Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc. company, recently announced that Dal-Tile Corp. has deployed Sterling Order Management at its 250+ stores. The Sterling Order Management solution, part of the Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite, improves the customer experience by enabling Dal-Tile to more effectively manage its end-to-end customer lifecycle process, implement innovative order visibility capabilities and improve inventory management at the store level.

“Our legacy system has been operating for over 20 years, and although it adequately met our needs, it lacked the flexibility to handle Dal-Tile’s changing business needs as we expand what we offer and the customers to whom we sell,” said Rick Odorico, general manager of Dal-Tile Business Operations. “Sterling Order Management will take our company to a world-class level of customer service in the near term and for many years to come.”

Benefits

Sterling Order Management orchestrates the end-to-end enterprise order management process to improve cross-channel efficiencies and customer responsiveness. It replaces Dal-Tile’s legacy solution and provides the company with more accurate tracking of order status, greater order visibility across the supply chain, and simplified order fulfillment and tracking.

Managing inventory is complex for Dal-Tile, which offers its customers multiple options for product delivery, including pick-up, ship-out, pack-and-hold, transfers and direct-ship orders. By functioning as a central order hub, Sterling Order Management aggregates inventory information across multiple systems to improve inventory utilization and reduce lost sales due to out-of-stock situations. Better inventory visibility also enables Dal-Tile to use partners and vendors in fulfilling customer orders more efficiently. In addition, the solution provides flexibility based on each local store’s needs, allowing Dal-Tile to view, maintain and cancel orders at a store level, or even have one store become a replenishment point for another location.

As a result of more efficient processes provided by the new system, Dal-Tile has also improved its pricing and margin management. Dal-Tile is able to optimize pricing for its customers, providing them with more flexible options and expediting the process of order entry.

“Like many manufacturers, Dal-Tile has seen its customer base and supplier processes change dramatically,” said Richard Douglass, global manufacturing industry executive at Sterling Commerce. “By leveraging a flexible solution like Sterling Order Management, Dal-Tile has transformed how it works with its customers and suppliers to implement innovative processes that enable the company to not only improve customer service, but to do so while dramatically reducing costs.”

For more information, contact Sterling Commerce (America), Inc., 4600 Lakehurst Court, Dublin, OH 43016-2000; call (800) 876-9772 or (614) 793-7000; fax (614) 793-4040; or visit www.sterlingcommerce.com. Dal-Tile can be reached at 7834 C.F. Hawn Freeway, Dallas, TX 75217; (214) 398-1411; or online at www.dal-tile.com.