Mevaco GmbH increases sales productivity through digitized processes from the cloud

MEVACO GmbH was formed in 1997 from a merger of two companies to become the largest perforated metal manufacturer in Europe. "We are a manufacturing company," says E-Commerce Manager Achim Ahrens, “but automated and digitized processes are at the core of our company."

MEVACO handles inquiries from approximately 20,000 existing customers – exclusively traders from the metal and construction industry, or wholesalers – currently 60 to 80 percent directly via the online shop.

Locations in Europe

Existing Customers

Revenue in fiscal year 2023

Challenge

  • Desire to move from analog to a cloud-based communications solution to maximize online shop and improved external communications.
  • Sales processes were not integrated with Salesforce CRM Solution which impacted response times between sales and customers.
  • Decentralized communications impacting costs for maintenance and onboarding.

Value Created

  • Centralized telephone system for all locations
  • Sales processes integrated into SalesforceCRM
  • Administration simplified
  • Reliability maximized
  • Virtual exchange of telephony agents with local bottlenecks facilitated

New customers can also register online too, request prices and delivery dates or create an individual product with the MEVACO-owned "Configurator and Designer" and place an order immediately. Another distinctive feature, "Our sales department does not work in the field and does not carry out any proactive prospecting," says Ahrens. Rather, the 60 sales employees receive in-depth technical questions or more complex order configurations by phone or email from the customer at the current ten locations, scattered across seven European countries. However, the previous telephone system in use until 2021 was technologically outdated and inflexible, as well as cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive in terms of upkeep and maintenance due to its decentralized corporate structure.

Most important requirement: integration of cloud telephony with the online shop


MEVACO decided they wanted switch from in-house hardware to a central, cloud-based telephony solution from a single vendor in order to simplify support and administration. Special focus on: the new telephony platform should be directly connected to the backend of the online shop (based on the cloud-based Salesforce® CRM solution since 2018) so it can also automate and optimize the sales processes. “Connectivity with the Salesforce CRM solution was the most important requirement. A provider unable to provide an appropriate interface here was out of the question for us," says Ahrens, E-Commerce Manager.

Worker in factory

With its RingCentral integration, Avaya wholeheartedly convinced MEVACO on this particular point in the tender phase. After thorough planning of porting the phone number, Avaya Cloud Office was therefore made available to users at MEVACO in 2021 without major time and effort needed for training. “The introduction of the telephone system went smoothly, without disruption, but the initial facility was only the foundation. In the following three years, Avaya Cloud Office was increasingly integrated into the MEVACO system landscape as an IT-driven company,” continues Achim Ahrens.

Today, it is not only the processes in the automated online shop – for example, order acceptance and quote creation – that run in a matter of minutes through the various IT systems, such as in production, or through the seamlessly integrated ERP system for invoicing or warehouse logistics. The entire sales department can also use the RingCentral integration of Avaya Cloud Office with the backend of the Salesforce CRM solution directly from there via softphone. All contacts, orders or offers are available, incoming calls are immediately identified and the corresponding customer data is displayed.

“Connectivity with the Salesforce CRM solution was the most important requirement. A provider unable to provide an appropriate interface here was out of the question for us.”

—Achim Ahrens, E-Commerce Manager, MEVACO GmbH

Workers in factory

Avaya Cloud Office fully integrates

"Sales staff can get into the conversation with the customers so quickly and efficiently" – a considerable advantage for E-Commerce manager Ahrens, since construction companies or metal processing companies are often under enormous time pressures. "And we were also able to significantly reduce the response times for support and maintenance with Avaya Cloud Office."

MEVACO also benefits from other performance features of cloud communications. For example, country-specific or location-specific opening and closing times were stored in the respective languages and regional holidays were also mapped. MEVACO administers these and other announcements on its own, and new users can easily be created or deleted. A further plus is employees from trilingual Switzerland can simply become virtually “loaned out” to support sites in Germany, France or Italy in the event of illness or vacation.

Day-to-day business optimally supported

Avaya Cloud Office is also synchronized with the Office applications of Microsoft® 365 via Active Directory integration, which, for example, also runs the mail server. Employees who work in one software are therefore automatically marked as employed in the other systems. Last but not least, Avaya also connected production employees at all locations via DECT and they are now available at any time and anywhere on company premises.

Customer service employee
“With around 150 premium licenses for Avaya Cloud Office, we are now seamlessly covering all of our external telephony – the 60 PowerUsers in sales via Salesforce CRM integration and the remaining 100 employees using normal connections” notes Ahrens. This allows Ahrens to balance the accounts with satisfaction.

"In many cases, Avaya's support has provided good solutions for our requirements, so that Avaya Cloud Office supports our day-to-day business optimally and with maximum reliability."

“In many cases, Avaya's support has provided good solutions for our requirements, so that Avaya Cloud Office provides optimal support for our day-to-day business.”

—Achim Ahrens, E-Commerce Manager, MEVACO GmbH

Additional information

About MEVACO

MEVACO GmbH is one of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of perforated plates, metal stretches, shaft grids and welding grids in Europe. The company arose from the merger of the companies Seidl + Mayer and Sorst in 1997 and is now part of the RMIG Group. With around 160 employees at ten locations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Hungary and Poland, as well as partners in Scandinavia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the Baltic region, MEVACO has more than 20,000 customers and generated around 80 million euros in sales in the 2023 fiscal year. The product range includes off-the-shelf products as well as individually configurable products and is regularly expanded.

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