E-business Application

The Company
US Filter Distribution is the distribution division of US Filter Corporation, a leading global provider of industrial, municipal, commercial and consumer water and wastewater treatment systems, products and services. US Filter offers a single-source solution of the industry's broadest range of cost-effective systems, products, services and proven technologies. In addition, they market a broad line of waterworks distribution products and services through one of the industry's largest networks of sales and service and distribution facilities through approximately 1,500 locations, including over 600 franchised dealerships, and approximately 850 Company-owned or leased facilities, including manufacturing plants.

The e-business Environment
US Filter Distribution operates an IBM AS/400 model 640 in Thomasville, GA. It is a part of the US Filter corporate frame relay network connecting over 65 locations throughout the United States and Canada. Microsoft Exchange is used as the enterprise wide e-mail system with over 6,000 users. The AS/400 has over 1,500 users attached to it in 137 of the 200 total US Filter locations.

The e-business Challenge
US Filter Distribution needed a resource for their AS/400 that would integrate the 1,500 AS/400 users into the corporate wide e-mail environment. Upgrading the infrastructure to give all of the AS/400 users a PC with networked access to Exchange was prohibitively expensive. A cost effective and functionally rich AS/400 based e-mail system was needed for the AS/400.

The Benefits
US Filter Distribution found unexpected benefits in the AS/400 e-mail product from Net400, Inc. Not only does NetMail*400 enable all of the AS/400 users to be an integral part of the enterprise wide e-mail system by exchanging e-mail with Exchange users as well as Internet users, but the e-Process*400 features of NetMail*400 have enabled the implementation of a major component of their corporate e-business strategy.

The Functions
US Filters core business requires the preparation of thousands of complex bid documents each month. Each project being bid requires access to an up to date Bill of Materials file, which is maintained on the AS/400. In addition, complex projects must be estimated by the prospective customer and by the sales engineer before final bid documents are produced. This critical step enables municipal and industrial projects to be assessed for budgetary consideration well in advance of the submission of bid requests. e-Process*400 helps automate both of these functions: 

Bid Document Preparation and Distribution – Bid documents require up to date Bill of Material information. Getting accurate Bill of Materials to the sales engineers and the customers is the challenge. e-Process*400 allows the AS/400 application programs to generate and send the current Bill of Material in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) formats to the sales engineer and the customer via e-mail. This assures accurate Bid Document preparation and a single point of maintenance for the Bill of Materials file. No mistakes, happier customers, more informed sales engineers and more business success are just a few of the results.

Estimating System – Prior to implementing PowerScope using e-Process*400, US Filter Distribution would regularly distribute diskettes with the necessary estimating files. Since customers operate with various estimating systems, US Filter had to distribute these files on diskette in the appropriate format for use by the customers in-house estimating software. Today, customers can request their own updated estimating files via the World Wide Web. The PowerScope application will generate the customized estimating files and using the e-Process*400 APIs, e-mail the files to the customer’s e-mail address with accurate, up to date and timely information.

Sales Estimates - Sales engineers can build estimates on their own PCs in their offices and submit them to PowerScope as file attachments via e-mail into e-Process*400. PowerScope will generate a Sales Order and notify the appropriate US Filter Service Representative that a file has been received. Before PowerScope, the sales engineer or the customer had to sign on to the AS/400 and submit request for bid documents which were then put onto diskettes and mailed or couriered to the appropriate office. Now – everything is done by e-mail – faster, cheaper and more productively. Customers and sales engineers can now do their own estimating and generate sales orders automatically without the need for service representatives involvement.

The e-business Future -
US Filters has already experienced some pleasant surprises, like the receipt of orders, direct from customers without any US Filter personnel involvement until the Sales Order was received. Information does generate business.

The US Filter web site is being upgraded to allow customers more functions. They can submit their own requests for selected bill of material files that are customized for their own particular market. They can submit their own orders. They will be able to check on their own orders.

The Results –
US Filter’s e-mail strategy will assure them a competitive position in the e-business world.

Customers are happier and able to do more on their own.

Sales engineers are more productive with less time spend on manual tasks.

US Filter e-business is under control and growing with more efficient sales and service support capabilities.

The AS/400 is delivering increased benefits with its legacy applications integrated with Internet and e-mail.