HOPPECKE Introduces B2B Portal to Improve Automation and User Experience
A Leader in Manufacturing
HOPPECKE is a multinational industrial manufacturing company with twenty three subsidiaries in its home country of Germany and around the world. The company produces industrial battery systems and industrial storage solutions, including batteries for railway and metro systems, and emission-free driving technologies. Since 1927, HOPPECKE has been producing “Made in Germany” products that support renewable energy storage.
The company partnered with 3m5. in an effort to automate its customer service through an integrated B2B portal that would reduce the manual processes for managing documents. The decision to work with 3m5 stemmed from the agency’s extensive experience in multisite and performance optimization projects, along with its experience in internationalization and successfully integrating complex API’s for clients.
Setting the Objectives
The primary goal of the project was to support Hoppecke’s global operations through the creation of a multilingual platform that would feature improved automation of processes between HOPPECKE and its customers, which means e.g. the reduction of manual processes. The cornerstone of this project would be the integration of several third party solutions such as Azure for secure and effective management of customer profiles, along with providing a central platform for accessing important documents and improving the overall document management process through the use of Pimcore and its categorized document delivery.
Finally, training would need to be provided to HOPPECKE’s online editors in order to effectively use the new system. Delivering a scalable solution for an international organization was the overarching objective that the 3m5 team looked to meet as part of this project.
Third Party Integrations and Asset Management with TYPO3
The first step in the process was the integration of HOPPECKE’s customer portal into their existing system infrastructure. For this, 3m5. identified the following key systems for implementation:
- Content Management System: TYPO3
- Product Information Management (PIM) & Digital Asset Management (DAM): Pimcore
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Salesforce
- Identity & Access Management (IAM): Azure
While the first three systems were already in operational use, Azure’s Active Directory B2C was introduced as the solution for managing customer profiles and their access to external applications within the customer portal. To achieve this, Azure was integrated with the existing TYPO3 content management system, along with Pimcore, which stored the documents that customers would need to access.
In addition to public documents (e.g. brochures, data sheets, certificates), the customer portal also provides other documents with limited visibility (e.g. photos, case studies, price lists). Previously, these documents were sent using manual processes. The improved and automated self-service has reduced the number of manual transactions between the two parties. In addition, registered users now have the option of entering personal data. This makes it possible to provide targeted and personalized relevant information according to needs.
As part of the process, training sessions were provided to Hoppecke’s online editors to ensure that they could successfully use the new system.
A New Digital Portal
Upon the completion of the portal, the impact was immediately clear. From the significant reduction in time to complete existing processes due to increased automation, to the improved user experience and access to personalized information, users of the B2B portal were able to streamline their workflows and benefit from increased efficiency. The integration of new systems like Azure Active Directory B2C enabled improved management of customer profiles with personalized information.
With regard to the future roadmap, an expansion of the portal to accommodate additional services and languages has already been implemented. Furthermore, more recent developments to the system focused on improving HOPPECKE’s calculation software through the implementation of a React-based web application which determines the optimal battery configuration and presents the results with a corresponding performance curve.
This new application drastically reduces calculation times, with users now being able to perform thousands of battery calculations in seconds, and benefit from real-time updates to the performance curves.
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