Blaupunkt: Solution

Creating a full-service business-to-business e-Commerce Web site is one thing; linking that site into an existing ERP application is another. What's more, the new site had to integrate smoothly with the Bosch* Integrated Retail and Distribution System (BIRDS), maintained by Blaupunkt's parent company. Blaupunkt needed a robust, reliable and highly flexible e-Commerce solution to meet the many demands set before it.

After a rigorous search, Blaupunkt teamed with Intershop, a leading provider of sell-side e-Commerce software. The company, with offices in United States, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Sweden, Finland, China and the UK, counts among its customers many of the world�s largest telecommunications companies and commerce service providers.

Blaupunkt worked with Intershop to tailor the comprehensive Enfinity* e-Commerce suite to its needs. One of the things that intrigued the company was the fact that Intershop's solutions run on Intel® Pentium® III Xeon" processor-based servers and Microsoft* Windows NT* and Windows* 2000 operating systems. The use of open platforms and industry-standard technologies helped Blaupunkt tie solutions into its existing back-end systems. That capability was critical, as Blaupunkt relied on links to its SAP R/3 ERP system to create process efficiencies and eliminate redundancies.

Success: By the Numbers
The result of the collaboration was the Blaupunkt Extr Web site. The site serves Blaupunkt retailers, enabling online order taking and distribution of information. Success came quickly. In the first year of operation, the Extr site logged more than 12,000 orders and accounted for nearly 30 percent of monthly sales revenue at Blaupunkt. By July 2000, the site was recording nearly 7,000 logins and 3,000 online orders each month.

Amazingly, Blaupunkt was able to support this rapidly growing online channel without significant expenditures in equipment or co-location costs. Using readily available Intel®-based servers, Blaupunkt hosts its Extr site internally to ease management and save co-location fees. The Enfinty back-end catalog software runs on a Compaq* ProLiant* 8500 R dual-processor server outfitted with a pair of Pentium III Xeon processors and 512MB of RAM. Front-end duties are handled by a single Pentium® Pro processor-based server. The networked servers reach the Internet via Blaupunkt's 32Mbps leased line, which hauls the majority of the firm's Internet traffic.