Cloudflight

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of a large pharmacy e-commerce company with a chain of physical stores in Poland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with divante?

We wanted to create a mobile application where patients can see the availability of certain medicine and prescriptions in selected pharmacies. The divante team is helping us with this challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

divante started by conducting interviews with our customers to see whether an app would meet their needs and to establish how the main flow of the interface should be. Based on that, their team then came up with a high-level mockup and a proof of concept that they eventually turned into an MVP. They’ve also redeveloped our website from scratch in conjunction with the app, using Pimcore for the backend and Vue.js for the frontend.

The key feature of the app is the ability to search for medicine from all of our pharmacies by manual searching or by scanning the barcode on the medicine’s packaging. Users can check on the map which pharmacies nearest them had the product available. They can then book those products through the app, which links to the system of a particular store. A notification will arrive informing the user when their medicine is ready to be collected or picked up.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 4–8 people.

How did you come to work with divante?

I’ve known divante from a previous project. They contacted me to see if we had any new needs or opportunities for them to work with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $500,000–$1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in May 2019 and launched the app in April 2020. divante is still working on leveling up and maintaining the app and website.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The launched app has gone from having zero users to now having 1,500–1,600 registered accounts, with 5,000 product reservations being done monthly. 

How did divante perform from a project management standpoint?

Their agile project management is really good, and they go through the development in iterations. divante is very transparent in terms of budgeting and the cost of each phase of the project. I have no objections; they are very professional.

We use a combination of Slack, Jira, and regular conference calls to communicate

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their agility distinguishes them from other providers. They have the ability to work in a truly agile way. 

Another impressive thing about divante is their technical skills which supplemented their initial UX, customer, and technology research. They’ve been a one-stop shop for all our e-commerce needs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s been a very successful project and I’ve been very satisfied, so I really cannot find anything negative to say about their services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start with a proof of concept and do some basic customer research before going full-scale with divante. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital at W.EG. CEE, a business unit of the German Würth Group, which is a world market leader in the trade of assembly and fastening material. W.EG. is the Würth Group’s Electrical Wholesale unit, which is one of the leading electrical wholesalers on the European market. 

We are 17 companies in Europe and they are distributed between Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Italy, and Spain. We have 5,500 people working for our business unit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Divante?

Many of our companies had been acquired during the last four years — we acquired 7–8 companies. A few years ago, we identified for our unit that one of the most important topics is product information management (PIM) system. We needed to digitize our products and catalogs. We needed a solution that would meet the requirements of all of our companies. 

The challenges here are we have companies in various countries and various languages and sizes of companies. We have a huge amount of items because we’re selling items from international suppliers and the average company has an assortment between 500,000-1 million items. 

The challenge is to collect those items and then to import those items to the PIM system and prepare them to be published on our various channels like e-commerce or printing material. With the challenges of different countries, different sizes of companies, and the number of our products, we needed a PIM system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The basis of our PIM system is Pimcore, an existing open-source solution. Divante is one of the implementation partners. We used this PIM system as the basis for our project. 

Based on Pimcore, we built our PIM system for the various companies. We added quite a lot of additional functionalities because our industry has a few very specific requirements, especially when it comes to the import of products and catalogs that we receive from our suppliers. There are different size formats and we needed to create the tools within PIM to easily import all the different formats. 

It was important for us to have a solution in October 2018 to go live and import the data and having basic functionalities for our internal job. From there, we have a roadmap for various projects to add functionalities and features, so that is what we’re continuing to work on with them. We’re continually streamlining the process, improving the software, and upgrading it with them. 

What is the team composition?

There have been 8–10 people involved, including a project manager, a technical architect, and developers.

How did you come to work with Divante?

During the demos, they were able to show that they have experience in our business because they’d worked with customers similar to us. They knew the language we were speaking. They’re a company in Central Eastern Europe where most of our companies are based so, from a geographical point of view, that made sense. 

