Sylvania Lighting UK
Business objective
The objectives identified by Sylvania was two-fold. Firstly, a need to minimise the administration involved in trading through distribution channels. Secondly, a means whereby they would receive accurate information to improve order processing and Invoice match rates.
Business benefits
Sylvania now has the ability to send and receive data directly into their backend business system which is accurate and enables the customer service team to proactively discuss any exceptions with their distributors to ensure that goods are delivered on time and in full.
B2BE solutions
Powering sustainable lighting solutions worldwide
Sylvania Lighting is part of the Sylvania Group, a major global player in the lighting market offering innovative and sustainable solutions for professionals and consumers. The group’s legal entity, Feilo Sylvania, is owned by INESA (Group) Co. Limited, based in Shanghai, China — an organisation principally engaged in the manufacture and distribution of lighting equipment.
With over 120 years of expertise, Sylvania Group manufactures and markets eco-responsible and digital lighting solutions across more than 50 countries. Sylvania Lighting UK is the principal company behind many of the world’s best-known lighting brands, including Sylvania and Concord with different ranges such as PRO, START, SpeciaLITE, LiFeSafe, LiteGuard and YourHome. Their digital solutions are Sylsmart and 360 Services.
Dedicated solely to the lighting industry, Sylvania Lighting designs, manufactures, and markets a diverse range of lamps and lighting fixtures for architectural, industrial, commercial, residential, and outdoor applications.
The challenge
Sylvania’s route to market is via a diverse network of trade partners and distributors. Accessing various channels, Sylvania supplies electrical and industrial wholesalers, major retailers and specifiers and installers.
The challenge identified by Sylvania was two-fold. Firstly, a need to minimise the administration involved in trading through distribution channels. Secondly, Sylvania were looking for a means whereby they would receive accurate information to improve order processing and invoice match rates with their partners and distributors.
De oplossing
When B2BE spoke to Sylvania, they were able to rise to the challenge by enabling electronic data interchange (EDI / B2B) between Sylvania’s partners and distributors utilising the B2BE Transaction Delivery Network (TDN) and Sylvania’s backend system Mapics. This satisfied the initial challenge of reducing effort. However, the second challenge to ensure accurate electronic data was a little more difficult.
Within the electrical wholesale market the range of products Sylvania supply and in some instances manufacture to order, creates issues with product identification and pricing. This then necessitates manual intervention and hence negates the many benefits of electronic trading.
Sylvania highlighted a potential solution whereby Purchase Orders could be product and price matched outside their ERP environment, based on a set of rules and data contained in the Sylvania product masterfile. B2BE were able to build a web-based Purchase Order Approval interface where the wholesaler’s Purchase Orders were automatically validated against the Sylvania product and price files maintained within the B2BE environment. Where there were exceptions the Sylvania customer service team were automatically notified and could then follow up with the wholesaler and rectify any issues.
The result
Sylvania now has the ability to send and receive data directly into their backend business system which is accurate and enables the customer service team to proactively discuss any exceptions with their distributors to ensure that goods are delivered on time and in full! This also means that when Sylvania invoices the wholesaler, the invoices are processed accurately the first time.