Tech Data Builds Comprehensive Extranet for Resellers and Internal Sales Team with CNET Channel DataSource™

The DataSource™ solution from CNET Channel is an essential part of techdata.fr, the Tech Data France site for resellers; it has enabled the company to optimize its e-commerce resources while reducing overhead.

Tech Data France, a subsidiary of Tech Data Corporation, is the leading broadliner wholesaler distributor in France. Tech Data France, which was one of the very first French customers of CNET Channel, uses CNET's DataSource feed for the Extranet made available to resellers and its own sales teams. Thanks to detailed, modular and standardized product information provided through DataSource, the Tech Data Extranet provides user-friendly access to product search, grouping and comparison functions.

"When kicking off our e-commerce activities we had to acceptably present a product catalog containing upwards of 23,000 articles, and it was absolutely essential to have an efficient and sophisticated search engine", comments Serge Amsellem, Director Development & MarCom, Tech Data France. "DataSource was the one and only solution that could provide the structured and granular product information as well as product search and multiple criteria product comparison functions. These functions were essential to the development of our reseller site."

Before Tech Data France subscribed to the CNET Channel services, product datasheet creation and updates required human intervention. Each datasheet was manually scanned, converted to graphical format and published on the extranet. Using this method, product search and comparison were ineffecient or even impossible due to the inconsistencies in product descriptions, limited to maximum 30 characters, and their lack of accuracy. The results were ineffective and often irrelevant. The directors of Tech Data France rapidly came to the conclusion that the efficiency and profitability of their e-commerce activity required an automated and dynamic solution. The DataSource solution appeared to be indispensable, since the comprehensive service provided datasheet templates as well as dynamic enrichment and updating of electronic catalogs.

A differentiating factor against the competition

"Ever since we started using DataSource in our extranet, we have systematically obtained results clearly demonstrating that CNET Channel was the right way to go", declares Serge Amsellem. "Our e-commerce sales have increased significantly, from 5% to more than 35% over a period of three years. During that same period, we also noted a reduction in incoming and outgoing phone calls: the number of calls went from an average of 5.5 per order down to 3 calls today. This considerable savings in time has let Tech Data France sales teams concentrate more on the purely commercial aspects of their job instead of spending it hunting down product information."

Among the 5,000 to 6,000 Tech Data France customers active on a monthly basis, around 3,000 place orders online, and 2,000 connect to the extranet on a daily basis. In-house, the extranet provides the 120 sales representatives at Tech Data France with a single, comprehensive source of information: including product availability, price, technical characteristics, available options, etc.

DataSource, CNET Channel's dynamic electronic catalog enrichment and maintenance solution, helps major players in the computer industry build streamlined online platforms and reduce product information management expenditures. Thanks to detailed, modular and standardized product information, called Transactive Product DataT (TPDT), DataSource offers a wide variety of functions, such as data display and browsing, product search, comparison and configuration, as well the design of detailed, customized technical datasheets. The CNET Channel product information database contains more than 1.5 million articles from 5,000 IT manufacturers and software publishers; it is available in 40 markets and 12 languages.

"Access to CNET Channel datafeed is a differentiating factor with respect to our competitors. We are currently the only distributor in France able to offer resellers such sophisticated search and comparison functions", declares Serge Amsellem. For two years in a row, we have won the Computer Reseller News "Best French Reseller Extranet" award. We also received the "Best Ergonomics" award from France Telecom. This level of success was partially due to the services of CNET Channel."

About Tech Data France

Founded in 1984, Tech Data France is a subsidiary of Tech Data Corporation, the second-largest IT distributor in the world, and the largest networking distributor in the United States. Appearing on the Fortune 500 list of global companies, Tech Data Corporation, with headquarters in Florida (US), is present in the United States, Canada, Latin America, South America, the Caribbean and Europe (Germany and France). Tech Data France is the largest broadliner wholesaler in France. Positioned as a specialist in a variety of IT sectors, Tech Data France is divided into divisions depending upon the type of product distributed: Networking, Macintosh, Memory and Storage, Barebone systems, Software, Peripherals, Accessories and Consumables. This enables Tech Data France to carry more than 20 000 articles and-- what is more-- to keep up with them on a daily basis. For fiscal year 2001 (February 2001 to January 2002) the Tech Data Group sales topped $17.2 billion; it occupies the 117th rank in the prestigious Fortune 500 list of global companies.