Suzuki GB is using web content management to ensure its supply chain always has access to relevant and up-to-date information, while reducing costs by £250,000 a year.
The SDL Tridion system has enabled Suzuki to stop printing and posting service manuals, price lists, and service bulletins. Bill Taylor, general manager, IT, at Suzuki GB says: “Such is the speed of change in the marketplace that we were producing new hard copy manuals just as soon as we had sent out the last batch. Apart from the time and investment costs of copywriting, printing and distribution, we also had to consider the effect this was having on our dealers, as the information they held would be quickly out of date.”
Suzuki used SDI Tridion to develop an extranet for dealers, so that they can download information as and when they need it. So Suzuki-branded material including technical manuals, price lists, product information, service bulletins, installation instructions, safety recall notices and service checklists can now be distributed to the right person, at the right time.
Every time a dealer logs in, the landing page displays the six most recent items that have been added to the extranet. This is particularly important for safety recalls and changes to technical specifications. For marketing materials dealers can download and edit special offer advertisement templates, by just adding their own addresses and contact details.
“SDL Tridion has enabled us to streamline our operations, without impacting our relationships with our customers. Because of that, we have improved communication, ensured a faster time to market, greater flexibility and immediate, tangible cost savings,” says Taylor.
“It’s important to us that we maintain control of the Suzuki brand and maintain the flexibility of enabling our dealers to tailor the information to their clients. With SDL Tridion we get this flexibility twinned with control.” The extranet is a one stop shop – an online portal – for all sorts of relevant information as it also hosts a number of external links to other Suzuki-associated web sites, government agencies and other useful industry links.
To overcome any security issues, a user ID is set up with each division – such as motorcycles off road; motorcycles on road – as well as to a particular discipline within the dealership (such as sales). This way each user can only access the information that is relevant to them. A search mechanism presents content in dealer-specific categories.
The implementation of SDL Tridion has meant that Suzuki can now make changes to copy quickly and efficiently while being consistent. There is no duplication of effort as changes that are made once filter through to all relevant areas of the extranet, and of course the cost overhead (no more print or postage) has been dramatically reduced. Suzuki estimates this to be around £250,000 per year.