The people from Divante have good language skills and the company has quite a few years of experience in the PIM and e-commerce market. They have around 250 people that are working for them and we felt quite comfortable with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €420,000 (approximately $506,500 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The most important thing was that we’re able to import and handle this huge amount of around one million items. From a performance point of view, there haven’t been any issues with their product. 

One of our most important goals was to be able to import the various file types and we can now map those import definitions on our own. We don’t need the support of technical teams. All of our companies are now live with e-commerce, which means the products are enriched and we have all the data we need. We now have various pictures of our items that are sent to our various e-commerce platforms and the technical documents are available. 

We’re happy with the work that’s been done. The product has made us quite autonomous and we can do the job on our own. We’re able to handle all of the items from various suppliers which was our main goal — they helped us reach it.

We exceeded the budget but it was because, during the implementation stage, we added additional requirements that weren’t foreseen in the initial budget.

How did Divante perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in an agile approach. We have weekly meetings where they show us the progress. For smaller things, we also have daily meetings. We’re always able to see how things are moving in the direction where we want them to go.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re doing really well and we like that we have direct contact together. We can talk directly with the developers and explain our business and requirements to them. Everything is documented and the communication is direct. We’ve really been able to reach our goals at the end of the day and create nice solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At the beginning, it wasn’t that clear how the project methodology was working. They weren’t able to explain it very well to us. During the project, we started to understand why a few processes were important and we had a very open discussion and the initial difficulties were resolved.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s very important that you are clear what the goal is and what you want to do. Also make sure to have the right people involved in the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

TIM S.A. is one of the biggest distributors of electro-technical goods in Poland. The company has been present in the market for over 25 years and combines great tradition with new e-commerce technologies, selling through our online shop (TIM.pl) and mobile version (mTIM). TIM, as the first company in this industry in Poland, decided to launch the online version of its store for individuals and B2B [business-to-business] buyers without the necessity of registration or logging in. In 2016, TIM.pl qualified for the finals of the Imagine Excellence Awards for The Best B2B User Experience. This is the official award given to the best online stores by Magento Inc., a provider of the leading online sales platform, used by over 250 thousand companies around the world.

I am the director of development & technology at TIM S.A.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Divante?

Given the changes in the world of today’s B2B distribution, we decided to follow market trends and diversify our selling channels. First, we built a small e-shop with cables (also with Divante), then decided to have a complete transformation from offline to online commerce.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We decided to build an e-commerce interface from scratch. Divante started with research, including competitor analysis, survey research, trend analysis, and industry reports. At that stage, they created personas that reflected the user groups we needed to design for. Afterward, we moved to the design phase. Divante ran the implementation and tests (functional integration, safety, and performance tests). Divante also helped us with choosing which technology to use, and we went with Magento.

How did you come to work with Divante?

We started working on this project with another agency that failed in their work on the user experience. Divante had great mock-ups, and they surprised us with a wide knowledge of e-commerce. That’s why we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with Divante?

The project cost over $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in March 2012 and ended in July 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

After the implementation of TIM.pl, we achieved most of our business goals: business diversity, new customers, and improved business effectiveness. It was also a financial success. In 2015 we noted 67% increase in sales through the online channel and over 130,000,000 EUR [US$139,834,500] in revenue, including 87,000,000 EUR [US$93,581,550] revenue from online channels.

What did you find most impressive about Divante?

Divante surprised us with their broad knowledge of e-commerce. They have great experience in the technologies they work on. Divante also has a strong team of customer experience specialists - designers, researchers, marketers, and analysts, who are very passionate about their work.

Are there any areas Divante could improve?

Divante focuses most on the technological aspects of their work, but they should be more business-oriented. It would be great if they could deliver new human resources to the project faster because it takes too long to make changes that arise from current needs.

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of your company.

CDP.PL is a globally recognized and awarded video games distributor and publisher in Poland. The company has focused its operational activities on the local market continuously since 1994. Our most notable current business partners are Blizzard Entertainment, Disney Interactive, Konami, Focus Home Interactive, Nordic Games, and Wizards of the Coast. We believe in an added value, wise life cycle management, and proactive marketing.

