General Glass International Works With Tri-Bry to Transform Key Business Processes

General Glass International (GGI), based in Secaucus, New Jersey, is a fabricator and distributor of flat glass products - everything from window and picture frame glass to specialty architectural glass. Now in its fourth generation of family ownership, the company was founded more than a century ago by Max Balik, who learned his trade in Austria's glass industry before immigrating to New York.

Over the past hundred years the company has consistently anticipated and adapted to market trends to remain competitive. Through acquisitions and by building distribution relationships with manufacturers around the globe, GGI has established itself as a trusted supplier of picture frame glass, architectural and specialty glass for businesses throughout North America and Europe.

Today, glass is a commodity and its price is driven down by overseas manufacturers. In response to this threat, GGI is continually evaluating and evolving its business model. The company has begun working with Tri-Bry to integrate its various business processes in order to make them more efficient, and has already successfully transformed their remote sales force connectivity process and a key customer service application.

Anytime, Anywhere Access for Sales Force

The first process transformed focused on remote sales force connectivity which gives GGI's sales team remote access to corporate data. GGI's core business information resides on an IBM eServer iSeries in its New Jersey offices. Previously, sales representatives traveling throughout the U.S. and overseas had to log in to the company's virtual private network, which often required them to configure whatever PC they were using.

These configuration issues, combined with unreliable Internet service in remote sales regions, meant that sales reps on the road could not count on access to corporate data. One sales representative in Europe solved the problem by carrying an entire filing cabinet with him, containing reams of paper with customer contact, sales history and credit information.

To provide its remote employees with information on demand, GGI worked with Tri-Bry to build a portal which gives employees encrypted access to corporate information using a Web browser on any device at any location - a PC at their customer's office, an Internet café, even a cell phone.

The portal has delivered noticeable improvements in communications and response time between employees at GGI headquarters and those who are traveling. Based on the increased efficiency the portal is creating, GGI expects to be able to increase its business volume significantly over the next few years without adding to its administrative overhead.

New System Saves Time and Money While Delivering Improved Customer Service

Another area GGI identified for transformation was the way it handled product sample request. The specialty glass business caters to a network of glazing contractors, specifiers and architects, who frequently request samples to see the product up close before selecting the final glass product for a project.

When GGI analyzed how it handled requests for glass samples over the past two years, the company realized it had spent over a $100,000 dollars on shipping costs alone. Moreover, GGI discovered that some people ordered multiple copies of samples that went undocumented. The company did not have an automated process for tracking the frequency of these prospective customers' requests.

Tri-Bry built a new website that features a new sample ordering page and product specification page. The product specification page lets people view images of GGI's 50 different types of specialty glass products, look at detailed product specifications, and check current inventory status in real time.

The product specification fields are updated constantly on the iSeries and displayed on the Web automatically. Contact information gathered on the sample request page is fed automatically to the company's contact management system. This lets GGI incorporate sample requestors into its sales and marketing program, supporting the company's strategy to increase its presence in the specialty glass market.

Leveraging Existing Technology Pays

Tri-Bry's consultants were able to craft these two solutions using GGI's existing information technology investments and extending them into more modern uses. The new solutions tap into business information GGI already had and repurposed it to make the company more efficient and responsive to marketplace changes. Through these investments, GGI has transferred their historic customer service focus into new electronic business processes which benefit their customers and ultimately GGI's bottom line.

GGI can be found on the web at: www.generalglass.com .

To learn more about how Tri-Bry can help you harvest the potential of your information visit: www.tribry.com .

IBM Case study on General Glass International