Better user Experience

T-Mobiles Higher Conversion Through

Think Outside the Cloud

Focus on Business instead of Technology

A Common Goal
Number four ~ 2012

McGaw and TIE Kinetix Join Forces

ERIKS B2B Motor Home Deco Channel Guide Customer Satisfaction Clopay Saves Big

A more responsive business demands a more responsive cloud. In a constantly changing business environment, Progress cloud solutions let you develop, test, deploy and connect. So you can build a cloud that performs at a higher level. The key to which is located right here: www.progress.com/cloud

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2012 Progress Software Corporation and/or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All rights reserved.

CONTENT
P04 Think Outside the Cloud P07 The Power of Combination P08 Eriks B2B Motor P10 home deco Channel Guide P12 McGaw Marketing and TiE kinetix, a Common Goal

iNTrO

Our vision
Time flies! in 2012 TiE kinetix celebrates its 25th anniversary. in these 25 years our company has grown, our solutions have matured and our customer base has expanded. i am very proud of where we are today. however, i am not going to spend a lot of time looking back. i want to look ahead and share a vision.

14
T-Mobile:
Better Online Customer Experience increases Conversion P16 Customer service: its all about the People P18 interview; sanjay kumar, Progress software P20 Clopay saves big Through Outsourcing Edi P22 News P23 Gadgets

MAsThEAd
Publication TiE kinetix, hoofddorp, Netherlands ~ www.tiekinetix.com Editor & Management suzanne Glorie | FFective.nl Art Direction & Design remco Baars, sandra hellingman | beet-vormgeving.nl Coverphoto Marcel rob Photography Printing Van schaik Grafimedia Cooperation from Beln Fernndez iglesias Authors Jim Larkin, Patrick van Boom, suzanne Glorie
2012 TiE kinetix, P.O. Box 3053, 2130 kB hoofddorp, Netherlands. all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without permission of the publisher.

vision of looking beyond technology, a vision of making business processes easier and more efficient. A vision of true partnership, where TIE provides the right solutions to make our customers businesses prosper. Technology, no matter how advanced, is just a vehicle to achieve business goals. Thats why both ERIKS and Clopay decided to choose a SaaS solution to streamline their EDI processes. See the articles on page 8 and page 20. It is all about focus and cutting edge business solutions. Companies need to focus on their core competence in order to improve their competitive advantage. Strong partnerships have proven to be of great value, as you can read on page 7 and 18 about our partnership with Progress Software and the Online Company. The combination of business knowledge and matching technical solutions has led to significant results at T-Mobile (page 14). So to summarize: We will continue to focus on the technology so you can fully focus on your business, thats our vision! Enjoy reading!

Jan Sundelin, CEO TIE Holding N.V.

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P3

TOTAL iNTEGrATEd E-COMMErCE

Orders

Orders

50%

Syndication made easy with TIE Kinetix

P4 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

Author Patrick van Boom ~ illustration Rick Cedrone | Remco Baars

Outside the Cloud

in todays world of technological innovation, changes occur rapidly. The consequences of these changes, especially in software solutions, are the ability of organizations to maintain state of the art technology. iT departments are expensive to maintain and resources of management, time and money are at play. An article by Patrick van Boom, director Global Marketing & sales, TiE holding N.V.

Think

he need to generate revenue and profit is the fundamental goal of all businesses. Therefore, management attention to all aspects of the core fundamentals is at the forefront of every business. In order to stay competitive in their sector, businesses must find new ways to optimize processes.

The Challenge Focus, focus, focus! Management must pay close attention to its market, and provide competitive products and services. Productivity in all processes is required to keep costs down, and keep a constant eye to opportunities for further reduction. Technology changes are a two-way sword. On the one hand it offers opportunities. On the other hand, it diverts management attention, and other resources to an area that are time consuming and expensive. The challenge is to benefit from the technological opportunities while staying focused on the core business and competencies.

Benefit from technology innovation while staying focused on the core business.

Changes New technology is now available to aid companies implement their strategy. Web 2.0, SaaS and Cloud Computing are recent concepts in the world of technology. Multichannel media, contextual advertising, and social media are examples of how dynamic, in the moment, and fast paced business online can be. In a similar fashion, innovative companies moving their processes to the cloud have become more common helping alleviate the cost sensitive pressure decision makers face.

At the same time IT solutions are moving from technology based decisions to business value based decisions. Marketing is now a fundamental driver of IT purchasing, and, that trend shows no signs of stopping, or even slowing down, any time soon. According to Forbes, five years from now CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs. The Task ahead Executive managers who need to find the best ways to integrate new technologies in their organizations are faced with an important decision: Do-it-yourself or outsourcing. TIEs mantra therefore is Make technology perform so you can focus on your business. What is the real business value for customers moving to The Cloud? Many organizations choose to outsource their software based solutions and IT infrastructure,

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P5

Deliver

Sales
Fulfillment

Marketing

Transaction

Sell

Logistics
allowing them to focus on their core business. This will remove resources spent on non-core competencies so key staff can apply emphasis on critical business activities. This also allows them to avoid underutilized staff and carrying extra infrastructure, typically required for disaster resiliency. This strengthens business values such as faster time-to-market, predictability, lower development and operating costs and immediate access to latest technologies and innovations. Cloud computing capabilities are fundamentally shifting the competitive business landscape by providing a new baseline for creating and delivering value to customers. Applications and social connectivity trends are creating a perfect storm of opportunity, enabling cloud adopters to transform internal operations, customer relationships and industry value chains. When you trust your solutions to the cloud it is imperative to rely on your business partner. This partner therefore must understand your business, and be able to translate business needs into solutions, provide excellent customer service and support and should be robust, seasoned and agile at the same time.

