Quantore

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Mission Quantore wants to be the best partner for the office supplies trade in the Benelux countries. To that end, Quantore offers its members the best deal and assists them on their way to commercial success. Vision Quantore is an organisation that has been created by and for its members and which promotes the interests of its members as best as possible. Together with its members, Quantore approaches the market honestly and transparently. Future The future offers a host of opportunities and possibilities for continuing to grow into a leader in efficiency. Optimum logistics and the use of ICT and e-commerce will help to lower costs further without compromising service and quality.

Marc Gijsberts (left) and Wilbert Hofmeester

Quantores new warehouse in Beuningen

Text Cees Steijger ~ Photography Marcel R. Bakker

BUSINESS INTEGRATION

Quantore
reduces integral cost price with e-commerce
Quantore Europe is the biggest stockist and purchasing and sales organisation for office supplies in the Benelux. Quantore is a cooperative society of more than five hundred office supplies specialists, focussing on the private and business-to-business markets.

A cooperative society with over 500 members

or more than 90 years, Quantore has been purchasing office supplies, and providing logistic and sales support. Quantore focuses primarily on purchasing and logistics. By purchasing in bulk, Quantore can offer its members good conditions that enable them to keep their prices low. We want our members to be able to differentiate themselves in the market both in terms of price and product range and quality, says Wilbert Hofmeester, Marketing Manager at Quantore. We talked to him and to Quantores ICT Manager Marc Gijsberts in Quantores brand new offices and state-of-theart distribution centre close to the A73 motorway in Beuningen, near Nijmegen. This striking building, equipped with the latest technology and systems, was designed by the Czech architect and artist Borek Sipek, famous for his strikingly colourful designs.

ers with products faster and easier. And Quantore continues to develop in the fields of e-commerce and automation too. We actively support our customers in ICT and e-commerce in order to achieve more sales, efficiency and distinctive capability in the industry, says Marc Gijsberts, who manages the implementation of the strategic information plan at Quantore. One of the features of this ambitious plan is the use of online technology in combination with existing offline activities. Quantore has been working with TIE Kinetix since 2006. The relationship started when TIE Digital was taken over by TIE in the same year. Digital Channel has since been incorporated into Direct In our logistics centre, there TIEs Content Syndication are more than fifteen thousand products Platform (CSP). Quantore ready to be sent to our members or directly to the customthen also started to use er, says Wilbert. We can stock up to 23,000 articles in our the TIE Messaging Portal, modern warehouse. Quantore deploys the latest technolto which all of its suppliogy and insights to provide its members and their customers are connected. Our

Our suppliers are connected via TIE software with our back-office.

suppliers are connected via TIE software to our back-office. We send our members and suppliers a fixed set of messages. For members we call that TradelinQ, a set of XML messages that enable them to place orders from their own ERP back-office environment. For our sixty suppliers, the standard is PBS Easy in EDIFACT format. We are the central hub for all product and article information that we release to the web systems, our own systems and our customers systems. At the moment, the Messaging Portal processes 50,000 messages per year and it is expected that this number will rise considerably in the years to come. Drop shipments Marc expects that this rise will come mostly from an increase in the number of so-called drop shipments. These are web orders that are received through the members webshops and delivered directly to the end-user by Quantore. This enables Quantore to reduce the integral cost price. In the supply chain, the cost of stocking at two locations is, by definition, higher than distributing from one central location. Customers who supply from their own stock pay more
TIE ~ 2/2010 ~ P5

BUSINESS INTEGRATION

Quantore stocks up to 23,000 articles

than if they use drop shipments. Our customers choice is often based on geographical arguments as to whether they will deliver from their own warehouse or use drop shipments. Its up to them. We took a critical look at our members ICT needs, adds Marc. Then we put together a number of back-office solutions that members can use as they need. For example, we offer our members webshops in which they do not need to use the same applications as everyone else. chain marketing Quantores approach focuses squarely on chain marketing. Quantore not only looks after joint advertising such as folders, catalogues and promotional materials but also provides its members with up-to-date product information for use in workshops, and all the email marketing tools that they might need for an effective campaign. For this they use TIE Kinetix CSP, which is called Supplies Channel at Quantore. This smart marketing tool enables us to manage customers websites centrally and to provide them with up-to-date information at the press of a button, says Marc. The advantage of this is that the customer doesnt have to bother with it. We manage databases for professional email campaigns and we supply ready-to-go newsletters that can be adapted to the individual situation, either with or without 1st line support.
P6 ~ 2/2010 ~ TIE

Orders received by Quantore have now been increasing by 10% year after year.

In Quantores experience, the number of orders increases almost immediately after members have switched to e-commerce. Orders received by Quantore have now been increasing by 10% year after year. Of course our customers and end-users have to get used to the fact that when you order something online you can no longer say and throw in a box of those envelopes that we always have, says Wilbert. The webshop isnt enough in itself. So if you want to stop the enduser from dropping out on his first visit, you have to make it easy for him. By including a favourites list, for example. We also help our customers with Search Engine Optimalization (SEO). Our slogan has always been: You do the selling and well do the

rest. And perhaps in the online era, well have to do more. neXt DaY And meanwhile competitors are not exactly standing idle. Marc and Wilbert are putting a lot of work into helping their customers on their way and increasing acceptance of the online approach. And they are not shrinking from CSP either. If we want to keep to our 10% yearly growth, well have to speed up distribution, says Wilbert. At the moment, customers must still place their orders for drop shipment before 5.30 p.m. but this deadline is constantly being extended and the end-user will still receive his goods the next day. innoVations And, adds Marc, pointing to his HTC, were also using Twitter. If theres a TV commercial for one of our offers, we link that to Twitter, where you can read more about it. This is how we want to handle communities and niche groups. Hmm, a Twitter alert could be handy! Soon we will see iPod widgets, of course. When it comes down to it, youre either a business innovator or youre not.