What is your role at the company?

I'm a co-owner acting as a CFO and COO and am also responsible for IT [information technology] and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached Divante?

There were a few challenges. First, we needed to rewrite our digital distribution platform to give us more flexibility and scalability. Second, we wanted to add a mail-order option without changing and complicating the sales path. Third, we sought to revamp the site graphics and visuals to show our digital and physical products clearly. Lastly, we needed all of this done very quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of the project, and can you describe the specific services provided by Divante?

The scope of the project included redesigning the website's graphics and UX [user experience], transitioning from the Spree platform to Magento, and extending the functionality of our mail-order sales. Divante was responsible for code writing, implementation and architecture of our new online shop engine. Another company, ArsThanea, was responsible for UX and website redesign.

What was your process for selecting them?

We searched for companies that could meet our business challenge, and would complement our style of work and our philosophy.

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project? 

The total cost of the project was between $200,000 and $500,000

When did the project begin, and when was it completed?

We first got the idea for this project during the last quarter of 2013. We started working with Divante at the beginning of 2014, and the project went live in January of 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project. Are there any metrics you can share?

The project is still very fresh, and we are still measuring the results, but we have definitely achieved all of our original target goals: a scalable modern platform and a beautifully responsive e-commerce platform that is simple to navigate.

How did they perform in terms of the quality of their work?

Divante managed to develop integrations and functionalities without any hassles or hold ups, and they were always eager to go the extra mile. We had no critical issues even after launching The Witcher 3, which generated huge traffic on the site.

Is there anything unique or special about Divante that really makes them stand out? 

They are very devoted to the project. They worked for 12 to 14 hours per day to meet our narrow deadlines. Divante also went the extra mile by suggesting a lot of architectural and even usability improvements as the development went along.

Looking back on the project, do you have any constructive criticism? Is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently?

In our case, the project was quite big, taking more than 7,000 man-hours to complete, so maintaining real-time information on progress proved difficult. That's one area where Divante could improve. However, using scrum techniques, we were quite well informed about deadline estimations and progress eventually.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a description of your company.

We are an FMCG [fast moving consumer goods] distributor. We are the main distributor in Poland for companies, such as P&G, 3M, SCJ, and Braun. 

What is your role at the company?

I’m the director of our contact center, I also oversee our e-commerce department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached Divante?

Divante has worked on several e-commerce projects for us. These projects have primarily revolved around integrating all our sales channels, such as sales reps, call centers, EDI [electronic data interchanges], and B2B [business-to-business] platforms, onto one consistent platform for both our B2C [business-to-consumer] and B2B operations.

What were your company’s business goals for the project?

Our goal was to make it easier for our customers to order from us. With an integrated sales channel, our customers would have more flexibility in the way they placed orders. We could also ensure they had the most up-to-date trade terms, promotions, and order history information.

SOLUTION

Can you talk about the scope of the project?

They were responsible for the full development and integration of our new B2B and B2C sales platforms.

What was your process for selecting Divante with which to work?

After we decided to go with Magento for our sales platform, the choice of Divante was quite obvious. They're very well known in that area. 

We've chosen to work with Divante on other projects based on our past success with them.

Can you give a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

In total, we've probably spent around $300,000.

When was the project completed?

It finished February 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project, and are there any metrics you can share?

It's too early to speak about the business results of the project, but we are very satisfied with the quality of their work.

How did Divante perform?

Divante performed very well. They have a very methodical way of doing things, which made for a very smooth project.

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies with which you may have worked?

Most of software companies say, "tell us exactly what do you need and we will program this for you." Particularly with our B2C platform, we had no experience and thus were unable to provide specific instructions. Divante consulted with us and gave us insights that went far beyond basic software implementation and coding.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently?

We did have a problem when they changed the project manager for our team, but they resolved this issue quickly.