Orientation

how TIe kIneTIx fITs In TIE Kinetix has a long lasting experience in all three of its solution areas. Founded in 1987 when EDI and Business Integration were first evolving, TIE was a true pioneer, and innovator. At the start of the millennium when dotcoms and web shops were still developing, and the concept of content syndication didnt exist, TIE was defining the first solutions for early adopters in these market spaces.

Applications and social connectivity trends are creating a perfect storm of opportunity.

ToTal InTegraTed e-CoMMerCe (T.I.e.) Technological development ensures productivity in supply chain activities and will rely increasingly on the Internet to conduct business. Marketing executives require new tools to empower their channels with marketing and product information. Consumers and industrial users will perform more of their purchasing activities online. A shift to managed services and Software as a Service (SaaS) reduces high self-managed costs. TIE brings together the technology needed for the major business processes of

Marketing, Sales, and Fulfillment! Our solutions connect these dots, in creating a closed-loop for major business processes. In doing business online, E-Commerce is not just selling online, E-Commerce is supporting and integrating your major business processes, online and with your business and trading partners. That is Total Integrated E-Commerce! Within this approach, TIE delivers software-based web-centric solutions. These solutions empower organizations to improve their supply chain efficiency and coordination. Our three integrated platforms (Content Syndication, E-Commerce, Business Integration), together called TIE Kinetix, enable business partners to work seamlessly together on the major business processes throughout the supply chain. ThInk ouTsIde The Cloud, ThInk T.I.e. TIE Kinetix takes care of the technology, latest developments and innovations so our customers can focus on their business, stay ahead of the curve and enables our customers to think outside the cloud. TIE Kinetix allows technology to perform so our customers and partners can focus on their business.

P6 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

Author Suzanne Glorie ~ Photography The Online Company

E-COMMErCE

Conversion generating internet concepts

The Power of Combination

The online shop market has expanded enormously. in the first half of 2011, the online orders in the Netherlands have increased by 13%. No less than 40% of Christmas shopping was done online.

n the USA, the so called Cyber Monday 2011 (the Monday after Thanksgiving) broke all records, growing with 15% compared to the year before.

The neCessITy of a good InTerneT ConCepT The online market is huge. The client is king. To have a good internet concept is absolutely necessary if you want to acquire market share. Erik van Laar and Maarten de Vries, from The Online Company, know this better than anybody else. They have been active in the online market since 2000 and helped set up Genie.nl, the British Telecom internet portal, which later became 02 and finally Telfort. They saw how the amount of online sales kept growing. Van Laar: In those four years we have learned TeChnology as The basIs of e-CoMMerCe a lot, we have seen ConCepTs Online company has a suitable solution for Google grow as well all these clients. Since 2006 we have been working as the emergence of together with TIE Kinetix to deliver the technology affiliate marketing. behind the E-Commerce concepts. Van Laar, It begins In 2005 we decided to with a strategy, a line of thought, a good concept. Then it start our own company, needs to have a stable technical foundation. TIE The Online Company, MamboFive E-Commerce Suite is all that: stable, where we could use our scalable and innovative. knowledge to help other businesses. TogeTher for suCCess The combination of The Online Company The Online Company with TIE is very successful. Both helps businesses to companies complement each other well. Where The optimize their E-ComOnline Company is very strong at implementation and merce results. De Vries: translation of the business needs into a well founded We offer a complete concept, TIE is great at providing the technology behind it. package ranging from Van Laar: TIE understands exactly what we mean services, strategy, and knows how to keep a good balance between quality campaign management

Technology as the basis of E-Commerce concepts.

(e.g. SEA display marketing, affiliate marketing), interim and project management to execution/implementation and even complete outsourcing. The nature of the projects are quite different, depending on how mature companies are when we are talking about E-Commerce. The Online Company distinguishes three kinds of clients, companies that: Need support with setting up an E-Commerce strategy and the implementation. Are unhappy with their current online performance, for example by not getting a good ROI or having to deal with a lot of complaints, malfunctions and such. Want to optimize, innovate and/or (partially) outsource their own E-Commerce model.

and flexibility. TIEs technology in combination with our concepts leads to an optimal user experience, resulting in increased sales for our customers, and that is what this is all about. This cooperation has already lead us to good results, especially in the telecom market, among others at T-Mobile. The application of innovative web concepts resolved in a increasing conversion, faster time-tomarket and growing online sales. De Vries: Thats why we do it, to have satisfied clients! We can see that our approach works and therefor plan to intensify and expand the partnership in the coming year.

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P7

ERIKS B2B motor

P8 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

SaaS based solution

ERIKS is an industrial service provider with an extensive selection of mechanical components such as valves, caps, hoses, plastics, tools, etc. It has a dynamic range of products with more than 5,000,000 articles. In addition, ERIKS provides up-to-date product and usage information. The company also strives, together with its customers, to achieve a reduction in down time, cost and offer environmental and low-energy solutions.

