Voith

INCREASED SALES THANKS TO B2B PLATFORM

The customer

Founded in 1867 in Heidenheim, Germany, Voith is now a globally active technology group with over 19,000 employees at more than 250 locations and annual sales of 4.3 billion euros (2018). The broad portfolio of systems, products, services and digital applications serves five essential markets in all regions of the world: energy, oil and gas, paper, raw materials, and transport and automotive.

AT A GLANCE

KUNDE: Voith
INDUSTRY: Mechanical engineering (paper industry, hydropower, drive and brake systems)
PROJEKT: Voith webshop
SOLUTION: B2B e-commerce / Configurator
TECHNOLOGIES: React.js, Node.js

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

Platform solution for the Voith divisions Voith-Paper, Voith-Turbo and Voith-Hydro for configuration and ordering of products and spare parts as well as the possibility to connect further divisions or shops
Increase in spare parts sales with a simultaneous relief of the sales departments
Improvement of the customer experience through intuitive usability and many features

The challenge

After the spare parts shop for Voith Paper went live as early as 2015, Voith approached Plan Software in 2018 to develop the successfully operated first shop solution across the Group into a cross-industry portal that can be used by all divisions (Voith Paper, Voith Hydro, Voith Turbo). The aim was not only to display different functionalities for the individual industries, but also different user interfaces. These were not to be individually programmed, but generated under data control. Furthermore, a connection to various ERP systems (SAP, Microsoft NAV, JD-Edwards) had to be integrated. These interfaces had to be integrated in such a way that other ERP systems could also be easily added in the future. With a data volume of several million materials, it was a challenge to guarantee response times of less than two seconds for the various search options. In addition, configurators for over 100 complex products were to be integrated into the portal solution. It should also be possible to order the configurations directly via mouse click.

The solution

In an agile project, Plan Software implemented the requirements in a very tight time frame within a development partnership with Voith, using standard components based on state-of-the-art technology. The web portal is designed in such a way that data from different data sources (ERP systems, PIM) are transferred and synchronized daily. It provides users with a variety of search options and offers the possibility of convenient checkout and direct ordering in Voith’s ERP systems. The sales departments experienced a noticeable relief, as customers can now configure their individual products themselves and order them directly. With the web shop solution, special attention was given to an outstanding user experience, which is also reflected in features such as insight into original deliveries, customer-specific prices, shopping basket transfer, partial deliveries, clickable drawings, etc. In the meantime, the solution has been rolled out worldwide for all divisions and is generating a significant contribution to group sales. The web portal has become an important touchpoint in customer relations and represents an important tool in customer communication for the own sales department.
we solved it.