In August of 1999, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of positive displacement pumps for the oil and gas, refining, transport, pulp and paper, water treatment, and food industries, declared war. War against its competitors, that is.

Earlier that year, David Marsh, then advertising and marketing manager, understood that the company’s status as a world class manufacturer would be in jeopardy if the company didn’t come up with a strong Internet strategy. He jokingly began talking about “Project Leapfrog,” his vision for what could be accomplished by using technology to improve its status in the pump marketplace.

“I had been managing marketing projects for more than 35 years,” said Marsh. “Yet when it came to the Internet (in 1999), I didn’t know anything about it. When I starting thinking about the business-to-business potential of the Net, I was intimidated. But from the first time Tom contacted me, I felt at ease about moving in a direction that was critical to our company’s survival.”

Marsh received a glossary of Internet B2B terms from Deligo, along with a slew of articles that were relevant to pump manufacturing’s business, and what the future could hold for them as manufacturers. “Their communications didn’t have conditions — they were genuinely interested in us not missing the boat. I chose to work with them for several reasons, but very important to me was the fact they operated under no pretense.”

Once Deligo was officially the strategic partner in the battle against its’ competition, the challenge came in the form of the details. How could they change how customers had worked with this pump OEM for more than 100 years? So many things had to change. The B2B website would change the way customers receive information, select the right pump, design new applications, install a complicated product, and even make a purchase transaction.

The company’s executives expected the greatest return on their investment to lie in the ability to develop and manage a website that would automate and enhance the information transfer between manufacturer, distributor and customer. The marketing department also wanted to maximize its global branding position and reputation, increase margins, and create new routes to market in countries with poor or no distribution.

“I knew we had made the right decision with this partnership immediately,” said Marsh. “They were very focused on our vision, and able to relate every decision back to strategy.”

First, the Deligo team asked some tough questions of the executive board and quickly earned their respect by illustrating how their vision of “leapfrogging the competition” could become a reality. It didn’t hurt that Deligo quickly proved its understanding of the business. Early in the project, they covered uncovered a mathematical error that had existed in the company’s pump configuration system for years.

One of the biggest challenges was the massive amount of information (content) that had to be captured for the web database. “We literally had thousands of pieces of information that had to be transferred to a working database,” said Marsh. “And the toughest part was that much of the information wasn’t even on paper. It was only stored in the minds of our applications engineers.”

To overcome that obstacle, Deligo had to build trust with a group of engineers who were initially skeptical of the site’s ability to service customers. They also had to build a knowledge base of the company’s business that was equal to that of its own staff.

Five key elements were developed for a successful Internet strategy:

• First, came the “Media Database” of content. The goal was to replace printed material and its related mailing cost, but more importantly, to make the company ready to do business 24/7 in order to service its customers around the globe.
  
• The second element was Pumpcompany.com, the website itself that needed more interactivity and information segmented by audience.
  
• The Global Product Selector (GPS) was the next element, and what Marsh calls the “Leapfrog Factor.” The GPS walks customers through a series of questions, helping them find the right product. “The GPS is the true breakthrough that will have our competitors playing catch up with us for years. It is the key to differentiating us from our competition,” he said.
  
• There are two final elements of the internet strategy. The planned CAD to Web capability is especially for design engineers to log on and be able to create any new application using the OEM’s pump.
  
• The company Intranet and foreign language translators will be the final stages of the site.

It was anticipated that pump manufacturer would, over the next five years, reduce printing costs by over $1 million dollars, reduce transaction costs by over $500 thousand dollars, and increase revenues by more than $2.5 million dollars. These numbers are not part of some subjective sales pitch, but are the result of an exhaustive activity-based costing analysis performed over many months by reviewing – in-depth – the processes that touch the customer and measure both efficiency and effectiveness.

The economic downturn brought on by the tragedies of September 11th, changed these projections significantly. Printing cost have been reduced by nearly half; transaction cost have been reduced by the use of a new configurator and the site automation resulting in quicker response time by customer service; and revenues are positive. The ROI timetable has been lengthened, but the results are justifying the investment.

Marsh uses two phrases to describe his Deligo account team: visionaries and problem solvers. “They understood our stake in creating a single brand image in the eyes of customers around the world, while individually attending to the needs of each market segment we serve.”

Other accomplishments of the project included hitting every timetable and every budget number. The project never had to go back to the well once for additional dollars. That’s quite amazing considering one of the five main modules had to be completely redesigned, a feat that was accomplished in just 72 hours. Since the launch of the new site in late February 2001, worldwide integration of the company’s image is strong and the company’s product is respected around the world.

“Deligo Technologies rallied our internal troops showing us how to unify our entire company culture—both employees and customers, led the charge against our biggest competitors, and turned the dream of Project Leapfrog into reality,” said Marsh. “We couldn’t have made a better choice for our ally.”