Exmark Manufacturing

For more than 15 years, Exmark Manufacturing, a division of The Toro Company, has partnered with Volano to modernize key business systems, automate dealer programs, and support long-term scalability across marketing, customer service, and operations. What began as a need to automate a paper-based rebate process has evolved into a deeply integrated digital ecosystem, anchored by a centralized product information management (PIM) system that now touches nearly every aspect of Exmark’s business.  “Volano has been the key to us being able to continue to move forward very quickly,” said Julie Hensel, Marketing Manager at Exmark Manufacturing. “They’re treated like part of our team and know our business better than most of us within the business even know it.”

Exmark Manufacturing designs and builds commercial lawn mowing equipment for landscape contractors and homeowners nationwide. With a large dealer network and hundreds of employees at its Beatrice, Nebraska campus, the company depends on efficient systems to manage promotions, product data, and dealer relationships.

One of Exmark’s earliest challenges was managing dealer rebates. Prior to automation, rebate claims were handled entirely on paper. Dealers submitted physical forms that were manually entered by an administrative team, processed for payment, and then tracked separately in internal databases.

“Our rebate claims process was all done on paper,” Hensel said. “It was a very involved process, from dealers filing their claims on paper to getting dealers paid and then tracking it in our own database.”

As Exmark continued to grow, these manual processes limited efficiency, increased administrative workload, and made it difficult to scale operations effectively.

Volano first partnered with Exmark to automate the dealer rebate and promotions process, creating a streamlined, hands-off experience for dealers while significantly improving internal efficiency. That initial success laid the groundwork for a broader, long-term partnership focused on automation and system integration.

One of the most impactful projects to emerge from that partnership was Model Central, Exmark’s centralized PIM system. Model Central serves as the single source of truth for product information and connects directly to Exmark’s website, dealer-facing tools, and external partners.

“Model Central is the heart of all of our product information,” said Hensel. “We’ve continued to build out all of our systems around it, and now it touches every aspect of our business.”

With Model Central in place, product updates and new model years are published automatically across channels, eliminating duplicate data entry and reducing the risk of errors. For the marketing team, this means faster updates, greater accuracy, and more time focused on strategy rather than maintenance.

Beyond the technology itself, Exmark values Volano’s collaborative approach. With a stateside team located nearby, Volano works closely with Exmark through regular meetings, in-person brainstorming sessions, and rapid-response support when issues arise.

“One of the benefits for us is we’re only an hour and a half away from Volano’s office. So it’s easy for us to come do whiteboard sessions together and not be behind screens,” said Hensel.

Rather than relying on a single internal developer to handle maintenance, updates, and enhancements, Hensel also appreciates the scalability and business continuity that partnering with Volano offers.

“Being able to scale the team up and down as needed based on project work has been awesome,” she said.