Detailed Target Enterprise Architecture

The process of contracting with new customers remains the responsibility of regional DCs since their sales forces are closest to the customer, and know regional languages and laws.

The changes to the existing process are emphasized in red in Figure 21. There is now formal verification of the data for each new customer (Approve customer data, assigned to HQ). This verification prevents duplication of customers in the shared master customer data examined by this process.

Figure 22 shows how the process Develop Contract is supported by the new CRM system, instead of by DC-specific applications and databases. In the new system DCs are still able to enter new customers and edit certain customer data (fields).

Figure 21: Registration of a New Customer

Figure 22: Support for the Develop Contract Process

Figure 23: Registration of Customer Order

The process of registering new customer orders remains the responsibility of regional DCs. As illustrated in Figure 23, the customer order is accepted upon the verification of customer credit exposure (i.e., after total exposure per customer versus assigned credit limit and collection history is analyzed). While retaining autonomy to accept orders, the DC must still request, from HQ, the approval of orders with potentially high payment collection risk. Upon the registration of the customer order, the tracking of its status is automatically initiated.

Customer orders are managed in the CRM module for Customer order management (Figure 24). Communication with other systems such as shipping regarding the customer order is done via the EAI bus through new application interfaces.

Figure 24: Application Usage by Register Order Process

The new Track customer order process (Figure 25) realizes the Order information service, which provides order status to customers in real time.

Figure 25: Track Customer Order Process

A subscription to the Order information service may be established along with a customer contract or as each order is placed. The customer may also at any time subscribe to this service on ArchiMetal’s website. Notifications to the customer about the status of his order can be sent for any of these events:

The customer notifications are generated by the Customer order monitoring application based on these events. This application manages the customer subscription to the tracking service, which includes the requested event notifications, as well as the channels (interfaces) through which the information should be sent to the customer.

The Customer Service department is responsible for the Order information service and for the Customer order monitoring application.

The new process, Process customer order (Figure 26), replaces the previous process, PC Sales order processing. This new process handles individual rather than aggregated customer orders. Relating production and shipping to the individual customer order allows for the company-wide visibility of customer and order-related data. In addition, such transparency enables manufacturing flexibility, and lays ground for offering advanced customer services, such as urgent and prioritized order placement, and late order modification.

Figure 26: Process Customer Order Process

The Process Customer Order process uses customer order data provided by the central CRM system (Figure 27), instead of relying on local databases at each DC, as was the case in the baseline architecture. Within this process, the production and shipping orders are generated for each customer order.

Figure 27: Applications Usage by the Process Customer Order Process