Success story
HELLAIndustry• AutomotiveSolution• OpenText™ Trading Grid™

Leading automotive parts
supplier expands global service
HELLA reduces costs, improves service by streamlining B2B
e-commerce connections with OpenText Trading Grid

Results
Reliable, streamlined operations
Timely information exchange
Cost reduction
Support for expanded
global service

Centralizing B2B operations and adopting OpenText Trading
Grid as the standard network for B2B e-commerce connections
allows the company to reduce costs of maintaining disparate
EDI networks around the world.

Leading automotive parts supplier expands global service

Headquartered in Germany, HELLA is one of the top 50 automotiveparts suppliers in the world. The company develops and manufactures
components and systems for lighting and electronics for theautomotive industry. Customers include all leading vehicle andsystem manufacturers, as well as the automotive parts aftermarket.

Chasing multiple systems

HELLA has one of the largest aftermarket organizations in the world forautomotive parts and accessories, with its own sales companies andpartners in more than 100 countries. The company does business witha wide variety of OEMs, dealers and parts specialists across the world.

Demands of a global operation resulted in more than 60 ERP systems
in use at HELLA, which also meant complex processes and increasedcosts. HELLA made a strenuous effort to reduce the complexity of its
business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce infrastructure and, wherever
possible, relocate and centralize B2B operations to the company’s headquarters in Lippstadt, Germany. This major project would streamline andcentralize IT resources, reduce the number of supported systems anddrive down support and maintenance costs.
HELLA began its search for a flexible, robust and secure solution. It wasparticularly important that the chosen platform could cope with thedemands of different partners around the world, some of whom are large
OEMs with substantial B2B experience, while others are relatively unsophisticated with little B2B knowledge.

Centralizing B2B

HELLA maintains point-to-point connections for B2B transactions withsome strategic customers and uses OpenText™ Trading Grid™ for the restof its partners.

Trading Grid ensures that HELLA can enable any partner and consolidate
electronic transactions onto a truly global B2B e-commerce network.
HELLA experiences real-time data exchange and can rely on OpenText
to mediate any differences between required communication methods.
There is a clear geographical variance. In Europe, approximately 75
percent of HELLA’s partners use point-to-point connections, with theremaining 25 percent using Trading Grid. In other parts of the world,
including North America and South America, these ratios are reversed,
with around 75 percent of supplier connections via Trading Grid.
Trading Grid is the preferred route for OEMs who do not use point-topoint and suppliers who cannot or do not want to maintain their own
B2B in-house expertise and resources. This applies, for example, tomany partners in India and China.

Forming new connections

OpenText enables HELLA to take advantage of information inside andoutside the enterprise. HELLA engages with its business partners
and provides a broad and diverse suite of B2B capabilities, easing thebusiness process.
The company estimates that it exchanges 35,000 electronic datainterchange (EDI) transactions each day with customers, suppliers andthird-party logistics companies. “No business at HELLA could be
conducted without EDI,” said Udo Thienelt, manager of Integrated
Applications at HELLA’s Lippstadt headquarters.
According to Thienelt, the usage of EDI is still growing in the automotiveindustry and he reported that the company is still setting up new connections every day. Thienelt noted that in many parts of Asia the relatively

OpenText Trading
Grid ensures thatHELLA can enable any
partner and consolidate
electronic transactions
onto a truly global B2B
e-commerce network.

Leading automotive parts supplier expands global service

cheap cost of labor means that companies do not always see the benefitof adopting automated B2B technology, but he expects this to change
and evolve as these markets mature.
HELLA sees cost and time-savings as the major benefits of OpenText
and EDI. The automation offered ensures HELLA has correct information
in a timely manner, avoiding errors that inevitably creep into manually
maintained information.

Centralizing B2B operations and adopting Trading Grid as the standard
network for B2B e-commerce connections allows the company toreduce costs of maintaining disparate EDI networks around the world.
This has allowed the company to streamline and improve its supportservices, including a “follow the sun” anytime and anywhere support
strategy, in line with the global expansion of the company’s business.

About OpenText

OpenText, The Information Company,enables organizations to gain insight
through market leading information
management solutions, on-premises orin the cloud. For more information about
OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTEX)
visit opentext.com.
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