Author Suzanne Glorie ~ Photography ERIKS xxxxx

BUSINESS INTEGRATION XXxx

Selection of ERIKS mechanical components such as valves, caps, tools, etc.

RIKS consists of more than sixty companies, with offices in 25 countries and conducts business worldwide with a wide range of customers, manufacturers and suppliers. In the Benelux area alone, this means an EDI message flow of around 25,000 messages per month. When Manager Corporate ICT Infrastructure Jean-Paul Jacobs was confronted with the end life of the SAP Business Connector, the application ERIKS used for EDI, he decided to look for a more flexible, reliable and balanced solution to deal with the huge volume of EDI traffic. Thats when he found TIE Kinetix. noT a produCT, buT a servICe Jacobs wanted a service, not a product. I did not want to be preoccupied with software and hardware specifications, neither did I want to have to think about implementation and maintenance. I dont care what happens behind the scenes, only whether the system works, that our customers can access the correct information quickly and easily and that our EDI traffic runs smoothly. TIE Kinetix understood ERIKS requirements immediately. Jacobs: We were one of the first ones buying the B2B messaging as a service, the TIE SaaS solution. It worked immediately because TIE understood the challenges we face and knew how to translate them into a flexible and stable service.

sTreaMlInIng More Than 25,000 edI Messages per MonTh At first, the classic EDI solution was implemented. ERIKS Benelux receives and sends more than 25,000 EDI messages per month, whilst also continually acquiring new customers and suppliers. In order to ensure business continuity, TIE sees to it that new contacts are, nine out of ten times, processed within less than 5 working days. After close cooperation, the Service Level Agreement has been set up. There is monthly reporting and the results are discussed with the Service Manager on a quarterly basis. Jacobs: The EDI traffic runs smoothly. With an availability of 99.9%, TIE works even better than what we had agreed at the SLA. Needless to say we are very happy with that. dynaMIC requesT porTal guaranTees 24x7 InforMaTIon servICe Previously, ERIKS Inside Sales department daily received hundreds of questions concerning availability and pricing of their products. Questions such as whether a particular product was in stock and if so, what was the net price and when could it be delivered? ERIKS wanted to reduce the pressure on

What the customer orders today, will be delivered tomorrow.

the Inside Sales, in order to enable them to concentrate on providing product specific information. Jacobs: That is why we, together with TIE, established a direct connection between our SAP ERP application and the TradCom MRO portal guaranteeing that customers could check real time, 24/7 price conditions, the availability of stock and, consequently, could order online immediately. Each month ERIKSs web shop receives around 100,000 visitors. Thanks to this portal, the pressure on Inside Sales has been reduced and the service to the customer has improved. Jacobs: The customer does not need to call us anymore. The information is always available, real time and it can be called upon at any moment. And what the customer orders today, will be delivered tomorrow. That is how we work.

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P9

Author Suzanne Glorie ~ Photography Zebra Fotostudios

home deco Channel Guide

Media Innovations
The media world has drastically changed in recent years. Traditional media has to deal with a decrease in advertising sales, while the shift to online shopping demands a different approach from publishers and the media.

o innovate is a necessity, even for Sanoma Media. They are the biggest Media Company in the Netherlands with magazines, customer media, TV stations, events, websites, mobile sites, mobile apps and iPad apps. Their magazine portfolio consists of more than 70 varied A brands . Sanoma Media Netherlands Ltd. is a part of the Sanoma Group, a versatile media organization that brings Content syndicainformation, education tion feeds living and entertainment to magazine online millions of people portals such as throughout twenty VTWonen.nl

countries. Based on net sales results, Sanoma is one of the top 15 media companies, one of the top 5 magazines publishers and one of the top 6 in study materials and education solutions in Europe. Sanoma Media was looking for ways to further develop the B2B market and whilst doing that also trying to reach the dealer network, the next link in the consumption chain, together with the home furnishing manufacturers. They want to be the link between manufacturers, consumers and dealers in order to help to strengthen the market that has been weakened by the crisis. So when TIE Kinetix came up with the idea of an online service, Home Deco Channel Guide, Sanoma immediately saw the possibilities. Sanoma Sales Manager, Joost Prikker, We have always had very good contact with manufacturers and we also have a huge reach within the consumer base. We see Home Deco Channel Guide as a perfect opportunity to reach the dealer network and to become the link between the manufacturer, dealer and consumer. ConTenT syndICaTIon, The drIvIng forCe behInd hoMe deCo Channel guIde The unique cooperation between TIE

Kinetix and Sanoma Media resulted in the Home Deco Channel Guide where, thanks to Content Syndication, collections and campaigns can be centrally advertised and kept within the dealers websites. This has also been advertised at VT Wonen.nl, where, when you use the dealer locator, people can find the right dealer in their region a lot more easily. Thanks to the Home Deco Channel micro site, the Sanoma Media living editorials daily post free information such as the latest trends and news and by doing so, greatly inspire the consumer.The Home Deco Channel Guide is the ultimate connection between the manufacturer and the dealer on the one hand, and the consumers on the other hand. according to Joost Prikker. Our living portals offer inspiration to the consumer and point out to them the way to the dealers websites, a win-win situation for everybody.

