Case Study Summary

Cisco Brothers, maker of high-end custom, environmentally-friendly furniture, decided to expand their sales channel by equipping their distributors and retailers with an online sales portal.  Lack of visibility to their products via the internet, automating manual processes surrounding ordering and reporting, and leveraging technology to save time were the particular issues that Cisco Brothers wanted to address when they contacted ECF Professional Services.

The Challenges and Requirements

Cisco Brothers needed to provide their distributors and sales staff with up-to-date information regarding pricing and inventory which was stored in a Navision ERP system.  In addition, they needed basic e-commerce functionality including a shopping cart, advanced search with dynamic filtering, cross-selling of similar products, accessories to the main product, order management, payment and shipment gateways.  Lastly, they desired to replace all manual procedures such as dealing with faxes and answering phone calls for custom orders with a more automated solution.

The Solution – Mediachase’s ECF 4.1, ECF Integration Services (I/S) and Western Computer’s Fusion NAV

Cisco Brothers chose Mediachase and Western Computer as partners to integrate their existing back-end Navision ERP and the front-end web site and portal.  Mediachase’s ECF 4.1 e-commerce solution was used as the base e-commerce platform and Mediachase’s ECF Integration Services (ECF I/S) along with Western’s Fusion NAV was used as the middle layer integration between the ECF database and Navision ERP data.  The duo of ECF I/S and Fusion NAV allows for bi-directional synchronization between the front and back-end systems.

Mediachase’s Services Preferred

Mediachase is supplying program management, application development, graphic design, training and education, implementation and support services for the ECF e-commerce and Navision ERP integration.  Mediachase originally provided training material and resources to educate Cisco Brothers employees on how to install and use the ECF’s administrator interface, the ECF Commerce Manager.   Additionally, Mediachase consultants have been involved in the ongoing support, web hosting and management of their e-commerce plus Navision package.

Benefits

Through having their catalog viewable from the internet and automating manual processes and reporting, Cisco Brothers has increased visibility to enhance sales and saved a great deal of time so that they can focus on their core business.

ECF implementation with custom store locator and advanced search features and integration to Microsoft Dynamics NAV

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