LP Corporation Reduces Warranty Costs by 15% in the First Year

LP Corporation reduces warranty costs by 15% in the first year

LP Corporation (LP Corp) is a $2.8 Billion (2018) manufacturer of quality engineered building materials for residential, industrial, and light commercial construction. Its products are covered by industry-leading service and warranties to help customers build smarter, better, and faster. The warranty covers products sold in the following countries: USA, UK, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France, Netherlands. LP Corp provides a performance warranty on its product that extends 20 years or more in some cases. Their product is just one component of a multicomponent assembly (Wall, Roof, Floor) installed in the building.

Challenge

LP faced many challenges with an aging warranty database, international claims processes, and inefficiencies in reporting/analytics. Each country where LP operated was using a different legacy system for claims registrations, investigations, and settlements. There were language and system compatibility issues between these applications in Europe and the United States. There was no integration or translation possible between the systems. Besides, the applications were over ten years old and reaching their end of life.

It was problematic and costly for LP Corp to modify and maintain these multiple systems. It wasn’t easy to find qualified people to maintain the code in these legacy systems. The global standardization of common processes was nearly impossible. Business teams could not generate their own reports. Instead, they had to rely on the warranty department, or IT resources to create the reports. Also, reports and notifications from Europe needed to be translated into English. Furthermore, extra time was needed to review emails and voice mails to ensure nothing got lost in translation.

Solution

After an exhaustive search, LP Corp decided to implement a Cloud-based, Global Warranty System, powered by the Syncron Warranty Management Solution, to optimize warranty claims and customer support processes. Syncron enabled LP Corp to leverage best practices and standardize internal processes across all claim groups. Syncron also provided a system that provides flexibility for future processes and improvements in analytics and forecasting.

Syncron Warranty met all the LP Corp’s requirements including:

• Minimal customization
• Best overall terms with pricing
• Data protection laws (GDPR)
• Business continuity plans
• Risk mitigation
• Security (SOC2)
• Scope of work

Also, the Syncron solution’s flexibility allows LP Corp to manage various warranty policies, business rules, workflows, forms, and correspondence templates to meet the needs of various regions, product groups, and third-party contractors.

With the Inspections SmartBlox from Syncron, the LP Corp team can perform field inspections on any mobile device and generate warranty investigation reports. Syncron mobile app on iOS and Android allows field inspectors to capture inspection data and pictures to support the claim process. All the communication is captured and tracked for each case and claim, including emails, comments, and pictures. The Syncron application is integrated with SAP for financial and payment transactions.

LP Corp gained many benefits from the Syncron Warranty Management solution:

• Single, automated, and integrated system for generating Technical Ticket, Claim Ticket
• All emails, phone calls, and voice message can be captured and transcribed into Syncron
• Pre-defined workflows so that LP Corp can assign a specific area of responsibilities (AOR)
• Create and email document templates with hotpots
• Generate Investigation and Settlement Report with one click
• Enables us to capture a picture and include it within these reports
• Operates in Online and Offline mode
• Businesspeople can generate their own reports and notifications

Results

Syncron has enabled LP Corp to make significant improvements in data quality and analytics. In addition, LP Corp has been able to centralize its entire claims process into the single, cloud-based global system making it possible for all claims offices to work from the same database and eliminate the duplication of effort. As a result, the company has been able to consolidate offices. LP has also observed an increase in operating efficiency in the office administration as well as inspection personnel now that they use the mobile application to document field inspection results.

These improvements netted a 15% cost saving in the 1st year for LP Corp. The company anticipates 3 X ROI over the five years life of the cloud solution contract from Syncron. Of course, LP Corp will continue to reap efficiency gains in the future. For example, the company can quickly incorporate new product lines into the Syncron system and well as easily migrate and incorporate product lines from acquired companies into Syncron. In other words, the cost savings from the new system will no doubt support future growth initiatives for LP CORP.