- Working on Vertical: Interview Sanjay Kumar, Progress Software - Clopay Saves big Through Outsourcing EDI

1. E-commerce
Interview with Sanjay Kumar, Progress Software
Working
on
Verticals
Progress Software Corporation is an independent enterprise at Progress Software from his Redwood
City, CA office, Kumar shares his desire
software company that enables businesses to be operationally to put a fine point on the unique
responsive to changing conditions and customer interactions strengths of each company’s solution,
and how both systems work so well
as they occur – to capitalize on new opportunities, drive together.
greater efficiencies and reduce risk.
Sanjay, Progress Software and
TIE Kinetix have worked closely for
years now, and the integration between
T
he company offers a sales infrastructure allowing consumers to the two has gained traction in the last
comprehensive portfolio of execute complex processes via a simple and year. How has this progression
best-in-class enterprise software elegant interface. developed, and where has it resonated
spanning event-driven visibility and Progress Software “TIE has in the marketplace?
real-time response, open integration, has been a strategic “The relationship has been going on for
data access and integration, and partner of TIE Kinetix for been some time, but about a year ago, we
application development and over 10 years allowing started to get more exposure around
deployment – all supporting on- TIE to deliver pioneering fantastic the things we had to do in different
premises and SaaS/Cloud solutions built on the verticals. We started having a stronger
deployments. Progress framework. in actually focus in certain verticals where our
Typical value driven customer More recently however, products worked as solutions in that
relationships in the online age are a Progress has been using projecting space. It looked like it was starting to
demanding thing as service providers TIE MamboFive align very well with some of the
look to improve their online process. E-Commerce suite as a to the next activities that TIE Kinetix was doing.
Advancements allowing solutions’ front end application to We set up an exploratory set of
infrastructure, offerings, and capabili- the multifaceted backend generation meetings to better understand the type
ties to provide for the ever changing of Progress Software’s of things TIE was doing with
needs of customers can be a moving Communications Order what they telecommunication companies such as
target. Simply put, an intelligently Management Solution. T-Mobile and KPN, where the TIE
equipped and implemented E-Com- Speaking with Sanjay want Kinetix MamboFive E-Commerce
merce shop allows users to keep costs Kumar, VP of Communi- solution was utilized as an online
down, while providing a streamlined cations & Media Industry to see.” storefront. In doing so we also saw it’s
P18 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

2. Author Jim Larkin ~ Photography Stock photo
strong ability to act as the order entry/ telecommunications industry came “As a company TIE has been great with
order capture system enabling self care together to talk about innovations in a very rapid response to these activities.
from a customer perspective. the marketplace. What was the initial Very little red tape, with a great
For example, once you’ve captured a reaction from that event? commitment to making things happen,
customer order, how do you orches- “We saw a lot of excitement there. We which is critical. That’s a very strong
trate all the work that needs to be done were doing a catalyst helping to define component. From a solution
across multiple systems, multiple how to work within these managed perspective, it’s very easy to showcase
processes and avenues like that to bring service offerings that service providers your offering to demonstrate what
a customer on and activate their service, run for enterprise level customers, would be the desired result. It’s
with any updates to that service? All such as banks. It was interesting amazing how fast you can show those
those moving parts. It’s obviously a big because there was strong interest from activities. Especially compared to other
area of focus for service providers. the telecom industry, but it had a lot traditional solution sets that are out
So what was interesting, we found of overlap with the financial services there, those that are non-CRM based,
that what TIE was doing could be the sector because often they were the non-SaaS based type of offerings. It’s
front end to the things that we would end customers for these services. that speed of change that translates to
do. That’s where we started to have the It resonated in the industry time to market for service providers;
conversation around exploring especially as it relates to TIE’s mobile it’s a fantastic story. It complements the
opportunity. Over the last year there storefront, and it can be used across a Progress value proposition well, where
were a number of situations where whole series of solutions that service things are really driven by much
customers were saying “You’re doing providers are selling. It also became quicker time to market, the
the order management what can you do really interesting as TIE started convergence of products and services
on the order capture side?” In which applying it to areas of the managed and the bundling of those against the
case, we entered into the conversation service models that started appearing. challenges that they relate to.
with TIE Kinetix to help on that front. So it’s been a great year. We’re still The partnership with TIE has
There have been a number of occasions building on a number of these worked extremely well in that type of
throughout the year where we’ve been opportunities as they pop up as a model, with a strong motivation. It
able to present a combined solution result of our initial discussions.” doesn’t hurt that Progress’ technology
while still working as separate entities.” is inside the TIE product. It just makes
How has TIE’s strengths manifested it easier to work together. Not that the
Progress and TIE presented at the in the partnership with Progress technology was ever a challenge, but
TM Forum together in Dublin, IR Software in terms of both technology, the fact is we have a relationship from
earlier this year, where many from the and experience? all sides.
TIE ~ 2012 ~ P19