P10 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

CONTENT sYNdiCATiON

Trend: searChIng for InspIraTIon onlIne Consumers like to be inspired by using the internet. The Multichannel Monitor 2010 shows that 56% of interior acquisitions used the internet to get information. Nevertheless, the living branch is a traditional one that needs to improve greatly in the online area. Just a few dealer websites give an up-todate view of the collections that they sell. It is a lost chance! The living magazines online portals, such as vt wonen.nl, are a desired place for consumers looking for inspiration. This site receives around 276,000 visitors monthly. produCTIve CooperaTIon, The basIs for an organIC growTh Since Home Deco Channel Guide was launched, Sanoma has received a huge response from home furnishing manufacturers as well as from dealers. To make it easier, dealers

may participate during the first year for free. Dealers are experiencing difficult times, says Prikker, Their business has decreased considerably. We hope that we can help them by doing this. Sanoma and TIE decided to grow the concept organically. The concept is catching on and slowly well-known brands are coming forward. The dealer network is still small, but in the last months we have seen interest growing. We have chosen for organic growth, deliberately choosing to do things properly, rather than quickly, says Prikker. We want to develop the system along the way. Right now we have a great basis to start with, but we can expand thanks to the input from the market and the expertise that TIE Kinetix has. Its great to work with Sanoma, says Emile van de Klok, TIE International Managing Director. They are open to modernization, know their market from the inside, have a huge

Both strive to reach a complete integration between print, online and television.

reach and know how to launch a new concept into the market. Joost Prikker is also very positive about the cooperation, especially the interaction with TIE Kinetix is good, even though each of us is strong in his own field, Sanoma in marketing and sales, TIE Kinetix in product development and technology. We strive continuously to develop a better product. Eventually they both like to reach a complete integration between print, online and television. By combining and integrating varied media through articles, campaigns and adverts, we offer a maximum reach to manufacturers and dealers and we are a source of inspiration and a guide for the consumer, says Prikker.
TIE ~ 2012 ~ P11

Author Jim Larkin ~ illustration Beet Vormgeving

NE W

Syndication made easy with TIE Kinetix

50%

Syndication made easy with TIE Kinetix

TOP 5

Syndication made easy with TIE Kinetix

Act as one
starting in early 2011, TiE kinetix, on behalf of CNET interactive and McGaw Marketing, collaborated on a new global campaign syndication project for Microsoft Corporation. The program, leveraging the TiE kinetix Content syndication Platform, launched July 1st, 2011 and quickly garnered over 5,5 million end users per month visiting the syndicated campaigns.
P12 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

Mutual Goals for Microsoft

CONTENT sYNdiCATiON

! SALE

Syndication made easy with TIE Kinetix

Syndication marketing content is the only way to deliver content throughout the online channel. Marketing content served with TIE Kinetix CSP is the best.

as one to make the launch happen. Before the launch, everyone was working weekends and nights with no complaints. The client doesnt have to manage three companies; we manage ourselves working as one team. This unique relationship allows three distinct companies to work closely, yet remain solely focused on their strengths. This atmosphere creates an ideal collaborative working environment as well as practical solutions. under proMIse, over delIver McGaw, who works with major global content syndication companies, is not bashful about her fondness for TIE, For such an established company TIE Kinetix acted like a startup. They consistently asked, What do you need us to do? How can we help? Always under promising and over delivering. TIEs experience developing content syndication solutions over the last decade has allowed for many types of syndication projects over a number of verticals. Thats one of the huge benefits of TIE being such a seasoned company. All the kinks have been worked out. Almost everything weve asked for has already been developed. Over ten years of syndication projects allow TIEs team to be agile and reactive enough to move swiftly in reaction to any issue. This fact is confirmed by McGaw, Their response time is unprecedented. Even when they are busy, they are always quick to respond. Everyone on my team loves them. Everyone is treated as equals, with great amounts of respect. geTTIng The Job done The roles between the companies are not

ver the first 6 months, the program featured 17 different languages, allowing 1,300 partners from 65 countries to actively syndicate more than 125 campaigns. The Microsoft distributors and OEM partners represent some of the largest IT companies in the world. onlIne CaMpaIgns Alice McGaw, President of McGaw Marketing, is responsible for the creation of Microsofts global online campaigns, and she articulates this daunting charge from her Ontario, CA office. Instead of fitting what Microsoft wanted into an existing portal, TIEs technology is so flexible that we could configure the system and create the front-end to suit what was needed. This allowed us to build all of our localized sites, the way we imagined, without restrictions. TIE gave me the freedom to explain what I thought the design should look like, and how I thought it should be organized, said McGaw. The unique interface is intuitive and was achieved by cooperation and working together as a genuine meeting of the mind, all with a common end goal. McGaw delights in the simplicity perceived by her client: From the Microsoft perspective, we (CNET/TIE Kinetix/McGaw Marketing) meet once a week for an hour. What they dont see are the daily phone calls involving everyone, in three time zones, working

Everyone on my team feels that when were working with TIE the focus is always on getting the job done.

set in stone. Strategic components can sprout from any part of the process blurring responsibilities, for the better. This is a result of the willingness by all to step out of their role to realize the goal. McGaw insists, Theres no time wasted on who should do it, or whose job it was, or who gets credit. Everyone on my team feels that when were working with TIE the focus is always on getting the job done. Then we can all be superstars. This mutual admiration is not lost on McGaw, They genuinely work with us as members of the same team. Always the same objective, to get the campaign right and working, and up on time. Its an attitude thats not always found in group dynamics, but we all want to give the client what they want. This level of understanding in a working relationship can come only from a combination of on the job know-how and old-fashioned hard work. Alice McGaw seems to think its working. TIE keeps our stress level down! Were currently working on 46 campaign microsites that will be launched globally on the short term. As for the syndication aspect, we have no worries about that.

