Collins Industries is a world-class manufacturer of specialty vehicles, including ambulances and rescue vehicles, small school buses, terminal tractors and sweeper equipment. Collins' mangement wanted a more efficient order entry process for both traditional Mail-Order/Telephone-
Sales of after-market parts and related service are a key segment of Collins' business. Customers, such as the US Postal Service, had requested to be able to purchase with credit cards, debit cards, and Corporate Purchasing Cards (CPC's or procurement cards).
The card payment-related objectives were:
- 50% or more of eCommerce transactions paid by card.
- Increase overall card usage
- Reduce "Days in A/R" to improve cash flow.
- Speed up customer service order processing
- Achieve PCI Security compliance
To meet these objectives, Collins implemented Lexel Corporation's COM_Net2 and XA Card_Connect products with Curbstone Card. Curbstone Card is the industry-leading card processing software, or Payment Server, designed specifically for the IBM Power or iSeries System, selected by over 250 customers. Lexel's software products add a comprehensive eBusiness suite and credit card to Infor ERP XA's (formerly MAPICS) native COM/CSM order managment modules. The order process, now seamless, reduces duplicate effort and can prevent shipping against an over-extended or invalid card. Further, all sensitive cardholder data is encrypted and securely stored using Curbstone Card which has been validated by a third-party security auditor as compliant with the latest PCI Security Standards.
Collins began using Lexel's COM_Net2 in September 2000. The first business unit began processing card transactions with Curbstone Card in August 2008. The seamless integration has resulted in a thirty-five percent (35%) reduction in time required to process orders. Moreover, by accepting card payments, Collins efficiently processes orders for a much broader set of customers. That is, customers without a Collins account can purchase at retail prices using a payment card with little to no AR risk for Collins.
Card usage has grown dramatically. For the last four months of 2008, payment card usage exceeded the total usage for the preceding twelve months and surpasses every goal set by the management team. As of March 2009, all four business units are processing card payments with Curbstone Card seamlessly integrated with Infor XA using Lexel's XA Card_Connect. Collins' customers and Customer Service Department appreciate the savings of both time and effort.
