HL DISPLAY

Growing Pains

The year was 1954. Harry Lundvall recognized that products in stores were poorly exposed, and the range of price tags was extremely limited. During a time when the trading shed developed into a supermarket, Harry took matters into his own hands. With the help of an iron, he started making label holders and equipment for product displays at home in his basement in Borlänge. This was the humble beginnings of HL Display, which today, 65 years later, has its products represented in 295,000 stores worldwide. With its headquarters in Nacka, just outside of Stockholm, HL Display sells into a variety of markets around the world from regional sales locations and partners.

In a growing international business like HL Displays, there have, of course, been challenges.

"We have a large network of customers all over the world, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a high frequency of contacts with our customers, and consequently, keeping them satisfied.,” said Magnus Rönn, Digital Transformation Manager at HL Display. " We also noticed an increased demand among customers to be able to order our products themselves at times that suited them, without having to speak to a physical person."

HL Display quickly saw that digitization was the best way to get closer to customers in an efficient way. A feasibility study was produced in February 2019, and an evaluation of system solutions and suppliers was conducted a month later in March.

New Sales Channels, Greater Customer Satisfaction

In the end, HL Display chose Gung. Today, the solution is used for two main purposes—partly to serve as a customer portal for the company's major customers, and partly to serve as an internal sales portal.

In the customer portal, the customer logs in to a personalized portal that only shows products and services relevant to them. This makes placing orders much easier and faster.

The sales portal is used by HL Display's own salespeople and, above all, during customer visits. Directly in the customer meeting, they can support customers with information about stock balances, present new products and, of course, also place orders on the fly.

“Our new sales channel has not only meant a higher level of service to customers, but also that our sales work and our internal administration have become more efficient," said Rönn. "The response from the customers has been very positive, and it is extremely gratifying that they perceive us as more professional and faster. "

Quickly Live With ERP-Centric B2B Sales Processes

The implementation of the Gung solution at HL Display was a smooth process, even though HL Display uses a customized version of its ERP system, Jeeves. Gung was easily set up using an integration based on standard procedures, and then simple adjustments were enough to make the systems work together.

"Even though B2B and B2C are starting to converge, there are still vital differences between the two, and Gung really takes that into account," explained Rönn. "Gung is a system that sees and takes into account the actual requirements of B2B sales processes. It is business-critical to be able to easily display and use data from complicated business systems, both for external and internal use.”

The implementation of the web order portal solution began in May and was completed in August.

The Digital Transformation Continues

"The fact that we succeeded is largely due to Gung working closely with us as a customer. The personal contact and their solution-oriented attitude is worth its weight in gold. Where others see problems, Gung sees solutions," said Rönn. "Our customers were impressed by how quickly we went from idea to finished solution and we have gained increased trust."

The customer portal has now been launched for a selection of major customers in France and the sales portal for all sellers in the Nordics. The plan going forward is to roll out the customer portal to additional major customers in other markets, and the internal sales portal to even more user markets. In addition, a more traditional web solution is to be developed for slightly smaller customers. When everything is ready, the goal is that all sellers, partners, and customers all have access.

But the digital journey does not end there, HL Display has further plans for the future to simplify and improve—both for itself and for its customers.

"The next step is to create a digital flow for the entire process—from order to delivery—which includes, for example, return portals and lead generation solutions. The team at Gung really understands business processes and therefore it becomes easy for them to make them web-based. We are really looking forward to our continued digital journey together," concluded Rönn.