Client

Explorers

Website

www.explorerslive.com

SERVICES

Mobile development (iOS)

Back-end development (.NET/C#)

Project management

Case in brief

Our client was a family business that runs a successful chain of car garages in The Netherlands. As part of a vertical integration strategy, the company was looking to start a new wholesale business, and sell/deliver car tires to customers via its own warehouses.

Within just 7 months, we developed a unique, bespoke B2B e-commerce solution with custom product search capabilities. Additionally, we developed a simple, but effective warehouse management solution to automate the warehouse and delivery processes

Complete B2B e-commerce & WMS solution built within 7 months

Tech stack: AngularJS | Java / Spring | PostgreSQL

Team of 5 engineers incl. project lead and UX designer

Project background

Based on more than a decade of experience, our client had a very clear vision on how to serve its target customers: Rapid ordering from a busy shop floor, ran by non-tech savvy personnel, and providing same-day delivery options for the most popular tire brands.

To meet these objectives, Olympia Tech was requested to help build 2 components:

1) Bespoke e-commerce portal with custom product search option to accelerate the ordering process
2) A warehouse management system (WMS) to efficiently store tires, and providing smart delivery options from warehouses nearby

With these components, our client was looking to digitally transform its business and empower its personnel and customers to pursue a great experience from order to delivery

Technology stack

Front-end

Backed by Google, this framework is comprehensive, encourages structure and facilitates a component-based architecture

Back-end APIs

Mature stack, performant, secure and stable. Great for enterprise-grade applications

Database

Strong reputation for its performance, extensibility and robustness. Also known for its permissive open-source license and relatively low costs

APIs

API integration with Accounting software for order and invoice automation

Our approach

On- and nearshore team

We deployed a mixed on- and nearshore team for this project. UX and Business Lead were kept close to the client. This way, they could physically visit the shop floors to inspect the situation, gather requirements and validate design flows with front-line staff. The engineers worked from our Tech Hub, from which we deployed engineers with strong backgrounds in building for Automotive and ERP solutions.

Prototype-based approach

Before writing code, we created high-fidelity prototypes to create a realistic representation of the screens and flows. This way, we could gather feedback quickly and accurately from our client without wasting any time.

API integrations & testing

The software was regularly tested by actual users, with close monitoring from our team to ensure all integrations worked as expected. For this software, we had to integrate supplier APIs and also connected with our clients Accounting software to automatically process invoices.

The outcome

After an intensive period of development and testing, our client has deployed the e-commerce portal successfully, and its now being used at multiple sites. The system processes tens of orders on a daily basis, with volumes expecting to go up to hundreds in the next fews months.

In the next period, we will explore more advanced warehouse management features such as automatic scanning of incoming orders, machine-learning based stock optimisation, and more.

Want to learn more about this project—or looking to build similar bespoke solutions? Give us a call today!

Sites deployed

50+

Orders / day

Warehouses ready