CDW Offers Personal Account Managers

CDW has always been ahead of the curve.

A traditional mail order company specializing in high-tech products, CDW started a Web site in 1995 and two years later offered online ordering. And it has since developed a multi-channel approach to serve its technically savvy customers.

“The Internet was very efficient for purchasing and procurement,” says Kurt Baldassari, director of e-commerce. “But we know that customers like to work with us on the phone and the Web, so we built a system that leveraged both of those channels.”

That system is based on personalized extranets that serve as a 24-hour extension of the person’s account manager. Through them, the customer can determine pricing, order status, account history and more.

Here’s how it works.

CDW has 2,000 account managers. These experts not only sell, they advise customers in areas like bandwidth, telephony, storage, security, power, network design and software licensing.

When a customer calls to make a purchase, their account manager prompts them to open an extranet account. And in many cases, the manager walks the person through the set-up steps.

Once signed up, customers can log onto their extranet through CDW.com and track both their orders and their account manager.

The extranet is tied to the company swiping system so customers can see immediately if their account manager is available or not. “When an account manager swipes in or out of work, the Web site reflects that information,” Baldassari says. “It’s a simple thing, but it leverages the Web well.” Customers can also trace their purchases via two additional tools.

One is the software license tracker, which allows customer purchase information to be logged in and exported into Excel. “Software licenses for businesses have become very cumbersome, to know what was purchased and have those serial numbers available” says Baldassari. “So we built the software license tool to help them keep track.” The other tool is a purchase finance center. Customers can log on and see all accounts payable—what has been paid and what is due on all CDW purchases. These capabilities are especially useful for large companies with multiple subsidiaries and offices nationwide, explains Baldassari. “It has great functionality for larger businesses because managers can have control over what is being purchased.“ To date, CDW has more than 100,000 active extranets. “Our best customers are the multi-channel customers,” Baldassari continues. “A significant amount of revenue comes from those who use the phone and the Web. Our numbers show that it works and it’s a successful program.” Baldassari feels that the dedicated account managers and a customer’s ability to use tools on the CDW extranet foster better customer relations and loyalty to CDW. The numbers seem to back him up. CDW Web site sales totaled over $1.5 billion in 2004, representing 27% of CDW’s total sales. The bulk of that business was conducted online by customers ordering over the extranet. And help is available. CDW has enabled live chat capabilities and an e-support team that helps customers work through technical and functionality problems. Account managers must complete a seven-week training program. But it’s worth their while—Baldassari made sure that they are compensated equally whether the customer calls over the phone or used the Web site for purchases. “In some companies they spin off the Web as a separate business,” he explains. “But at CDW we integrated the Web into our business. You could have conflict between those channels if you didn’t. So account managers don’t push or force customers. Instead, they help customers set up their extranets.”