In most cases, the words “nimble” and “wood furniture” would hardly belong in the same sentence. But in the case of Sauder Woodworking, given how they’ve embraced eCommerce, implemented omnichannel ordering and fulfillment, and made their supply chain more agile through modern integration technology, these words are perfectly fitting.

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With headquarters in Archbold, Ohio, Sauder Woodworking manufacturers ready-to-assemble furniture products, which the company has traditionally sold through brick & mortar stores such as Walmart, Target, IKEA and Office Depot. The company also conducts business through these firms’ online eCommerce platforms, and considers global digital marketplaces like Amazon and Wayfair among its biggest customers.

“We consider ourselves an omnichannel fashion-furniture manufacturer,” says Jan Arvay, vice president of IT, at Sauder Woodworking. “Our more than 2,500 employees produce hundreds of new products for the home, office, educational, health care, and worship industries every year through both the domestic and import sides of our business.”

From a B2B and B2C perspective, the company has hundreds of suppliers and thousands of customers (wholesale, retail and direct) throughout the world, and it’s here, with Sauder’s resolute focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences, that the real value of the company’s ecosystem-minded approach to integration technology comes to light.

“We rely on supply chain agility, end-to-end process visibility, and real-time data insights to understand our customers,” Arvay explains. “Because providing a personalized customer experience -- for all types of customers -- both drives us and gives us competitive advantage.”

To execute on this customer-centric business strategy, as part of its digital transformation initiative Sauder has increasingly adopted cloud technology, including a modern ecosystem integration platform, Cleo Integration Cloud (CIC). Sauder also has analytics tools and uses SAP S/4 Hana as its ERP system. Plus, their logistics operation makes it easy to ship to retailers, distributors, or consumers straight from their manufacturing plants.

“Over the past few years, we’ve adapted our organization to fit the new mold of what consumers need,” Arvay said. “Cleo is core to that, and since 2019 we’ve counted on Cleo Integration Cloud for making every revenue-critical interaction with our external trading partners, retailers, and eCommerce systems work as they should, end-to-end, with our internal systems of record.”

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is a critical integration requirement, as over 90% of Sauder’s customers do all their transactions through EDI. The company has more than 170 trading partners, and those relationships call for over 30 different document types, reflecting well over 200,000 transactions every month. But it’s not just about mastering EDI. Ever more frequently, as cloud adoption proliferates for its speed, accuracy and security, data exchanges between Sauder and its customers, suppliers, and trading partners are trending into APIs.

“With Cleo Integration Cloud we have one cloud-based platform that offers every type of transaction processing that we need, whatever our customers are asking for. We don't have to build custom solutions or find a different tool,” Arvay explained.

Previously Sauder used IBM Gentran and a custom connector tool as their on-premise integration solution, but wanted a more automated, business-process oriented approach. “When we evaluated Cleo, we made sure it had all the functionality to meet our EDI requirements, and it does that. Plus, since CIC is an ‘all in one’ platform, we feel confident knowing we can leverage CIC’s rich API integration capability when we need it, as our business evolves. And their ability to let us blend self-service and Managed Services is unique in the industry.”

The Cleo Integration Cloud platform gives Sauder Woodworking the control it needs over rapidly changing market dynamics. For example, in light of COVID, Sauder has had to reprioritize some of its projects to keep up with changes in supply and demand. With more people suddenly working from home, demand spiked for commercial-grade home office products. In response, Sauder introduced three new product lines – Sauder, OfficeWorks by Sauder, and Worksense by Sauder – that offer different ways of imagining commercial office furniture to meet the diverse needs of today’s consumer and business customer.

Enabling a company like Sauder to turn on a dime, deliver the expected level of customer experience, and outsmart market volatility requires tightly integrated IT systems that are robust and nimble. With Cleo’s ecosystem integration platform now core to its strategic cloud initiatives, Sauder Woodworking can outsmart market disruption and remain competitive while fully embracing eCommerce-driven digital transformation.

About Sauder

Sauder Woodworking Co. is the leading North American producer of ready-to-assemble furniture. A family-run business based in Archbold, Ohio, Sauder embraces sustainability measures that reuse and recycle more than 98 percent of its solid waste materials. Sauder combines more than 85 years of American manufacturing experience with expanded global sourcing capabilities to meet the needs of consumers and retail customers. The company currently offers nearly 50 furniture collections that enable everyone to experience the joy of affordable style. Follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. For tips on affordable style, visit the Ideas blog. Learn more at Sauder.com.

About Cleo Integration Cloud

Cleo Integration Cloud (CIC) is a cloud-based integration platform, purpose-built to design, build, operate and optimize critical ecosystem integration processes. The CIC platform brings end-to-end integration visibility across API, EDI and non-EDI integrations that gives technical and business users the confidence to rapidly onboard trading partners, enable integration between applications, and accelerate revenue-generating business processes. On the platform, businesses have the choice of self-service, managed services, or a blended approach – ensuring complete flexibility and control over their B2B integration strategy.

About Cleo

Cleo is an ecosystem integration software company focused on business outcomes, ensuring each customer’s potential is realized by delivering solutions that make it easy to discover and create value through the movement and integration of B2B enterprise data. Cleo gives customers strategic, “outside-in” visibility into the critical end-to-end business flows happening across their ecosystems of partners and customers, marketplaces, and internal cloud and on-premise applications. Our solutions empower teams to drive business agility, accelerate onboarding, facilitate modernization of key business processes, and capture new revenue streams by reimagining and remastering their digital ecosystem through robust application, B2B, and data integration technologies. For more information, visit www.cleo.com or call +1.815.282.7695.

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