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IBM MARKETING CLOUD
SUPPLY.COM
A N A L Y S T S
Seth Lippincott, Rebecca Wettemann
T H E B O T T O M L I N E
Supply.com deployed IBM Marketing Cloud (formerly
Silverpop) to enhance its digital marketing efforts. Nucleus found
that the project allowed Supply.com to rapidly expand its business by
identifying new income opportunities such as vendor promotions and new
business-to-business customers while increasing sales force productivity by
more than 20 percent. The project enabled Supply.com to achieve more than
$1 million in revenues from a single campaign.
ROI: 1665%
Payback: 3 weeks
Average annual benefit: $1,375,217

T H E C O M P A N Y
Located just outside of Atlanta, Supply.com is a full-service e-commerce and
distribution company, selling plumbing and lighting fixtures to contractors,
designers, plumbers, and homeowners across the US. Using a unique combination
of customer-focused technology tools and personalized customer support channels,
the Supply.com team is rapidly revolutionizing the historically traditional plumbing
supply industry.
P R O G R A M : C U S T O M E R R E L A T I O N S H I P M A N A G E M E N T
R O I C A S E S T U D Y  D O C U M E N T Q 8 3  M A Y 2 0 1 6

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T H E C H A L L E N G E
In January 2014, Supply.com decided to implement a marketing automation tool in
order to improve its sales efficiency and outreach efforts. At that point sales reps
used Microsoft Outlook to manage outgoing communications. Sales reps performed
follow-up with customers manually and leads were generated on an ad hoc, cold-
calling basis from a customer database solution provided by NetSuite. The process
was time-consuming and inefficient. Management decided that an outbound e-mail
communication management tool would automate much of the work sales
representatives were currently doing and allow them to focus on pursuing new sales
opportunities. Since the customer database was from NetSuite, Supply.com had to
find a marketing tool that integrated and could scale with the company as it
expanded.
T H E S T R A T E G Y
Prior to 2014, Supply.com had looked into e-mail marketing once or twice but
decided it wasn’t a priority. Initially, Supply.com decided on another solution.
However, Supply.com was unable to get a working integration between that
solution and NetSuite, which was Supply.com’s customer contact database
manager, and, after three months, halted the project. After exploring other options,
the company decided to move forward with IBM Marketing Cloud (then Silverpop)
for the following reasons:
 The application’s integration with NetSuite was familiar to the employees in
charge of implementing the e-mail marketing tool. Although the integration
had to be custom built, Supply.com knew it was possible.
 The solution could be implemented relatively quickly. Since Supply.com had to
go back to square one, choosing a product that could be up and running quickly
was paramount.
 For Supply.com, the solution offered a better price for the functionality it
delivered relative to competitors.
 The project required minimal supplemental purchases in order to leverage its
functionality. Since Supply.com already had NetSuite, it only needed to buy the
Cost : Benefit
Ratio 1 : 7.3

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new application subscription along with Adobe Creative Suite to generate
outbound e-mails.
Although many companies opt to use outside consultants to manage the
implementation, employees at Supply.com were able to complete the deployment
without needing outside consultants. Supply.com began implementation in March
2014 and began sending automated e-mails by May 2014.
“Having an in-depth understanding of the marketing
platforms allows you to maximize the revenue
impact in a short period of time.” – Nick Wyatt,
Marketing Automation Manager, Supply.com
By undertaking the deployment in-house, Supply.com had to formulate a plan of
action. In addition to integration with NetSuite, Supply.com had to map out all the
scenarios in which the data could be manipulated. Wanting to expedite the process,
Supply.com made the integration only one direction and didn’t include some
entities that NetSuite had.
TYPES OF BENEFITS
Direct 77% 23% Indirect
CUMULATIVE NET BENEFIT
1,225,643
2,662,275
4,125,652
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

