers, and we’re delighted that the solution has helped us to reduce our carbon footprint.
With OpenText supporting us on our business growth journey, we’re in a strong position to build on our market leadership in the years ahead.
To learn more about how we are using OpenText solutions to combine digital services with the human touch, click here to read our OpenText case study.
Guest author: Michael Sarrasin is Exstream Product Owner at Manutan. Since 2010, he has deployed and maintained the solution across the company’s global subsidiaries. He resides in Gonesse, a suburb of Paris, France.
