Whirlpool Corporation, an $8 billion global manufacturer of a wide array of consumer products, was looking to enhance its operational efficiencies by implementing SAP R/3, but had additional complex front office requirements, such as pricing, promotion, analysis and planning processes, that were not supported by SAP. Recognizing that integration of a third party front office solution into the SAP system would be a challenging undertaking, Whirlpool chose Waterstone Consulting to ensure it went off without a hitch.
Executive Summary

Business Strategy

With client-proven expertise in developing and implementing complex solutions within the manufacturing industry, Waterstone Consulting was the right choice for this crucial phase of the Whirlpool project.

"Waterstone Consulting is established as the premier integrator for complex front office systems. We chose them for their proven experience with the front office solutions Whirlpool is implementing and their expertise in the integration of third party products, such as Trilogy, with SAP," said Bill Hester, Senior Project Manager, Whirlpool Corporation.

Working closely with Whirlpool, the Waterstone team helped to define the key project objectives and implement the solutions that would deliver the biggest gains in profitability and productivity:

• Enhanced abilities in pricing, promotion and analysis of product lines
• Improved reaction time to marketplace changes
• Better market strategy planning capabilities

Technology Strategy

To translate these objectives into tangible business capabilities, Whirlpool selected the Trilogy Selling Chain suite of products as the foundation for complex pricing, promotion, analysis, and planning processes, relying on Waterstone Consulting to complete needed customization and enhancements to the software in order to meet the company's specific needs.

Waterstone teamed with Trilogy developers and Whirlpool IT members to custom develop and implement a set of modules, tightly integrated with Trilogy Selling Chain products, which enables Whirlpool to manipulate complex pricing scenarios and marketing promotions, and conduct marketing strategy analysis using custom developed analysis tools. These tools provide the flexibility to select and manipulate analysis parameters, and allow users to view immediate feedback of the financial impacts of their pricing and promotion strategies.

The development of the system followed an object-oriented approach, stressing code reusability, which resulted in shortened development cycles. Trilogy's SCBackbone product and the Enterprise edition of VB 5.0 provided a strong technology foundation for the development of these modules.

To ensure seamless interfacing between the Trilogy Selling Chain products and SAP, Waterstone worked closely with Whirlpool to support the development of a SAP/Trilogy bridge.

Project Approach

"Waterstone Consulting works extremely well with the Whirlpool IT group. They approach each project as a part of the Whirlpool team," said Bill Hester. "This 'hands-on' approach to working with both the functional and technical groups from Whirlpool results in successful and expedient solutions that provide immediate impact to Whirlpool."

Project Success

Implementation of these advanced front office solutions allows Whirlpool to more aggressively compete in the dynamic and mature consumer goods marketplace. Whirlpool can react faster to market changes and can deliver more effective and profitable marketing promotions to its valued customers.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Industry:	Benefit:
Manufacturing	Improved pricing capabilities, complex analysis, marketing, and planning.
Solution:	Technology:
Advanced Front Office: Pricing, Promotion, Analysis, and Planning	SAP R/3 Trilogy Selling Chain Product Suite Crossworlds Processware Oracle VB5.0 (Enterprise Version)