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P13

Author Progress Software ~ Photography Marcel Rob

Text xxx ~ Photography xxx

The Switch
in between meetings a man is eager to replace his existing mobile phone with the newest smart phone he has heard so much about. Needing to accomplish this task quickly, he navigates to an online phone shop.

T-Mobiles online improvements

fter finding the correct product he begins the checkout process. But as he is forced to click through a fifth screen, he realizes he wont be able to finish in time for his next meeting. Frustrated and disappointed, he closes his browser without completing the transaction. Now imagine if that man could complete the same transaction within just one or two screens. The possibility of his purchasing the Smartphone before his next meeting increases exponentially. The telecom industry has become one of the most competitive markets in todays economy. With so many vendor, product and service options

available to customers, a Telcos ability to improve the customer experience can have a huge effect on conversion rates. T-Mobile fully understands this challenge. As one of the top 3 global wireless carriers and subsidiary of Deutsche Telecom AG, T-Mobile serves 150 million subscribers across Europe and the USA. Eight years ago, at the request of the Marketing department, T-Mobiles Netherlands IT group built a customized online web shop. Though state-of-the-art at the time, the system grew too inflexible to support the companys needs, making it difficult for the Internet Marketing group to quickly and easily execute campaigns,

support special offers or take advantage of market opportunities. In an on-demand world that requires companies to react almost immediately to remain competitive, it was taking T-Mobile months to develop the functionality to support new initiatives. The company urgently needed to reduce that time-to-market down to weeks, if not days. InCrease flexIbIlITy and reduCe CosT Flexibility and cost were the primary drivers to start a search for a new solution, says Tessel Jarigsma, Senior Vice President for Internet and New Media at T-Mobile. The marketing department was looking to decrease its dependence on IT and to increase its own ability to quickly define, customize and execute campaigns without having to deal with complex technology issues. Jarigsma: First and foremost, we needed a solution that offered the flexibility to quickly and easily meet the ever-

P14 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

E-COMMErCE

We were looking for an easy-to-use webshop for our customers. With TIE Kinetix we have minimized the number of steps related to placing an order. In addition, we are now able to offer richer content: customer reviews, up sell opportunities, stock information and detailed product descriptions. As a result thereof, we are able to increase the conversion and generate more revenue from our web shop. Tessel Jarigsma, T-Mobile Sr. Vice President for Internet and New Media

changing, ondemand needs of the industry. Second, it no longer made sense for us to incur all of the development cost to customize a solution when there were excellent solutions on the market developed by vendors who knew far more about the subject than we do. And with approximately 30% of all telecom products in the Netherlands purchased online, T-Mobile concluded that a more flexible shopping platform would be a strategic step forward in its online strategy and ability to gain market share. So, as Jarigsma began her search for a new solution, the list of criteria included far more than just functionality requirements. Management requirements were just as important to us, even not more so, explains Jarigsma. Flexibility, cost, time-to-market, agility those were the elements that were going to give us the business success and competitive advantage we were looking for.

and because the entire system is seleCTIng saas According to Jarigsma, the cloud-based, T-Mobiles Marketing TIE Kinetix MamboFive E-Commerce Platform department now has far more freedom offered both the functionality and management and agility to execute their own requirements the company was looking for. programs. And in addition, T-Mobile could trust and An additional advantage is that leverage the extensive expertise and experience T-Mobile does not have to worry about of TIE Kinetix and its business partner The the technology and availability. Due to Online Company so T-Mobile can focus all a stable Progress-based platform TIE their effort on doing Kinetix ensures 99.9% uptime of the business in a very phone shop. competitive environment. T-Mobile has replaced huge busIness benefITs Only its previous solution with shortly after the implementation, TIE Kinetixs T-Mobile is already realizing E-Commerce Software as a tremendous business benefits. The Service (SaaS) platform. By company has substantially improved outsourcing its entire the customer experience with new platform, T-Mobile functionality, content and ease-of-use. achieves an optimal For example, it has integrated social balance between media and significantly reduced the technological possibilities number of steps and web pages and the ever-changing customers are required to navigate to complete demands of the business. transactions. A series of processes that once required The flexibility of the TIE T-Mobiles customers to navigate through five different Kinetix system enables web pages has been merged into a single page. very fast time-to-market

T-Mobile is already realizing tremendous business benefits.

