Timberjack Profile: The world's leading manufacturer of purpose-built forest machines with global operations in more than 80 countries

Company's Goal: To deploy an enterprise-wide system that establishes a consistent approach to handling customers around the globe

Exactium, Inc.'s Contribution

• Supports selling on a global level and customizes orders based on local requirements
• Enables a seamless flow of accurate order information between Timberjack's front and back office applications
• Ensures customer satisfaction by providing a valid, accurate product configuration at the beginning of the sales process
• Provides a migration path for selling over the Internet

Harvesting a Global Solution

As traditional domestic markets open up into highly competitive global markets, companies are rushing to execute global IT strategies that will secure an enduring competitive advantage. Timberjack Group, the leading the world's leading manufacturer of purpose-built forest machines, is no exception. Seeking to increase its 30% global market share, Timberjack formulated project T.W.I.N. - Timberjack Worldwide Information Network - in 1995. Project T.W.I.N. was designed to portray "one Timberjack face to the world" by deploying an enterprise-wide system that establishes a consistent approach to increasing Timberjack customer satisfaction and decreasing costs around the world.

When the T.W.I.N. project was initiated, Timberjack identified the importance of sales configuration technology to the project's overall success.

The Challenge

"Our product offering is very diverse with a multitude of options and interdependencies, " said Garth Wright, business applications manager, Timberjack Corporation. "We required a flexible, best-of-breed sales configurator that could handle all of our order complexities and brand Timberjack solutions around the world. We also needed to customize current product offerings in the filed and have the ability to personalize our customers' buying exeriences over the Internet in the near future," said Wright.

The Global Selling Solution

In accordance with T.W.I.N. project strategy, Timberjack selected Industrial & Financial Systems (IFS) to implement an ERP back office system in 1998. At the time, IFS did not have an integrated configuration component to its standard offering. "IFS was selected the vendor of choice with the understanding that they would provide us with a best-of-breed configurator that would integrate our front and back office operations," said Wright. The need to fulfill Timberjack's configuration requirement was one of the catalysts that led to IFS' relationship with Exactium, Inc., a leading provider of interactive selling and configuration solutions.

The Exactium Selling System™ would replace Timberjack's existing legacy configurator. Timberjack initiated deployment of the Exactium® solution in its North American operations during which time the IFS' ERP system was already in the process of being implemented.

Capturing Business Processes and Best Practices

To jumpstart the process, Timberjack and Exactium worked together to analyze its existing business processes and global customer requirements.

The customers of Timberjack's forestry equipment are logging companies. A logging company may typically buy Timberjack products from one of over 70 independent dealers, who then place the order with one of the four Timberjack Continental Distribution Centers. Even though the independent dealers have their own field inventory, Timberjack tries to fill customized customer requests on an "as ordered" basis. The Continental Distribution Center then places the order with the appropriate Products Supply Division, which assembles the requested product to order. The Continental Distribution Centers are also responsible for distributing products to Timberjack's retail outlets located throughout North America, Europe, Russia, South America and Asia Pacific.

"Since it takes about 90 days to fulfill a sales order, the Exactium Selling System starts our customer on the right foot by ensuring a valid, accurate product configuration at the beginning of the sales process," said Wright. "Another huge advantage for our customers is that our people can access Exactium Selling System sales histories can be accessed easily with the customer service component of the IFS back office system to ensure ongoing customer satisfaction after the sale."

Modeling Timberjack Best Practices: Applying Best-of-Breed Configuration Technology

According to Wright, the Exactium Selling System's best practices approach forced Timberjack to re-evaluate and rationalize its existing business processes prior to system modeling. "Many issues came to light when we started analyzing our data and determining how we wanted to use the sales configurator in the future," said Wright. "For the T.W.I.N. project we wanted to take all precautions against putting inefficient processes into our new system."

For example, the Exactium Selling System compelled Timberjack to rethink its product structuring process to achieve greater efficiencies. "Product structures from the perspectives of materials management, selling and pricing, touch every aspect of our operation," said Wright. "With this process streamlined, we now can pre-configure every sales order efficiently, online."

The Result

Today, the Exactium Selling System enables Timberjack's global order management department to support sales on a global level, as well as customize orders based on unique, local business requirements. In accordance with T.W.I.N. project strategy, the new system establishes a seamless flow of accurate order information providing visibility for Timberjack's executives to make well-informed decisions. According to Wright, "this ability to share and retrieve vital information across the global enterprise is the single biggest advantage of using the Exactium Selling System."

In three months, the Exactium Selling System was fully deployed in Timberjack's North American operations. To date, the Exactium solution has also been rolled out in Europe to meet global, customer demand.

"The scope of what T.W.I.N. is trying to accomplish on a global level is tremendous, so Exactium's expertise was critical for success," said Wright. "Implementing a sales configuration system in my opinion is a relatively easy task - it's the translation of the analyzed data, modeled into an easy-to-use business solution that separates Exactium from its competitors."

"Our customers pay a lot of money for forestry machinery and can't afford for the machinery to fail," Wright noted. "By ensuring that their products are configured correctly from the beginning of the sales cycle, the customer starts off on the right foot. This same information can then be accessed within the customer service component of the IFS solution to ensure customer satisfaction."

Moving into the future, Timberjack's global vision incorporates selling its forestry equipment over the Web. "With a solid selling foundation already established and proven, I am confident that Exactium will enable Timberjack to succeed in selling over the Internet," concluded Wright.

About Timberjack Group

Timberjack Group is the world's leading manufacturer of purpose-built forest machines. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Timberjack has manufactured forest machines since 1947. Timberjack forest machines are currently operating in over 80 countries throughout the world. North America and Europe are the largest market areas, and Timberjack also has an increasingly strong presence in Southeast Asia, South America and Russia. Timberjack Group is part of the machinery business of Metso Corporation and is considered the leading forest machine manufacturer in the world. Metso's other businesses are fiber and paper technology and automation and control technology. In 1998, the net sales of Metso Corporation amounted to $3.15 billion with 23,000 employees. Metso Corporation is quoted in the Helsinki and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit the Web site at www.timberjack.com.

About Exactium, Inc.

Exactium, Inc. is a leading provider of interactive selling systems enabling companies to increase revenue and profitability. At the core of Exactium's flagship product - the Exactium Selling System - is powerful, leading-edge configuration technology that delivers best-of-breed product and service configuration, proposal generation and quote management. Exactium utilizes the optimum combination of scalability, integration, and ease-of-use to deliver a solution that is quick to deploy, easy to maintain, and flexible enough to grow from personalized face-to-face selling to guided selling over the Internet. By helping organizations improve the selling process of increasingly complex products and services, Exactium enables clients to benefit from shorter sales cycles, faster sales growth, increased profitability and higher customer satisfaction. For more information, call 404.705.9444 (888.705.9445 toll-free) or visit the Web site at www.exactium.com.