MBN was designed to help businesses more easily and effectively work with their trading partners (suppliers and customers) through a fully automated Microsoft .NET-connected solution, thereby increasing efficiency with a deep degree of integration throughout their enterprise and desktop applications and lowering the total cost of business-to-business (B2B) collaboration. In other words, MBN uses the messaging and collaboration facilities of Microsoft Outlook and the integration facilities of BizTalk Server to solve the supply chain connectivity part of the overall supply chain management (SCM) puzzle. The product facilitates inter-company collaboration (through minimizing data capturing and paper-based processes) with several key software components, tools, and community-building services, which will eventually include connectivity options for trading partners of all sizes, a trustworthy Web services network, a library of business process templates, partner management tools, and support to help companies automate their network of trading partners.
Since its launch in October 2003, MBN has reportedly experienced early adopter customer success. Possibly the best example would be Mikimoto (America) Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the world-renowned creator and distributor of cultured pearls, which has completed its first phase of deployment (a pilot project with ten customers, which are all small retailers) and has successfully integrated these multiple organizations into its community of trading partners, streamlining its connection with customers. These customers can place an order by sending a Microsoft Excel form via Microsoft Outlook directly into Mikimoto's MBS Great Plains back-office system. When the order is received, an order acknowledgement is automatically generated and sent via Outlook back to the customer. In a similar manner, advanced shipment notices (ASNs) and invoices too are generated and sent via Outlook.
Mikimoto America is therefore using MBN to automate its ordering processes, which have traditionally been manual and paper-based, with e-mail, electronic data interchange (EDI) or fax as communication means, and to raise customer satisfaction levels through increased responsiveness, flexibility, and availability of information. Since deploying the solution, Mikimoto America has reportedly realized a number of benefits. For one, by streamlining the ordering process to make it faster and easier for both Mikimoto America and its customers, MBN saves Mikimoto America employees the time they would previously spend on manual sales processes, enabling them to focus instead on building more personal and productive relationships with customers. The solution has also helped the company significantly reduce its order-to-cash cycle (to one week from two or more weeks), allowing the company to increase its customer service standards and minimize manual sales process inaccuracies, rework, and delays in order fulfillment. On the other hand, the retailers (customers in this case) should end up with more accurate orders and faster shipments, and they can also use only Outlook to store all of the transactions with Mikimoto.
Based on these positive results, Mikimoto America has recently further launched a broad community-building effort to connect to the rest of its customer base. It is hereby reaching out to 500 resellers, most of which are small, family-owned stores, and the company expects at least one hundred of those resellers to join within the next few months. On the other, suppliers' side, Mikimoto has also been talking to a luxury watch manufacturer about using MBN too, thereby encouraging even wider customer adoption.
In the future, the company will also leverage the MBN's upcoming connectivity with EDI value-added networks (VANs), enabling its users to send EDI documents to trading partners that do not currently subscribe to MBN and receive them in return.
Since its launch in October 2003, MBN has reportedly experienced early adopter customer success. Possibly the best example would be Mikimoto (America) Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the world-renowned creator and distributor of cultured pearls, which has completed its first phase of deployment (a pilot project with ten customers, which are all small retailers) and has successfully integrated these multiple organizations into its community of trading partners, streamlining its connection with customers. These customers can place an order by sending a Microsoft Excel form via Microsoft Outlook directly into Mikimoto's MBS Great Plains back-office system. When the order is received, an order acknowledgement is automatically generated and sent via Outlook back to the customer. In a similar manner, advanced shipment notices (ASNs) and invoices too are generated and sent via Outlook.
Mikimoto America is therefore using MBN to automate its ordering processes, which have traditionally been manual and paper-based, with e-mail, electronic data interchange (EDI) or fax as communication means, and to raise customer satisfaction levels through increased responsiveness, flexibility, and availability of information. Since deploying the solution, Mikimoto America has reportedly realized a number of benefits. For one, by streamlining the ordering process to make it faster and easier for both Mikimoto America and its customers, MBN saves Mikimoto America employees the time they would previously spend on manual sales processes, enabling them to focus instead on building more personal and productive relationships with customers. The solution has also helped the company significantly reduce its order-to-cash cycle (to one week from two or more weeks), allowing the company to increase its customer service standards and minimize manual sales process inaccuracies, rework, and delays in order fulfillment. On the other hand, the retailers (customers in this case) should end up with more accurate orders and faster shipments, and they can also use only Outlook to store all of the transactions with Mikimoto.
Based on these positive results, Mikimoto America has recently further launched a broad community-building effort to connect to the rest of its customer base. It is hereby reaching out to 500 resellers, most of which are small, family-owned stores, and the company expects at least one hundred of those resellers to join within the next few months. On the other, suppliers' side, Mikimoto has also been talking to a luxury watch manufacturer about using MBN too, thereby encouraging even wider customer adoption.
In the future, the company will also leverage the MBN's upcoming connectivity with EDI value-added networks (VANs), enabling its users to send EDI documents to trading partners that do not currently subscribe to MBN and receive them in return.
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