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P15

Author Suzanne Glorie ~ Photography Remco Baars, Leah Oliver

Global customer satisfaction

Its all About

Without customers there is no business. Therefore customer satisfaction and customer support are key items at TiE kinetix. An interview with Natascha heijboer-reijgers and Jeanne hentges.
How do you measure customer satisfaction at TIE Kinetix? Natascha: We regularly do customer satisfaction surveys, even weekly, and keep a very close watch on how we are doing.

TIE Commerce goes the Extra Mile to help its Customers. I have always been satisfied with their support American International Industries

Gerry and Jake are great to work with. I wish all support was as good as TIE Commerce THK Rhythm North America Co. Ltd

Natascha Heijboer-Reijgers Business Unit Manager

Do TIE Kinetix employees embrace this customer satisfaction philosophy? Jeanne: Absolutely. All our employees live and breath customer service and as management we stimulate and award service oriented behavior. We yearly give out a customer support award to the employee whos proven to go the extra mile to make our customers happy.

Do you see changes in support needs? Natascha: Customers like personal contact, now more than ever. They want to speak to someone that knows their specific situation. Thats why we do not operate as a call center. All our support engineers know the customers, understand their business and are able to directly come up with solutions. Our surveys show that our customers really value that. Although we do work with first and second line support, they are all TIE Kinetix employees that operate as one team to deliver

P16 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

TOTAL iNTEGrATEd E-COMMErCE

the People
Jeanne Hentges VP Business to Business Operations

What are the key strengths of TIE Kinetix support services? Jeanne: The length of time to contact a customer after they report an issue, knowledge of our products, and the interaction with the support technician are definite strengths. Most of our support engineers have been with the company for many years and theres not a

problem they cant solve. Natascha: Dont forget teamwork, our customers can count on over 70 years of experience, across our international support teams. They share knowledge, support and educate each other. Thats why a customer will usually not notice when they are speaking to a junior support engineer.

the best possible customer service. Jeanne: Of course there are other trends like the need for online help functionality and extended support. It goes without saying that we continuously improve and grow our services in order to fully meet our customers needs. We have the advantage of having highly knowledgeable and experienced support staff on 2 continents. We go as far as 24/7 support if required. The survey results are extraordinary, with scores between 90 and even 100% customer satisfaction.

I was directly put in touch with 2nd and 3rd line support, even before the service call was generated! Within 24 hours my problem was completely solved. You draw the conclusion...

Always the right answer, always the first time Polk Audio

Mediq

Those are extraordinary results, how do you explain that? Jeanne: It is all about the people. A personal approach, knowledgeable, professional and a helpful support staff that listens and provides real solutions. Natascha: If a customer is unhappy, which can happen occasionally, we immediately take action, we will not rest until we have come up with an acceptable solution and a happy customer! Well let the customers speak for themselves.

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P17

E-COMMErCE

Working on Verticals
Progress software Corporation is an independent enterprise software company that enables businesses to be operationally responsive to changing conditions and customer interactions as they occur to capitalize on new opportunities, drive greater efficiencies and reduce risk.
at Progress Software from his Redwood City, CA office, Kumar shares his desire to put a fine point on the unique strengths of each companys solution, and how both systems work so well together. Sanjay, Progress Software and TIE Kinetix have worked closely for years now, and the integration between the two has gained traction in the last year. How has this progression developed, and where has it resonated in the marketplace? The relationship has been going on for some time, but about a year ago, we started to get more exposure around the things we had to do in different verticals. We started having a stronger focus in certain verticals where our products worked as solutions in that space. It looked like it was starting to align very well with some of the activities that TIE Kinetix was doing. We set up an exploratory set of meetings to better understand the type of things TIE was doing with telecommunication companies such as T-Mobile and KPN, where the TIE Kinetix MamboFive E-Commerce solution was utilized as an online storefront. In doing so we also saw its

interview with sanjay kumar, Progress software

he company offers a comprehensive portfolio of best-in-class enterprise software spanning event-driven visibility and real-time response, open integration, data access and integration, and application development and deployment all supporting onpremises and SaaS/Cloud deployments. Typical value driven customer relationships in the online age are a demanding thing as service providers look to improve their online process. Advancements allowing solutions infrastructure, offerings, and capabilities to provide for the ever changing needs of customers can be a moving target. Simply put, an intelligently equipped and implemented E-Commerce shop allows users to keep costs down, while providing a streamlined

sales infrastructure allowing consumers to execute complex processes via a simple and elegant interface. Progress Software has been a strategic partner of TIE Kinetix for over 10 years allowing TIE to deliver pioneering solutions built on the Progress framework. More recently however, Progress has been using TIE MamboFive E-Commerce suite as a front end application to the multifaceted backend of Progress Softwares Communications Order Management Solution. Speaking with Sanjay Kumar, VP of Communications & Media Industry

TIE has been fantastic in actually projecting to the next generation what they want to see.

