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Customer stories

Manutan logoManutan

European B2B retailer provides exceptional customer communications globally with OpenText Communications (Exstream)

Manutan logo

About Manutan

Manutan is a French, family-run, major European B2B retailer that has been a partner to enterprises, local authorities, and traders for nearly 60 years.
  • Founded:
    1966
  • Employees:
    2,200
  • Subsidiaries:
    27

Summary

Challenges

  • Delivering high-quality customer experiences in 12 languages and 17 countries.
  • Updating orders in compliance with local regulations. 
  • Collaborating with 3,000 suppliers to address seasonal demands.

Solution

  • Deployed a new customer communications platform to enable omnichannel customer experiences at scale.
  • Combined central control with support for local customization.

Results

  • Nurtured loyalty with personalized communications
  • Maximized sales opportunities during retail peaks
  • Improved sustainability by cutting down on paper

Challenges

  • Communicate effectively with customers in 17 countries and 12 languages
  • Deliver accurate order updates in compliance with local rules and regulations
  • Collaborate effectively with 3,000 suppliers to address seasonal variation in market demand

Manutan specializes in the distribution of equipment and supplies across Europe. Its hybrid business model combines the strengths of digital and human-centric approaches, employing both e-commerce platforms and a robust sales force. Manutan helps clients achieve purchasing optimization strategies that are both sustainable and ethical.

Michael Sarrasin, OpenText™ Communications (Exstream) product owner at Manutan, said, “For years, Manutan has stayed one step ahead of market trends to shape a compelling product and service offering. Today, our goal is to deliver a consistently excellent end-to-end experience on every channel.”

From quote through to confirmation, dispatch, and invoicing, Manutan strives to keep its customers informed about the status of their orders every step of the way. As its business grew, the company saw an opportunity to standardize its approach to customer communications—helping to ensure crisp, clear engagement with customers in 12 different languages across 17 countries.

“We looked for a way to bring all our businesses together on a single, central, communications platform that offered the flexibility to address local rules and regulations,” said Michael Sarrasin. “In parallel, we also wanted to ensure that we could collaborate well with our 3,000 suppliers. Effective B2B communication is crucial to orchestrate our supply chain and to deliver to the customer on time—particularly during peak retail periods.”

Manutan group testimonial 1

Through our work with OpenText, we’ve achieved our goal of combining a slick digital channel with personalized, employee-led customer service. From the moment a customer engages with us through any of our channels, they are kept in the loop on every step of the order cycle.

Michael Sarrasin
OpenText Communications Product Owner, Manutan

Solution

For more than a decade, Manutan has relied on OpenText Communications to deliver personalized, consistent communications with customers and suppliers—helping it to grow its international businesses.

Products deployed

Services provided

  • OpenText™ Professional Services

    Leverage a team of certified OpenText consultants with more than 25 years of experience with the highest level of Information Management services

Enabling omnichannel customer experiences at scale

Manutan’s relationship with OpenText began more than 15 years ago, starting with the deployment of OpenText Communications as the company’s centralized customer communications platform. Building on its many years of success with the solution, and with the guidance of OpenText Professional Services, Manutan has since augmented its capabilities, enabling it to orchestrate omnichannel customer experiences at scale.

“Since we first started working with OpenText, our business has grown dramatically,” commented Michael Sarrasin. “As our company has grown, so have our digital channels—today, around 65% of all orders come via our e-commerce site. OpenText has been supporting us throughout our journey, helping us to deliver tailored digital communications at scale.”

Combining central control with local customization

Working with OpenText, Manutan has integrated its customer communications platform with its Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP solution. The company now uses multi-language templates with seasonal themes to serve the needs of its international subsidiaries.

“We worked with each of our subsidiaries to adapt our communications to the unique characteristics of their region,” said Michael Sarrasin. “By taking advantage of the flexibility of the OpenText solution, we were able to include a high level of customization without compromising on quality or consistency. For example, we position postal addresses in accordance with local laws and customs—a document for a customer in the UK is formatted differently to a customer in Portugal. In total, we have 107 different themes, including winter and summer promotions for products traditionally in demand at those times of the year.”

Michael Sarrasin added, “[OpenText Communications] empowers us to connect customers and employees with the information they need—for example, updates on purchase orders, delivery notes, credit requests, and order statuses. Using [OpenText Core Messaging (Notifications)], we provide invoices to customers in their preferred format and language. With the built-in traceability feature, we can keep track of when emails are delivered, opened, and downloaded. In the future, we plan to add more channels, such as WhatsApp and mobile push notifications.”

Manutan group testimonial 2 image

[OpenText Communications] is the ideal communications platform for a dynamic, fast-growing company like Manutan. Our OpenText solutions are helping to bring us closer to our customers.

Michael Sarrasin
OpenText Communications Product Owner, Manutan

Results

Thanks to its partnership with OpenText, Manutan is shaping frictionless experiences through every step of the buyer journey—helping it to build closer relationships with its customers.

Nurturing loyalty with personalized communications

With consistent, timely communications, Manutan is developing deeper connections with its customers. Michael Sarrasin elaborated, “Through our work with OpenText, we’ve achieved our goal of combining a slick digital channel with personalized, employee-led customer service. From the moment a customer engages with us through any of our channels, they are kept in the loop on every step of the order cycle.”

By customizing its communications to the requirements of each region, Manutan improves the customer experience without sacrificing efficiency.

“[OpenText Communications] is the ideal communications platform for a dynamic, fast-growing company like Manutan,” commented Michael Sarrasin. “Our OpenText solutions are helping to bring us closer to our customers. We have 3,000 templates so far, and we know we can very quickly and easily create more—helping us keep pace with evolving customer expectations.”

Maximizing sales opportunities during retail peaks

Manutan is using OpenText solutions to drive better communications with suppliers, too. As a result, the retailer can optimize its supply chains, helping to maximize sales opportunities during periods of peak demand and provide fast deliveries.

“We work with approximately 3,000 suppliers,” said Michael Sarrasin. “Some suppliers dropship products directly to our customers, and in other cases we handle the fulfilment process from our own warehouses. In both cases, we use OpenText to exchange data with our trading partners, promoting transparency and traceability throughout our supply chain and allowing us to share accurate status updates with our customers.”

Improving sustainability by cutting down on paper

With OpenText Communications and OpenText Core Messaging, Manutan is also cutting down its use of paper, helping to shrink the company carbon footprint. With such a large and fast-growing customer base, sustainability gains quickly add up.

Michael Sarrasin concluded, “Our customers trust us to provide the products and services that make their business run quickly, reliably, and sustainability—and our commitment to environmental sustainability is part of that promise to customers. OpenText is supporting us on our business growth journey, helping us to leverage technology to strengthen our market leadership.”

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