Iveco’s vehicle portal initiative goes global

Iveco, the industrial vehicles arm of Fiat, says its web-based vehicle ordering system – now live in Spain, Germany and Italy, and due for roll-out to the rest of Europe, the UK and Scandinavia in the next 18 months – is meeting all expectations. The system is based on SAP for Automotive, and in particular the extensions of R/3 that deliver portal-based product configuration, order management, business intelligence (BI) and materials management, as well as integration with Iveco’s legacy engineering development and supply chain web systems. Since going live14 months ago initially in Italy, and then this year in Spain and Germany, Iveco says it’s slashed its world-wide financial closing cycle to one week and cut purchase-order errors by more than 50%. That’s on sales of more than 150,000 commercial vehicles and 400,000 diesel engines per year. The system will eventually unify a global business network spanning 23 production sites, 250 dealers and more than 5,000 suppliers. “Our portal solution is a first in the automotive sector; it puts the vehicle at the centre of our ordering processes, the customer in the driver’s seat and our revenue cycle in the fast lane,” says Mario Leone, CIO and senior vice president, Iveco. “With the end-to-end SAP system, we have greatly improved the way we serve our global dealer network while achieving faster financial reporting and fewer purchase order errors. [The systems] are helping us reduce complexity across our global operations and will continue to be key enablers of business change and profitable growth.” At the heart of the system is SAP’s vehicle configuration portal, which enables dealers, importers and distributors to custom-build and order validated and buildable vehicles online, despite its massive variety. That sets in motion end-to-end processes that ripple back through Iveco’s internal and external supply chains, but also its engineering, product and business development, financials, materials procurement and so on. All get visibility into the vehicle pipeline that helps reduce sales costs, maximise engineering output, optimise warehouse stock and improve delivery times. To enable further enhancements in customer service, the company is also building on its dealer portal by deploying applications from mySAP CRM including SAP Interaction Centre and SAP Warranty Management.