Taking customer service to a new level with IT. (IT Strategies).

Ordering parts from Sandvik Tamrock Canada is an interactive experience. Whether it is a mine maintenance technician 6,000 feet below ground in Vancouver, or one of Sandvik's own service reps making a sales call, both can now log on to the company's Web site and electronically peer inside the Sandvik's stock room, scan for the part they need, order it and track it from the packing stage through to its final destination.

The Sudbury-based mining and construction supplier launched its online customer-service centre last year, a parts procurement process, offering up-to-the-second details on parts information.

Known as @ Your Service, the platform represents the next logical step in customer service tools since the company first embraced business-to-consumer technology with their Web site four years ago, says Rod Baker, Sandvik's senior manager of information technology.

With a user identification number, a customer enters a parts number, and the actual stock in a warehouse or consignment location is then displayed in real time. Customers can verify pricing, delivery details, or obtain an order confirmation and shipment status.

Being available to take online orders around the clock really makes a difference to Sandvik's West Coast customers who otherwise would be operating with a limited time window to order parts by phone, he says.

It is also a real clock saver for Sandvik's customer-service representatives, freeing them from the tedious day-to-day clerical work of having to chase down the status of order or shipment inquiries over the phone.

"It can take up to a week with different mines, different processes and the hierarchy involved in the signing off process. We shorten that into minutes," allowing sales representatives to be more proactive in dealing with consumer issues, says parts manager Mark Cornell.

"It's a customer relationship tool, but very much focused on efficiencies and cost reduction," says Baker. "The (technology) has more than paid for itself."

The system even taps into the Web sites of their preferred carriers such as Purolator, UPS, FedEx, Air Canada and more locally, Manitoulin Transport, which has similar shipment tracking capabilities.

With some help from IBM, the application, which was done internally in Sudbury, has been adopted and moved into the pilot-project stages at other Sandvik offices in the U.S. and in Finland.

The user-friendly system, which moves 8,000 to 9,000 line items a month, and requires little technical knowledge is gaining wide acceptance among its 32 distinct customers, with 139 user-identification numbers issued so far.

The next step, Baker says, will be extending their online offering to other things like technical publications, parts books, technical service bulletins, troubleshooting and expanding into more business-to-business oriented applications.