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K E Y B E N E F I T A R E A S
Using IBM to support its e-mail marketing efforts allowed Supply.com to automate
and streamline a large portion of its customer outreach and follow-up, freeing sales
representatives to pursue hot leads that the system was able to identify and push for
vendor promotions. Key benefits of the project include:
 Increased productivity of sales representatives. Supply.com was able to
automate follow-up marketing and deadline tracking, allowing the sales team to
spend 30 percent less time on administrative tasks and more time fielding
inbound calls and pursuing leads.
 Increased revenues from additional sales. Supply.com was able to engage in
targeted marketing campaigns and automated follow-up, leading to more wins.
 Increased revenues from promotional campaigns. Supply.com began running
omnichannel marketing promotions where vendors paid for the product
discounts.
The deployment also produced other benefits such as engaging both business-to-
business and business-to-consumer prospects. The additional business-to-consumer
marketing was a new line of revenue for Supply.com.
K E Y C O S T A R E A S
The primary costs of the project were software license subscription fees and
personnel time to implement and support the application. Other expenses included
additional software used to create the content and copy for e-mails.
NET CASH FLOWS
(84,269)
1,309,912
1,436,632 1,463,377
Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

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B E S T P R A C T I C E S
Supply.com found that the IBM Marketing Cloud supported a shift in the priorities of
the sales department and expanded their pursuit of leads. In a single marketing
campaign, Supply.com was able to reach thousands of potential customers as well
as automate follow-up efforts. Instead of sales representatives manually e-mailing
general contractors a reminder about an expiring price estimate, the solution
automatically e-mails the potential customer with the relevant information pulled
from the NetSuite CRM database. As a result, sales representatives can focus on
prioritizing and pursing leads, answering customer replies to reminder e-mails, and
fielding incoming calls from customers. Their focus can be on selling products rather
than managing communications.
Additionally, Supply.com has also been able to open a new business line focused on
promotions. With more targeted marketing campaigns and a larger sales
department, Supply.com has been able to diversify into offering promotions to
customers to drive sales. Supply.com has also been able to focus on engaging with
vendors to sponsor the promotions.
C A L C U L A T I N G T H E R O I
Nucleus quantified the initial and ongoing costs of software license, personnel time
to implement and support the application, and employee training time to calculate
the total investment in the Marketing Cloud project. Ongoing personnel cost is a
straight-line estimate for year three of the project, but may be subject to change
based on Supply.com’s expansion plans.
Direct benefits quantified included the increased profits from promotions managed
using the solution, which targeted professional customers as well as end consumers
directly. Indirect benefits included the profits from increased wins of marketing
campaigns, which continued into the second year of deployment, and the increased
productivity of the sales representatives who saved considerable amount of time
because of automation capabilities. Since Supply.com is in its third year of using the
application, Nucleus used projected straight line estimates of third-year benefits,
which are very conservative considering Supply.com’s sales and revenue growth to
date.

6. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
IBM Marketing Cloud
Annual ROI: 1665%
Payback period: 0.1 years
BENEFITS Pre-start Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Direct 0 1,220,692 1,220,692 1,220,692
Indirect 0 286,560 418,185 418,185
Total per period 0 1,507,252 1,638,877 1,638,877
COSTS - CAPITALIZED ASSETS Pre-start Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Software 0 0 0 0
Hardware 0 0 0 0
Project consulting and personnel 0 0 0 0
Total per period 0 0 0 0
COSTS - DEPRECIATION SCHEDULE Pre-start Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Software 0 0 0 0
Hardware 0 0 0 0
Project consulting and personnel 0 0 0 0
Total per period 0 0 0 0
COSTS - EXPENSED Pre-start Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Software 21,840 21,840 26,745 0
Hardware 0 0 0 0
Consulting 0 0 0 0
Personnel 58,275 175,500 175,500 175,500
Training 4,154 0 0 0
Other 0 0 0 0
Total per period 84,269 197,340 202,245 175,500
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS Results Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
All government taxes 45%
Cost of capital 7.0%
Net cash flow before taxes (84,269) 1,309,912 1,436,632 1,463,377
Net cash flow after taxes (46,348) 720,452 790,148 804,857
Annual ROI - direct and indirect benefits 1554% 1630% 1665%
Annual ROI - direct benefits only 1214% 1211% 1221%
Net Present Value (NPV) (46,348) 626,971 1,317,117 1,974,120
Payback period 0.1 years
Average Annual Cost of Ownership 84,269 281,609 241,927 219,785
3-Year IRR 1563% 1563%
All calculations are based on Nucleus Research's independent analysis of the expected costs and benefits associated with the solution.
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