Solutions Group
B2B Microsoft DynamicsTM NAV based
web-shop provides alternative route to market and significant
competitive advantage
Company Background
Based in Northampton, Solutions Group is the fastest
growing UK trade distributor of TV & Satellite equipment selling over
4,000 products via 15 nationwide trade counters. The company can also
design and deploy equipment for digital communal TV systems for hotels,
hospitals and multi-dwelling properties.
Situation
Solutions Group wanted to expand their e-strategy by
moving into e-commerce. This would provide them with an alternative
route to market and a significant competitive advantage, enabling them
to maintain their growth in the marketplace. The company had already
implemented Microsoft Dynamics NAV to handle financials, sales,
purchasing and warehouse management. However, they required a partner
with the appropriate .NET and e-commerce skills to deliver the full
potential of the solution to allow them to realise their e-strategy
objectives.
“We wanted to provide our customers with a
convenient, alternative method of access to our products and services”,
explains Grant Lester, Solutions Group Managing Director. “We had a
requirement to give our customers secure, online access to their own
account information, order history & status. We also wanted to deliver
an easy to use self-service environment to allow our customers to
perform product searches, place orders and to check stock availability
and pricing.”
We knew that our existing Microsoft Dynamics NAV
solution had the potential to deliver that interface, we just needed a
partner with the skills to unlock that potential for us”.
The Selection Process
Solutions Group’s existing IT partner didn’t have
the required .NET skills to develop the Microsoft Dynamics NAV
implementation further.
Lester recalls, “We explained our requirements to
Microsoft and asked them to recommend a suitable partner. Microsoft
suggested we contacted Anglia Business Solutions as they had the proven
.NET skills and had already deployed some award winning B2B e-commerce
solutions.
The Anglia team took the time to understand our
requirements and provided a detailed design specification and project
plan to match.”
The Requirement
Solutions Group had already assembled a
comprehensive set of requirements and desired functionality elements for
the new solution.
The requirement was for a web based, efficient and
cost effective method of selling to, and servicing the needs of, the
existing customer base. Once proven, the selected technology would be
used to leverage opportunities in new market areas by economically
extending the reach of Solution Group into differential branding related
opportunities.
The initial design should be based on generic
principles so as to allow any products that the company chooses to sell
in future to be represented consistently through the web shop.
The solution should seamlessly integrate with the
current Microsoft Dynamics NAV system to enable easy maintenance of the
web site by non-technical personnel. In addition, the solution should
provide users with 24 x 7 secure access to relevant product and
commercial information. It should facilitate a self-service environment
that is informative and user friendly. Success would be measured both by
customer loyalty and an increasing volume of business being taken over
the internet. The overall initiative would be deemed successful when
increased sales are experienced accompanied by reduced administrative
costs per transaction.
The Solution
Reflective E-Commerce Technology Suite
The new web-shop was deployed using components from Anglia’s
Reflective E-Commerce Technology Suite, to include: shopping basket
functionality, secure checkout, multi-branded shops, full product
descriptions with product images and item search.
Security
Before being granted access to the web-shop,
customers are required to provide username and password credentials to
verify their identity. This was a key requirement as Solutions Group
provide customer specific preferential pricing and access to some
products is reserved for preferred customers only. The solution uses
internet cookies to remember the computer (IP Address) used by each
customer to access the site. Fraud avoidance measures were also
implemented to detect unusual account activity.
Products & Pricing
Products are grouped on the site in a 3-level
hierarchy; product, product group and parent group. Unlimited products
and product groups can be accommodated.
There is a cross-site search facility to locate
products by free text search term or product code.
Each item displays a picture along with pricing
information, volume price breaks and units of measure. Pricing
information is reflected directly from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV
solution. Any changes made to pricing information in the database are
automatically reflected on the website. This allows Solutions Group to
rapidly react to competitor pricing strategies or price fluctuations in
the supply chain.
Fig 1: Product presentation screen showing
product grouping in left-hand menu, with product image, description and
volume price break information in the central area.
Similarly individual items can quickly be displayed
as a special offer on the Home page to move surplus stock or end of line
goods. This is actioned by simply checking the “On Special Offer” box on
the individual product item card within the Microsoft Dynamics NAV
database. The exact text to appear with the special offer is also
configured here (see Fig 2). The top 5 selling items are also displayed
to the customer on the Home page.
The site will also display cross-sell information to
show items that other customers have purchased. Again, the cross-sell
information for an item is configured on the item card within the
Microsoft Dynamics NAV database in a simple table format.
Fig 2: Special Offer Item Card configuration screen
in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV database with corresponding display
element from the web-shop.
Order Entry & Checkout
Regular customers can take advantage of a “Quick
Order” function to allow them to rapidly enter item codes and required
quantities for purchase (see Fig 3).
Fig 3: Quick order entry form.
Customer selections are summarised in the Shopping
Basket which displays the items and quantities selected, along with
total/unit prices and any volume price break information available to
the customer.
Quantities can be amended and recalculated, or
removed from the basket at this point. This area also displays other
useful account information to the customer, for example; current account
balance, credit limit and available credit amounts (see Fig 4). Orders
can also be saved for processing at a later time.
Fig 4: The secure shopping basket and checkout
screen, with additional account status information (circled).
Orders taken via the web-shop are stored temporarily
in a holding table ready for import into the Microsoft Dynamics NAV
database. The import process takes places every 1 minute. This is a
configurable timed event which can be set to occur automatically at
specific intervals or by manual execution. The import process generates
order confirmation emails which are automatically sent to the customer.
Account Admin
An Account Administration screen is provided to allow the customer
to view order history, view saved orders or to change their account
access password. The user is required to re-enter account login and
password credentials to perform any of these tasks.
Online customers are also allocated their nearest
Solutions Group Trade Counter. The information displayed to the customer
on the contact details screen is dynamic and is dependent upon which
branch bas been allocated on the customer card within the Microsoft
Dynamics NAV Database.
The Solution Benefits
“The system was deployed to reflect exactly how we
wished to work.” recalls Managing Director, Grant Lester. “The project
was completed to very tight timescales and within budget. We can now
offer our customers an unparalleled level of service and ease of access
to our products and services. In return, high customer retention and
repeat business will help us to realise our future ambitious growth
plans.”
The increasing percentage of web-shop sales has
enabled Solutions Group to reduce the administrative cost per
transaction.
Lester continues, “The web-shop solution has
provided a versatile route to market which has enabled us to extend our
customer reach beyond our 15 trade counters. We are now able to
instantly react to competitive pressures or market changes, and we can
offer a new product to customers for purchase via the web-shop in a
matter of minutes. We have experienced a significant drop in the number
of customer service calls as customers take advantage of the
self-service web shop to access product information and account details
online.”
Software & Hardware Overview
- Anglia Reflective E-Commerce Technology Suite
- Visual Studio .Net 2005
- ASP.NET 2.0
- Windows Server 2003
- Microsoft DynamicsTM NAV 3.60
- SQL Server 2000
- Dell Server Hardware
For further information contact:
Anglia Business Solutions Ltd
Tel: 0123 873400