3. Author Jim Larkin ~ Photography Clopay
The other part is that the technol-
ogy meets the end desire. It has a
fantastic ‘wow factor’ when you
We’ve worked closely for over 10 years,
and have had a great synergy
particularly in the last year. What are
Clopay
present it to the business community. your projections for 2012 and beyond?
Being able to show the type of “There is certainly been a strong Building Products Division
experience that customers will have, or commitment to a strategy around
how to use it internally, and being able becoming more solution and vertical with four manufacturing
to see some of those results right away, focused. In 2011, we built a new facilities and 49 distribu-
being able to show it on a notepad, it relationship. Prior to that was an
has a very powerful attraction from the underlying technology that Progress tion centers across the
business teams. It’s an area where had as part of the solution sets at TIE. It U.S. and Canada, Clopay is
service providers traditionally have was much more of a partnership in
been too technology and engineering terms of how we go to market with North America’s leading
oriented, with not enough focus your solution and our solution as a manufacturer of residen-
around the customer experience and common value and proposition to
the overall look and feel that the customers. I think we’re going to see a tial garage doors and a
customer would have. TIE has been lot more of that in 2012. As we see leader in the industrial
fantastic in projecting to the next these opportunities with a global
generation what they want to footprint, it matters how quickly we door market.
actually see.” can move down those paths. 2012 is
where we’ll start truly reaping the
benefits and seeing this type of value
proposition really grow.
It’s part of a strategy across a
B
number of industries around the idea of ringing more than 40 years of
helping service providers enhance their leadership to the garage door
end to end customer experience. As we industry, Clopay is the only
partner together, we have the enabling garage door manufacturer to hold the
technology to get access to their Good Housekeeping Seal.
systems, orchestrate activities, with Plastic Products Division – With
response to operational pains. That three locations in the US, three in
combined with the solutions that TIE Germany, and one in Brazil, Clopay is a
provides enabling interaction with global leader in specialty films,
their customers and being able to deter- extrusion coatings, custom-printing
mine a lot of the metrics and activities and engineered laminations. The
that are happening along that front. company is widely known for its unique
You can see a great synergy to be able to technology developments in the areas of
build a greater picture around that microporous breathable, elastomerics,
end-to-end customer experience monolithic, and apertured films and
management initiative. composites. Clopay’s products are used
It’s exciting working with TIE, as in the hygienic, healthcare, protective
it’s a very agile company from an apparel, and industrial markets.
organizational perspective. From a
solution perspective TIE has been a Tight B2B integration
pleasure to work with as well. I think Industrial door leader Clopay needed a
we’re going to see a lot more aspects more efficient way of managing their
grow in 2012 on this front, because of business to business integration with
that culture and vision in terms of the partners and customers. They found the
new future facing solutions for our day-to-day operation of an in-house
enterprise customers.” Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
program intensive and expensive.
Maintaining updated trading partner
versions, training and retaining qualified
technical resources, and purchasing
in-house software is costly and
Sanjay Kumar, Vice President, unmanageable. Recognizing these
Communications & Media needs, they decided to fully outsource
Industry at Progress Software their EDI processes to an experienced
P20 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

4. Business Integration
Saves Big
partner like TIE Kinetix. Other solution not only supported the integration of course we have added trading partners,
determining factors that made the the company’s internal business processes, but more documents, and transfers. We
purchasing decision much easier were: more importantly enabled direct connections even added another dedicated line for
TIE’s reasonable price, well known between the business processes of Clopay and XML transfers from a particular vendor.
reliability, support and confirmation its trading partners. TIE Kinetix interfaces There is daily use of web tools for
from several satisfied customers. provided an easy-to-use solution that ensured research and support that we use and
“TIE Kinetix has years of experience flexibility enough for any kind of integration have even taught our customer service
in supporting the operation of mission- scenario in the future. teams to use. Through it all we have
critical electronic commerce processes Clopay is fully outsourced using TIE Kinetix benefitted from TIE’s expertise with
in the area of communications and Business Integration Platform connected to the multiple transfer/delivery protocols and
document mapping requirements TIE directConnect™ Communications network suggesting fixes for daily issues that
specified by our customers in the retail allowing them to enjoy the advantages of true arise. The team has gone out of their
and manufacturing industry”, says eBusiness through a secure Internet business- way to make sure our business can not
Carmel Hirth, Director of IT for Clopay. to-business gateway. Using this powerful only receive and process current
The implementation needed to be combination gives the flexibility to rapidly documents but grow incrementally.”
seamless to their trading partners and a implement new E-Commerce processes with TIE’s powerful integration capabili-
detailed project plan was made with their Oracle Applications Suite to increase ties have enabled Clopay to effortlessly
specific expectations from both parties. visibility, efficiency and transact business and manage more than
Both companies worked together to set response to market 17,000 transactions per month without
up a reconciliation process to ensure the conditions. “The overall error. The overall costs for data storage
accuracy of all inbound and outbound As a result of Outsourc- and software execution have been
transactions. In a very short timeframe, ing its supply chain connec- costs for data significantly reduced, and the time
Clopay had outsourced all its EDI tions, Clopay has been able dedicated to both new trading partner
translation, mapping development and to focus on improving and storage and set up and integration formats have been
enhancements, new trading partner set optimizing its internal reduced by 75%.
ups, daily reconciliation, error trouble- business applications and software In addition, “we have been able to
shooting and communications to TIE. has experienced an annual keep the headcount down in our
cost savings of over execution department and while still maintaining
outsourcing TIE worked very $80,000 in the first year of system integrity to support our business
closely with the technical and business service. Desmond Allen, have been and meet our trading partner require-
teams of Clopay to provide an SAS 70 Clopay’s IT Help Desk ments,” Hirth said. “Outsourcing our
compliant outsourced solution utilizing Manager and E-Commerce significantly EDI services to TIE has been one of the
datacenter infrastructure provided by Coordinator had this to say best business decisions that we could
Connectria Corporation®. This about the solution, “Of reduced.” have made.”
TIE ~ 2012 ~ P21