Coates Hire's Digital Transformation
Initiative with Switch Rewarded with Global Sitecore Ultimate Experience Award

Modernisation from bricks and mortar to digital first services and transactions enables Coates Hire to lower costs, expand its customer baseand deliver ROI.

Sydney, 28 October 2020 - Switch, a Sydney-headquartered, multi-award-winning Platinum Sitecore Implementation Partner, has announced that its partnership with Coates Hire, Australia's leading equipment hire and solutions company, has won one of five 2020 Sitecore Ultimate Experience Awards globally for transforming Coates Hire's digital customer experience.

Switch and Coates Hire won the "Most Sophisticated Implementation" Ultimate Experience Award category for its work in deploying Sitecore's digital experience software which resulted in Coates Hire creating a seamless customer experience with complete B2B functionality. The swift move to implement digital transactions has improved hire services and functionality, while enabling Coates Hire to lower costs, expand its customer base and deliver a better return on investment to the business.

Coates Hire, part of Seven Group Holdings (ASX:SGH), is the country's largest equipment supplier and operates from more than 150 locations, offering customers more than one million equipment hire options. It first implemented Sitecore five years ago as a customer portal to help with equipment management on project sites. However, as technology demands shifted rapidly, the company's strategy evolved and it became clear that it needed to leverage all of the capabilities of the Sitecore platform to deliver optimised value and a rich digital experience for its customers.

Over the past 18 months, Coates Hire has partnered with Switch to deliver a whole of business Customer Connect digital transformation program from which several significant digital service solutions have been released to meet both consumer and business requirements within a single platform. The combination and integration of the Coates Hire Sitecore stack with business critical applications and infrastructure has resulted in the company being able to deliver the very best customer experience at any time.

Coates Hire's new single Sitecore XP solution (including Experience Commerce and Content Hub, deployed by Switch) is a single platform across B2B, B2E and B2C, and consists of web, apps, portals and IoT. The underlining application supports Website Experience Management, eCommerce and Digital Asset Management on a Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure, integrating into a suite ofbusiness applications including ERP, CRM and product information management (PIM).

Initially launched as part of the company's digital customer transformation is Coates Hire's Hire Now online booking app which went live in just 12 weeksand has since radically improved Coates Hire's online customer experience. Hire Now makes it simple and easy to book equipment online for collection from one of Coates Hire's 150 branches or delivery to the customer's site. Ninety-one percent of customers now use the click and collect app functionality with the company nowexperiencing an average 65 per cent month-on-month increase in online revenue.

In addition, Coates Hire's new Rental Industrial Internet of Things platform (RIIOT) surfaces valuable equipment telemetry data through an easily accessible portal dashboard to identify underutilised or redundant equipment and support customers with information on equipment that could be off-hired early or replaced with a machine already on hire.

Other applications launched in the past year include My Sales which leverages the eCommerce functionality built for customers to support Coates Hire's internalsales team through pricing guidance, availability and provides integrated access to the Coates Hire PIM for specification and attributes.

The My Coates Hire management portal also provides customers with a total view of their current and previous hires, invoices and staff across all of their sites.

"It's a tremendous honour to see the implementation of the Sitecore platform our new 'Hire Now' app globally recognised," said Kirsty McKay, group manager of program delivery and digital transformation at Coates Hire.

Coates Hire first implemented Sitecore in 2015 as a customer portal to help with equipment management on project sites. However, as technology demands shifted rapidly, our strategy evolved and it became clear that we needed to leverage all of the capabilities of the Sitecore platform to deliver optimised value and a rich digital experience for our customers.

"For us, creating an effective partnership with Switch was key to the implementation and we saw a faster return on investment in partnering with them. As a result our booking process is now available 24/7 ensuring our customers can access our services at anytime, and anywhere."

In recent years, Switch has won 11 Sitecore Experience Awards, as well being awarded 'Sitecore Platinum Implementation Partner' status. The company also has multiple staff members recognised as Sitecore MVPs (most valuable professionals). Recently, Switch has also achieved Sitecore Experience Commerce specialisation, the first to do so in the APJ region.

"At Switch, we've helped some of Australia's biggest brands to successfully navigate the digital transformation process and are thrilled to be working with Coates Hire to deliver exceptional customer experiences in a constantly changing digital customer experience marketplace," says Steve Nelson, CEO, Switch.

"By focusing on the customer experience throughout everything we do, we've leveraged the Sitecore platform to provide Coates Hire with the insights and capabilities to evolve rapidly in a constantly changing landscape. Ultimately this manifests itself in improvements of the customer experience by ensuring that the Sitecore technology stack is not an inhibitor but rather an enabler for the successful continuity of their business."

About Switch

Switch is a Platinum Sitecore Implementation Partner with proven success in delivering the complete vision for customer experience management. We create solutions for businesses to connect with their customers with intelligent design, strong implementation, structured support and future optimisation strategies.

For further information, please visit: www.switchit.com.

About Coates Hire

Coates Hire, part of Seven Group Holdings (ASX: SGH), is Australia’s leading equipment hire provider, operating across a range of markets including engineering, mining and resources, infrastructure, manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and major events.

With a national footprint of over 150 branches, more than one million pieces of equipment and over 1,900 highly skilled employees, Coates Hire provides expert equipment solutions for nearly 19,000 customers. This includes end-to-end solutions for temporary works, traffic management, water management, industrial shutdowns, maintenance, training services and events.

In FY20, Coates Hire celebrated 135 years of commitment to supporting their customers who help build Australia.

For more, visit: www.coateshire.com.

- Nick Jones