End-to-End Commercial Process Automation in Manufacturing and Distribution

We transformed a standard CRM into a custom commercial operations platform that manages the supplier, dealer, and customer relations end-to-end for a large-scale industrial enterprise operating in the manufacturing and distribution sector in Turkey.

Customer Profile

A large-scale manufacturing and distribution company engaged in domestic and international (export/import) trade, working with numerous suppliers and dealers/customers. We are keeping the institution’s identity confidential in this article; through an uninterrupted technology partnership since 2018, we have been continuously co-developing the CRM infrastructure that forms the backbone of their commercial operations.

The Challenge

The institution runs a multi-dimensional commercial operation that a standard CRM cannot meet out-of-the-box:

1. Separate commercial condition and approval processes need to be managed for domestic sales, exports, and imports.
2. Supplier performance, targets, and conditions must be regularly monitored and reported.
3. The financial status of business partners (balance sheet, capital structure, official trade registry records) must be continuously evaluated, and relevant teams must be warned when risks arise.
4. Operational issues such as missing/excess deliveries and damaged products need to be tracked end-to-end.
5. Department- and process-based authorization/access rules, which differ and change frequently, must be managed centrally and consistently.

A standard CRM meets none of these requirements out-of-the-box.

The Solution

Without altering the CRM’s core, we built a completely custom commercial operations platform for the institution:

• Multi-dimensional commercial condition management: Commercial conditions are defined with separate workflows for domestic sales, exports, and imports, go through approval processes, and are automatically linked to relevant accounts.
• Supplier relations and performance tracking: Supplier targets, conditions, and performance are regularly monitored; automatic notifications go to relevant teams when there are deviations.
• Financial risk monitoring: Financial analysis, capital structure, and official trade registry information of business partners are kept within the CRM; when a negative financial situation is detected, an automatic warning email is sent to relevant teams.
• Operational quality tracking: Missing/excess delivery and damaged product notifications are recorded end-to-end and automatically tracked until resolved.
• Centralized, area-based authorization: Access rules defined separately for each business area such as commercial conditions, exports, warehouse management, and procurement are automatically updated daily.
• Task and request lifecycle notifications: Automatic reminder and notification emails are sent to relevant individuals at every stage of request, task, and approval processes.
• Customer satisfaction and competitor analysis: Regular customer surveys and competitor information are systematically collected and reported within the CRM.
• Self-managing operation: Over 75 automation scripts; an infrastructure was established that continuously monitors database performance, session deadlocks, and disk usage, and autonomously executes regular backup and maintenance tasks.

Results and Gains

• A standard CRM was transformed into a completely custom commercial operations platform for the institution without touching its core.
• All processes, from commercial condition approvals to supplier tracking, financial risk monitoring to quality tracking, became manageable end-to-end on a single platform.
• Department-based authorization rules are kept up-to-date centrally and automatically; the need for manual access management was largely eliminated.
• The system monitors and manages database and infrastructure issues on its own without waiting for human intervention.
• Through a continuous technology partnership since 2018, it is a living platform that forms the backbone of the institution’s daily commercial operations, constantly growing with thousands of customization files, over 80 customized modules, and 75+ automation scripts.