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November
2000 By Michelle Gillan Fisher GE AIRCRAFT ENGINES (GEAE), already the world's leading manufacturer of commercial and military aircraft jet engines, wanted to take its image, and its bottom line, to new heights by giving its customers 'round the clock access to its catalog of more than 250,000 engine parts. That would mean some of the biggest international and domestic airlines, as well as key military branches, would be able to place orders, check inventory and shipping status, and access account information anytime, day or night, on GEAE's Web site. What's more, the company decided to do it just 60 days after the idea was hatched. After investigating the products and services 15 companies had to offer, GEAE staffers paid a visit to the five favorites; the looming launch date didn't allow the company time to schedule or host any interviews or product demos. When it was narrowed down to two finalists, the choice became clear. GEAE picked Maryland-based SpaceWorks Inc.--the only company willing and able to do the job within GEAE's tight time constraints. "SpaceWorks came through with a rapid implementation, delivering the fully tested, fully operational system in only 53 days," says John Rosenfeld, GEAE'se-commerce leader. Rosenfeld says that meant a lot of "latenight pizza parties" as both SpaceWorks and GEAE inched closer to the launch date. "SpaceWorks approached the project from the beginning as 'We're gonna do this no matter what it takes.' They were as committed to our goals as we were," Rosenfeld says. He adds that GEAE was especially pleased with the seasoned professionals SpaceWorks sent to do the job; in his eyes, just another example of the company's "willingness to go the extra mile." In early January 2000 GEAE went online with SpaceWorks OrderManager, which is linked to an Oracle back-end system where multiple catalogs store volumes of information, ranging from product codes to customer account and billing data. Says Rosenfeld, it didn't take long for some of the company's largest customers to start taking advantage of the new system, placing online orders for new engine parts and checking inventory availability. "SpaceWorks provided GEAE with an important business-to-business e-commerce technology for the new millennium," he says. Rosenfeld says that while it's too early to report how SpaceWorks has affected GEAE's bottom line, he can say this: "We couldn't have imagined it being more successful." Michelle Gillan Fisher can be reached at edit@salesandmarketing.com
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