P18 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

Author Jim Larkin ~ Photography Stock photo

strong ability to act as the order entry/ order capture system enabling self care from a customer perspective. For example, once youve captured a customer order, how do you orchestrate all the work that needs to be done across multiple systems, multiple processes and avenues like that to bring a customer on and activate their service, with any updates to that service? All those moving parts. Its obviously a big area of focus for service providers. So what was interesting, we found that what TIE was doing could be the front end to the things that we would do. Thats where we started to have the conversation around exploring opportunity. Over the last year there were a number of situations where customers were saying Youre doing the order management what can you do on the order capture side? In which case, we entered into the conversation with TIE Kinetix to help on that front. There have been a number of occasions throughout the year where weve been able to present a combined solution while still working as separate entities. Progress and TIE presented at the TM Forum together in Dublin, IR earlier this year, where many from the

telecommunications industry came together to talk about innovations in the marketplace. What was the initial reaction from that event? We saw a lot of excitement there. We were doing a catalyst helping to define how to work within these managed service offerings that service providers run for enterprise level customers, such as banks. It was interesting because there was strong interest from the telecom industry, but it had a lot of overlap with the financial services sector because often they were the end customers for these services. It resonated in the industry especially as it relates to TIEs mobile storefront, and it can be used across a whole series of solutions that service providers are selling. It also became really interesting as TIE started applying it to areas of the managed service models that started appearing. So its been a great year. Were still building on a number of these opportunities as they pop up as a result of our initial discussions. How has TIEs strengths manifested in the partnership with Progress Software in terms of both technology, and experience?

As a company TIE has been great with a very rapid response to these activities. Very little red tape, with a great commitment to making things happen, which is critical. Thats a very strong component. From a solution perspective, its very easy to showcase your offering to demonstrate what would be the desired result. Its amazing how fast you can show those activities. Especially compared to other traditional solution sets that are out there, those that are non-CRM based, non-SaaS based type of offerings. Its that speed of change that translates to time to market for service providers; its a fantastic story. It complements the Progress value proposition well, where things are really driven by much quicker time to market, the convergence of products and services and the bundling of those against the challenges that they relate to. The partnership with TIE has worked extremely well in that type of model, with a strong motivation. It doesnt hurt that Progress technology is inside the TIE product. It just makes it easier to work together. Not that the technology was ever a challenge, but the fact is we have a relationship from all sides.
TIE ~ 2012 ~ P19

Author Jim Larkin ~ Photography Clopay

The other part is that the technology meets the end desire. It has a fantastic wow factor when you present it to the business community. Being able to show the type of experience that customers will have, or how to use it internally, and being able to see some of those results right away, being able to show it on a notepad, it has a very powerful attraction from the business teams. Its an area where service providers traditionally have been too technology and engineering oriented, with not enough focus around the customer experience and the overall look and feel that the customer would have. TIE has been fantastic in projecting to the next generation what they want to actually see.

Weve worked closely for over 10 years, and have had a great synergy particularly in the last year. What are your projections for 2012 and beyond? There is certainly been a strong commitment to a strategy around becoming more solution and vertical focused. In 2011, we built a new relationship. Prior to that was an underlying technology that Progress had as part of the solution sets at TIE. It was much more of a partnership in terms of how we go to market with your solution and our solution as a common value and proposition to customers. I think were going to see a lot more of that in 2012. As we see these opportunities with a global footprint, it matters how quickly we can move down those paths. 2012 is where well start truly reaping the benefits and seeing this type of value proposition really grow. Its part of a strategy across a number of industries around the idea of helping service providers enhance their end to end customer experience. As we partner together, we have the enabling technology to get access to their systems, orchestrate activities, with response to operational pains. That combined with the solutions that TIE provides enabling interaction with their customers and being able to determine a lot of the metrics and activities that are happening along that front. You can see a great synergy to be able to build a greater picture around that end-to-end customer experience management initiative. Its exciting working with TIE, as its a very agile company from an organizational perspective. From a solution perspective TIE has been a pleasure to work with as well. I think were going to see a lot more aspects grow in 2012 on this front, because of that culture and vision in terms of the new future facing solutions for our enterprise customers.

Clopay
Building Products Division with four manufacturing facilities and 49 distribution centers across the U.S. and Canada, Clopay is North Americas leading manufacturer of residential garage doors and a leader in the industrial door market.

ringing more than 40 years of leadership to the garage door industry, Clopay is the only garage door manufacturer to hold the Good Housekeeping Seal. Plastic Products Division With three locations in the US, three in Germany, and one in Brazil, Clopay is a global leader in specialty films, extrusion coatings, custom-printing and engineered laminations. The company is widely known for its unique technology developments in the areas of microporous breathable, elastomerics, monolithic, and apertured films and composites. Clopays products are used in the hygienic, healthcare, protective apparel, and industrial markets. TIghT b2b InTegraTIon Industrial door leader Clopay needed a more efficient way of managing their business to business integration with partners and customers. They found the day-to-day operation of an in-house 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 unmanageable. Recognizing these needs, they decided to fully outsource their EDI processes to an experienced

sanjay kumar, Vice President, Communications & Media industry at Progress software
P20 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

