Saint-Gobain, a 350-year-old global leader in construction materials, has annual revenues exceeding $50 billion and a presence across North America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. To centralise and automate order management, Saint-Gobain Abrasives partnered with Portalink, implementing its AnyOrder™ and AnyFreight™ solutions to achieve a highly efficient, scalable, and compliant Zero-Touch process for order and freight management.
The challenge: Managing complexity and compliance at scale
Saint-Gobain faced significant challenges in processing high volumes of orders and reconciling freight across global regions. In North America, over 50% of orders required manual entry, leading to inefficiencies and increased risk of errors. Complex business rules, pricing discrepancies, unit-of-measure variations, and inventory issues added to the challenge, while global variability made standardisation difficult. Manual freight reconciliation against diverse rate cards made audit compliance unfeasible.
The solution: Portalink™AnyOrder and AnyFreight™
Saint-Gobain deployed Portalink™AnyOrder to automate non-EDI order processing globally, validating every order against more than 70 business rules and integrating seamlessly with SAP ERP. Discrepant orders were flagged for customer service, while rapid template mapping enabled quick onboarding of thousands of customers. Following the success of AnyOrder™, the company rolled out Portalink AnyFreight™ to automate freight reconciliation, GL code allocation, and payment authorisation, ensuring compliance and reducing manual effort.
- Automation of over 70 business rules
- Centralised processing with branch-level flexibility
- Rapid customer template mapping for fast deployment
- Automatic reconciliation of millions of consignments and invoices
- Enhanced global audit compliance and streamlined authorisation
The results: Efficiency, accuracy, and global scalability
Portalink increased electronic order processing from under 50% to 90% in North America in just over a year, surpassing expectations. Automation allowed customer service teams to focus on proactive engagement, while digitisation accelerated order-to-shipment timelines and improved customer satisfaction. Unified order management and streamlined freight processing enabled global scalability and rapid onboarding, with strong post go-live support from the Portalink team.
“I am delighted with the decision to move our customer service organization to Portalink. We are now recognizing the efficiencies in order processing and are using the saved time to redeploy our team to more proactive customer engagement.”
Why automation is essential for global manufacturers and distributors
For industry leaders like Saint-Gobain, automating order and freight management is crucial to reducing manual effort, ensuring compliance, and supporting business growth. Portalink’s solutions empower manufacturers and distributors to standardise processes, improve accuracy, and scale efficiently in a complex global environment.
Ready to streamline your global operations and boost compliance?
Learn more about Portalink™AnyOrder or AnyFreight today.
