Project Spotlight – Link-Belt Excavators

Link-Belt Excavators

Due to Coastal Cloud's experience with other manufacturing clients in the the dealer/ distributor model, LBX selected to work with Coastal Cloud to digitally transform their high-touch, disconnected system.

CLIENT NAME

Link-Belt Excavators

INDUSTRY

Manufacturing

PROJECT LENGTH

Over 2 Years

TEAM SIZE

TECHNOLOGIES

The Link-Belt brand name dates back to 1874 and is synonymous with innovative designs that incorporate the highest quality and best product support in the industry. Formerly a division of the Link-Belt Construction Equipment Company, LBX Company became a stand-alone company in 1998 representing the Link-Belt excavator, forestry, and material handling equipment lines.

Why Now

Multiple inefficiencies in the Lead to Order process required manual intervention, in turn, this drove friction into the Dealer purchasing process by lengthening deal cycles. There was no single “Source of Truth'' that aggregated Whole Goods ordering, Parts ordering and Service Request information across the enterprise making it difficult for Dealers and internal LBX resources to get a holistic view of all Dealer and Customer sales and service activities. This fragmented Dealer experience put LBX at a competitive disadvantage and drove friction into the Sales and Service experiences. Disjointed systems meant that driving analytics used for making data driven business decisions was costly, time consuming, inefficient and difficult.

The Project

Coastal Cloud's experts completed a deep-dive review of LBX's processes around Dealer acquisition and onboarding, Account Management, Lead acquisition, Sales and Service processes as well as the Dealer Online experience. A strategic roadmap was recommended which took the form of a phased implementation approach. The design outlined a Multi-Cloud Salesforce based solution coupled with best practices to drive efficiencies into the Account Management, Lead acquisition, Sales and Service process and revamp the Dealer online experience at the same time. Today, dealer engagement has been enhanced by providing a rules-based platform that drives simplicity and accuracy into the product Ordering process. Aftermarket Parts, Machine Whole Goods orders and post-sales Service activities are being converge on to a single Salesforce platform enabling a comprehensive “single source of Truth” system of engagement for Dealer activities. Consolidated CRM, Sales and Service data will enable business leaders to quickly and easily access analytics to drive decision making across multiple segments of the business.

The Moment of Trust

LBX maintained a relationship with one of Coastal Cloud's previous manufacturing clients. A similar digital transformation project had been undertaken for them and resulted in efficiency gains along with cost savings across the same business segments as LBX was looking to optimize. This provided an immediate foundation for a mutual connection and trust. The results from the deep dive analysis and recommendations resonated with LBX Senior Leadership further demonstrating that Coastal Cloud was the right partner to engage in this digital transformation effort.

The Red Moment

LBX and Coastal Cloud have built a true partnership. Navigating the natural challenges of "change" that come with a digital transformation such as this, brought both parties even closer together. Both teams learned that it is vital to not only communicate with the IT department, but the business teams as well. It is essential that every stakeholder is on the same page to execute a successful implementation.