BusiNEss iNTEGrATiON

Saves Big

partner like TIE Kinetix. Other determining factors that made the purchasing decision much easier were: TIEs reasonable price, well known reliability, support and confirmation from several satisfied customers. TIE Kinetix has years of experience in supporting the operation of missioncritical electronic commerce processes in the area of communications and document mapping requirements specified by our customers in the retail and manufacturing industry, says Carmel Hirth, Director of IT for Clopay. The implementation needed to be seamless to their trading partners and a detailed project plan was made with specific expectations from both parties. Both companies worked together to set up a reconciliation process to ensure the accuracy of all inbound and outbound transactions. In a very short timeframe, Clopay had outsourced all its EDI translation, mapping development and enhancements, new trading partner set ups, daily reconciliation, error troubleshooting and communications to TIE. ouTsourCIng TIE worked very closely with the technical and business teams of Clopay to provide an SAS 70 compliant outsourced solution utilizing datacenter infrastructure provided by Connectria Corporation. This

solution not only supported the integration of the companys internal business processes, but more importantly enabled direct connections between the business processes of Clopay and its trading partners. TIE Kinetix interfaces provided an easy-to-use solution that ensured flexibility enough for any kind of integration scenario in the future. Clopay is fully outsourced using TIE Kinetix Business Integration Platform connected to the TIE directConnect Communications network allowing them to enjoy the advantages of true eBusiness through a secure Internet businessto-business gateway. Using this powerful combination gives the flexibility to rapidly implement new E-Commerce processes with their Oracle Applications Suite to increase visibility, efficiency and response to market conditions. As a result of Outsourcing its supply chain connections, Clopay has been able to focus on improving and optimizing its internal business applications and has experienced an annual cost savings of over $80,000 in the first year of service. Desmond Allen, Clopays IT Help Desk Manager and E-Commerce Coordinator had this to say about the solution, Of

The overall costs for data storage and software execution have been significantly reduced.

course we have added trading partners, more documents, and transfers. We even added another dedicated line for XML transfers from a particular vendor. There is daily use of web tools for research and support that we use and have even taught our customer service teams to use. Through it all we have benefitted from TIEs expertise with multiple transfer/delivery protocols and suggesting fixes for daily issues that arise. The team has gone out of their way to make sure our business can not only receive and process current documents but grow incrementally. TIEs powerful integration capabilities have enabled Clopay to effortlessly transact business and manage more than 17,000 transactions per month without error. The overall costs for data storage and software execution have been significantly reduced, and the time dedicated to both new trading partner set up and integration formats have been reduced by 75%. In addition, we have been able to keep the headcount down in our department and while still maintaining system integrity to support our business and meet our trading partner requirements, Hirth said. Outsourcing our EDI services to TIE has been one of the best business decisions that we could have made.
TIE ~ 2012 ~ P21

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P22 ~ 2012 ~ TIE

NEWs

Fourth online food shop launched

The collaboration between Newco Food Retail (NFR) and TIE Kinetix is paying off. Currently, they have four online culinary webshops live in the Netherlands. An increasing number of consumers now shop online for a tasty home-cooked meal. The trend is for healthy, varied food and a consumer desire to put fresh, regional produce on the table without too much trouble. Online solutions by TIE Kinetix and NFR anticipate these consumer demands and circumstances. In addition to Smaak.nl, debedrijfslunch.nl, culinaireversmarkt.nl, both companies have launched smulweb.nl, the largest recipe site in the Netherlands. Jan Sundelin, TIE Kinetix CEO: The strategic partnership we started with NFR last year is starting to pay off, and rapidly. NFR deals with the content and logistic dispatch, and TIE Kinetix with the technical development of consumer-friendly modules that facilitate the online ordering of culinary products, dishes, menus and the long tail supermarket products.

Home Deco market ready for the future

At the end of September Sanoma Media successfully launched the Home Deco Channel Guide at the Woonbeurs, a large event with more than 80,000 visitors. Already 3 brands are live within our system and Sanoma Media filled the pipeline with 20 new brands during the event. The home deco Channel Guide is a new service from sanoma Media that provides brands within the home decoration market with the ability to present and control their rich product and marketing information on dealer website and on sanoma online properties like vtwonen.nl and ie-h.nl. This digital solution is powered by the TiE kinetix Content syndication Platform. sanoma Media and TiE kinetix entered a partnership in which sanoma Media is responsible for the Marketing and sales and TiE is responsible for the Technology.

TIE Partner Epicor merges with Activant Solutions NEW - Postpay without risk!
The salary has not been transferred or there are many costs at the same time, but that one jacket, or that new phone is really cool . Postpay is very much appreciated by many customers. however, it brings along quite some risk for internet shops. They have to deliver the merchandize and just hope that the payment will follow. Webshop owners dont want to deal with depth collection cost and all that hassle. With Pay by bill, a unique collaboration between TiE kinetix and Gothia, webshop owners can enjoy the advantages of postpay without the risk. Gothia takes over the invoice and pays the webshop owner within 24 hours after delivery of the merchandize. No worries about unpaid bills and happy customers! ERP software provider Epicor merged with Activant Solutions, specialist in Business Management and Retail Point of Sale (Retail POS) Systems and Distribution ERP Systems for Wholesale Distribution. The new, expanded Epicor is a global leader delivering business software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail and services industries. TIE Kinetix is exited about this merger. TIE CEO Jan Sundelin: Our companies have partnered for over twelve years, our partnership with Epicor was one of the first combined offerings in the market of an ERP supplier with an integrated EDI solution. This merger brings even more opportunities to our joined customer base. We very much look forward to working with every component of the growing family of Epicor products and services.

TIE ~ 2012 ~ P23

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Its not about advertIsIng In our medIa. Its about gettIng your message In the mInd of your target group.
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