March 25, 2002

eConnections tool speeds Sparton's RFQs
By Jenifer Baljko Shah
SILICON VALLEY

For many years Sparton Corp.'s system of choice for sending out requests for quotes (RFQs) was EDI. But with customers demanding quotes back quicker and more efficiently, the Jackson, Mich., midtier EMS provider last year began searching for a web-based tool that would offer better reporting capabilities, improve supplier tracking, and shorten quote turnaround time, said Stephanie Martin, vice president of corporate material acquisition and logistics.

Stephanie Martin, Sparton

The company opted for eConnections Inc.'s Quote Manager 2.0 solution. eConnections, Pasadena, Calif., today will formally release Quote Manager, an upgrade of its Quotility platform.

Quote Manager features include a real-time dashboard that allows users to monitor supplier quoting responses, analyze quote information, and manage by exception, said Steve Flagg, eConnections' director of strategic sourcing products.

"Previously, companies didn't have visibility into how suppliers were responding to an RFQ," Flagg said. "Now buyers can see if suppliers have picked up the RFQ and can track the progress."

Before selecting eConnections in December, Martin looked at tools from several other software vendors. The eConnections monitoring feature, the overall ease of use, and the smoother connectivity to the company's major distribution partners and critical component suppliers are what won Martin over.

"The old system we had didn't interface with [our partners'] systems," she said. "It was a very cumbersome process to get the data back and forth. We were looking for tools that our partners would find as easy to use as we did."

While Sparton is in the process of benchmarking savings, Martin said she has noticed a reduction in the amount of time it takes to process quotes and upload and download data. For instance, turning around a budget request would traditionally take 10 days; now it takes three, she said. Sparton is also saving money on EDI transaction fees by using the Internet instead, Martin added.