CompuCom Offers Superior Purchasing Experience with CNET Channel DataSource™

Founded in 1987, CompuCom Systems, Inc. is one of the largest U.S. support providers for multiple vendors' technology products. Fortune 1000 enterprises, high-growth companies, vertical market leaders, major technology equipment manufacturers, leading-edge system integrators, and wireless technology providers depend on CompuCom to help them minimize risks, reduce costs, and increase profit potential. To these loyal customers, CompuCom stands out in the crowded services market thanks to targeted product acquisition and deployment capabilities.

In 2000, CompuCom recognized that its competitive advantage increasingly depended on providing rich product content on its own Web site that would supersede the competition. Content on par with product manufacturers' would help show prospective customers the breadth and depth of CompuCom's product acquisition and support capabilities.

"In effect, offering rich data would raise the bar for our competitors and level the playing field with product vendors, creating opportunities for CompuCom to distinguish itself on the basis of an exhaustive purchasing and support offering," says Jim Winters, director of information technology, CompuCom.

Rich content helps showcase depth, breadth of capabilities online

The prospect of mining and aggregating extensive product content promised to be a tremendous burden, requiring significant time and resources to collect and organize data on thousands of software and hardware products. CompuCom staff attempted to cull information from vendor Web sites, but the process was extremely labor-intensive, and incorporating images and other rich content was simply out of the question.

By 2000, it was very clear to CompuCom that customers increasingly sought information online, bypassing resources such as call center sales agents who could supplement online product descriptions with greater detail and insight. More important, because the company's growth strategy depends on quality of service, CompuCom needed a turnkey solution to ensure that customers would find its content consistent with data from the hardware and software manufacturers.

"Collecting and standardizing content by ourselves just wasn't an option," says Winters. "But we couldn't afford to risk our business to something as fundamental as a search for comparable product information."

CompuCom recognized the difficulty of making certain staff had not inadvertently interpreted product data and created inconsistencies, not to mention the challenge of ensuring thousands of entries were accurate. According to Winters, CNET Channel's DataSource™ was "the obvious choice" to manage CompuCom's extensive product portfolio, deliver search results showcasing the company's broad offerings, and encourage prospective clients to base their selection on CompuCom's value-added services.

Working with CNET Channel, CompuCom deployed a fully automated product catalog that incorporates a daily update of all content maintained by DataSource, as well as additional data for specific stock-keeping units (SKUs)-in a matter of weeks. The DataSource service delivers detailed product information and images to CompuCom's back-end database, along with a categorization structure for online display. A real-time connection between this back-end system and CompuCom's public Web site presents customers with current information as soon as it is available. DataSource's capacity to provide information categorized by United Nations Standard Product and Services Code (UNSPSC) helps CompuCom comply with several customers' specific data requirements, as well.

Winters says, "No other solution comes close to the depth of content, the categorization or the support provided by DataSource. Our customers and prospects quickly find product information that's crucial to making informed decisions and choosing a services vendor."

Partnering to improve efficiency and increase customer satisfaction

Winters cites greater efficiency among the advantages of partnering with CNET Channel and deploying the DataSource solution. Support resources including effective training and a comprehensive extranet site afford a measure of self-service that allows CompuCom staff to resolve issues independently-so that Winters' lean IT team can focus on other tasks. "I don't have to dedicate an IT resource to internal support issues because CNET Channel provides a very rich self-service environment for our business users-my customers-to support themselves," he says.

Greater customer satisfaction is another concrete result of the partnership. Put simply, Winters says, "We help them set up their online purchasing to make product acquisition efficient and cost-effective, so the quality of product data is paramount to their satisfaction." With its customer relationships heavily dependent on superior data, Winters reports CompuCom receives customer praise regularly for the quality ofinformation the company provides.

While CompuCom turned to CNET Channel for consistently rich and robust product content, DataSource has proven invaluable to satisfying customers' unique data requirements. Specifically, the service's UNSPSC capabilities have enabled CompuCom to accommodate large customers with systems dependent on specific versions of UNSPSC or codes used for internal tracking purposes. As a result, CompuCom has deepened its relationships with these customers.

Looking ahead: integrating ERP for customers' unique requirements

CompuCom plans for the future include linking DataSource to its own ERP and back-end systems, to ensure consistent product descriptions are available to CompuCom staff. While data is easily accessed via the company's Web site, Winters says integration will consolidate the number of systems the staff must access, streamlining and simplifying their work.

About CompuCom

Founded in 1987 and profitable for all 17 years of operation, CompuCom has infrastructure experience, financial strength, industry talent, and proven methodologies to help clients minimize risks, reduce costs, and increase profit potential. As one of the largest multivendor support providers in the nation, CompuCom is well positioned and trusted by some of the most recognized names in the country, including Fortune 1000 enterprises, high-growth companies, vertical market leaders, major technology equipment manufacturers, leading-edge system integrators,and wireless technology providers. These companies rely on CompuCom for superior, unbiased IT services and systems integration.