August 2008

Featured Story: Hubspan Named ‘Top 100’ Company by Supply and Demand Chain Executive Magazine

For the second year in a row, Hubspan has been selected to the Supply and Demand Chain Executive 100.  Hubspan was awarded the designation based upon the innovative approach we use to seamlessly connect enterprise buyers and suppliers.

According to the magazine, this year’s “Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100″ focuses on supply chain innovation. They looked for solution and service providers that are helping to drive supply chain innovation by providing their customers/clients with unique software, solutions and/or services that address those clients’ primary current and future supply chain challenges.

In this magazine, the focus is more with the supply chain of things – the ecosystems of partners that get those new products to the consumer by transforming raw materials into finished goods and moving those goods out to customers. But innovation remains an intrinsic component of their coverage, for their readership looks to them for information on the innovative technologies, services and processes that are giving leading enterprises their competitive edge.

To learn more about this award, click here.

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Client Case Study

HD Supply Facilities Maintenance Turns to Hubspan for Rapid Business Process Integration and End-to-End Visibility Across Supply and Demand Chains

In August 2007, when HD Supply and its portfolio of businesses was sold by The Home Depot to a group of private equity investors, HD Supply Facilities Maintenance had 6 months to transition all suppliers and customers from existing systems over to new platforms.

Aside from addressing the immediate tactical issues, HD Supply Facilities Maintenance also looked forward to finding an enterprise-based solution that would provide end-to-end visibility of goods flowing through both the supply and demand chains. After a comprehensive evaluation process, the company chose Hubspan to solve the complex business integration challenges it faced.

Key Challenges facing HD Supply Facilities Maintenance:

• Migrating over 225 integrated suppliers and 80 integrated national customers
• Completing transition to new platforms in only six months
• Maintaining business continuity through transition with customers and suppliers
• Connecting rapidly with many suppliers and customers despite differences in systems
• Obtaining full visibility of goods flowing through value chain

Learn how the leading supplier of Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) products migrated 225 suppliers and 80 national customers to new systems in record time while maintaining business continuity, improving operational efficiency, and improving visibility throughout their value chain.

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Customer Sound Off

“Office Depot is committed to delivering innovative solutions as we continually look to enhance shared business processes within our diverse customer community,” said Glenn Trommer, Director of E-Commerce and Implementation Services for Office Depot. “Hubspan extends our e-commerce capability, making it simpler for our customers and suppliers to do business with us.” Read the entire press release, ‘Office Depot Enhances Business Collaboration with Hubspan’.

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Inside Hubspan: Support Matters

by Elizabeth Bladow, Director of Technical Support

What is good customer service?
It begins with the first contact a customer has with Hubspan. Good customer service starts with a warm greeting and desire to truly understand the customer’s issue at hand. The Hubspan Support team strives to develop a positive rapport with the customer, then provide a speedy resolution to the issue or deliver relevant information to answer the inquiry. Regardless of the time of day, or day of week, our Support team treats each inquiry with a high degree of professionalism and eagerness to resolve the root cause of the reported issue.

No Issue Left Behind
The Hubspan Support team tracks every reported inquiry and ensures issues get worked to complete resolution. Disciplined ticket tracking assures our customers that no inquiries fall through the cracks and all submissions are handled with care. Monthly performance reports also provide both summary and detailed views of how Hubspan’s Service is actually performing in relation to service level agreements (SLAs).

Ownership
The Hubspan Support team owns reported issues until final resolution is obtained. On occasion, some issues require escalation to other internal teams for collaboration and system development. The Hubspan Support team manages the project through ultimate resolution and keeps customers apprised of progress along the way.

Knowledge Base
The Hubspan Support team leverages a resolution knowledge base that contains detailed information on all issues submitted. The knowledge base assists us in providing timely resolutions and maintaining consistent communications with customers utilizing the Hubspan solution.

Principles for delivering great customer service
As our business grows we continually look to raise the bar in delivering exceptional customer service. Not only do we scale the technology platform with growth of our networked community, but our services and support scale in kind.

The following list identifies the guiding principles we adhere to in delivering exceptional service.

• Listen to and know our customers
• Be aware of new customer demands and trends
• Let priorities drive initiatives
• Focus on customer-centric metrics
• Be proactive – embrace change

By implementing principles of self-improvement and applying them to our Support operations, we achieve new levels of business performance while enhancing the customer experience.

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