In today's Amazon world, a digital sales channel and the digitisation of customer service are no longer optional. Even if the development in B2B is not as advanced as in consumer business, corporate customers now expect to be able to process joint transactions digitally and integrate common business processes. After a few test-runs in cooperation with a third party, Outokumpu has been running its own online portal since 2023 - with increasing success.
Outokumpu Connect brings eSales and eServices to one platform
Our vision for Outokumpu Connect is simple," says Dennis Pieper, Head of Digital Sales Activities at Outokumpu Europe. “We want to provide our customers with a platform that enables them to conduct their daily business with Outokumpu digitally and easily”.
The customers in this case are companies in various end-user industries, such as automotive, consumer goods, construction, heating or cooling, as well as metalworking companies, pipe manufacturers and distributors.
'We realised in autumn 2021 that we couldn't expand our web shop with a third party', Dennis Pieper continues. “Each service centre had its own online shop, so customers couldn't see what the rest of the network had to offer. We also didn't want to overload customers. Another challenge was that we had little scope to digitally map our internal processes”. It was clear that we would need an alternative solution. The exciting journey started at the end of 2021. It took a year to agree on the IT architecture, select the best technology and bring on board an implementation partner. As a result, the online Portal ‘Outokumpu Connect’ went live with version 1.0 in January 2023.
"Since then, we have integrated all our European flat steel service centres, our German plants in Krefeld and Dillenburg and our Swedish plant in Avesta into Outokumpu Connect," says Simon Hoffmann, Head of E-Commerce. “We plan to integrate our largest plant in Tornio, Finland, and our Dutch plant in Terneuzen in 2025.”
With Outokumpu Connect, we are not only offering a digital solution to our contract customers, but we are also pleased to see that our spot functionality is proving particularly popular. Customers can now view all our available 1st choice stock at our various locations around the clock - including a price and delivery date information. If sheets or slit strips are not in stock in the required length or width, a cutting or slitting order can be placed with just a few clicks. What is particularly pleasing is that we are seeing more and more 'outside the box' sales, i.e. customers placing orders with service centres they have never bought from before. In 2025, we want to further expand our spot offering. One of the cornerstones is to integrate the heat-resistant grades of our Therma product family from our Dillenburg mill into Outokumpu Connect. In addition, we are of course constantly thinking about how to make smart supply chain concepts available online.
“But our contract customers certainly won't miss out either,” adds Dennis Pieper. “In Outokumpu Connect, customers can view the key data of their contracts with Outokumpu and order the contractually agreed products. If it is part of the contract, they can view their call-off stock at any time and order the delivery of packages with just a few clicks.”
“This is one side of the coin - order processing," continues Simon Hoffmann. “The other side, where we want to add value for our customers, is customer service.”
This means that once the order has been placed, the customer can track the status of the order, the delivery and also the subsequent invoice. This is not only limited to orders placed online, but also to all orders placed 'offline'. This means that even customers who are not yet so keen on online sales can benefit. As far as the availability of relevant documents is concerned, we have already integrated the majority of invoices and delivery notes and will continue to fill in the gaps in Q1 - especially with regard to certificates.
Last, but not least, language should not be underestimated. We offer Outokumpu Connect in 5 different system languages, namely English, German, Italian, French and Polish. This means that more than 90% of our users can communicate with us in their mother tongue.
As the world leader in sustainable stainless steel, we are also committed to sustainability. In Outokumpu Connect, we show the carbon footprint of each product listed, and soon we will also be selling our low-emission Circle Green products through Outokumpu Connect.
'We haven't talked about one important aspect yet,' says Dennis Pieper. The joint integration of business processes will continue to grow in strategic importance. At some point, artificial intelligence will help us network supply chains. But we are not yet at the point where the customer's and supplier's AI agents are working together. We need to provide each customer with the right interface or integration technology. This may be a direct connection to our Outokumpu Connect interface, via EDI or API, or via another technology such as OCI punchout. We are testing different approaches, but will ultimately require various tools as customers have different needs.
Overall, we are very pleased with the progress we have made since the launch of Outokumpu Connect. But of course a change in processes like this takes time and has its limits. We will never go completely online, as some businesses require a lot of explanation and advice, and there are also customers for whom a more personal service is important. However, it is also clear that our online sales channels will play an increasingly important role for us in the future. Since the launch, we have seen a significant increase in the number of active users and orders placed online. Most importantly, our customers seem to be very happy with our portal. We conducted a customer satisfaction survey in February 2024, and the results were unexpected - especially how positively our customers rate Outokumpu Connect compared to our competitors' online offerings. A more recent survey points in the same direction. Since the end of June, our online shoppers have rated their user experience at 4.3 out of a possible 5.0 points. These interim results make us proud, but also spur us on, as we still have a lot of work to do.
“Of course, we wouldn't want to end this interview without inviting all our readers to visit us online,” concludes Simon Hoffmann.
You can use the link https://connect.outokumpu.com not only to send us a registration request, but also to get in touch with us in general. We are always interested in direct dialogue and look forward to hearing from you!