NOD’s eCommerce Platform Enhanced for Improved Operations and Partner Integration

The Overview

NOD’s eCommerce platform is now prepared for future technology developments, thanks to the flexible architecture that will further improve the company’s operations. The new design has simplified the buying journey for both long-time customers and new businesses alike. It has also given NOD’s team better visibility over accounts, which in turn improves account management and maintenance.

For NOD partners, the eCommerce platform developed and redesigned by Zitec translates to:

• Easy access to product prices and stock availability
• An avenue to place orders and track them
• A system that can check invoices and payment progress

All while the platform’s main functionalities are available through an API (Application Programming Interface) that can be easily integrated by partners.

“We’ve been happy to count on Zitec in our journey to building a powerful B2B eCommerce platform that meets the needs of a complex ecosystem of partners, resellers, and customers. Given Zitec’s extensive experience in a diverse range of complex eCommerce projects, in our 10 years of partnership, we’ve been able to address multiple technical aspects and, through the flexible architecture we’ve built together, our platform is now ready for even more future technology developments.”

Florin-Adrian Șerbu
Product Owner, NOD

The Market

According to IDG, 63% of companies say customer satisfaction scores are the most important success factor of digital initiatives. However, as technology becomes more complex, tech sellers and resellers face more challenges in provisioning and integrating software, while delivering a seamless procurement experience for applications.

On top of that, maximizing customers’ spend, articulating the importance of innovative services to customers, and creating a positive lifecycle management experience are top priorities.

The Challenge

To help establish a powerful partner network, NOD approached Zitec to build a B2B eCommerce platform that meets the needs, expectations, and requirements of their vast ecosystem of partners, resellers, and customers.

By extending its solution portfolio, NOD’s long-term goal consisted of consolidating its market position as a top player in regional electro-IT distribution by:

• Improving customer experiences

• Resolving operational inefficiencies

• Addressing scalability limitations

The Solution

In order to support their goal, there were 3 main areas in which our teams were involved over the years:

1. B2B platform development

The NOD B2B eCommerce platform was built to offer resellers a digital shopping environment, allowing for basic stockpile purchase, reservation, and ordering. Moreover, it empowers NOD to honor its business response time of 24 hours delivery from ordering.

Developed in PHP, the platform uses a series of Microsoft technologies, such as:

• Windows Server
• IIS (as a web server)
• Apache Solr
• SQL server (for the database)

What’s more – the platform interconnects with the NOD ERP.

2. Platform functionalities

The Process

Over a decade of collaboration, Zitec developed a customer-focused B2B eCommerce platform through:

• Extensive collaboration between Zitec and NOD’s product management team. Through user interviews and stakeholder discussions, we identified the critical features and workflows needed to streamline the buying journey and improve account management.

• Agile Scrum methodologies, which allowed for addressing feedback and iteration. The phased rollout of the new design helped customers to transition without disrupting workflows.

• A customer test. The company decided to give its clients the possibility to choose between the new vs. old interface. The 70% adoption rate for the new interface served as validation for the new design.

• Integration with multiple tools and systems, including:

  • ERP SAP for data synchronization.

  • Cargus for delivery tracking.

  • HP iQuote for product configuration.

  • ElasticMail and Icecat for enhanced communication and product details.

Extensive testing ensured the platform was ready to handle real-world complexities, like managing stockpile purchases or processing large transaction volumes.

What’s next for NOD?

In its 20 years of existence, Network One Distribution (NOD) has become one of the leaders in tech distribution and reselling in the Romanian market due to its ongoing focus on customer experience. Zitec is proud to be a partner in this journey, supporting their B2B eCommerce platform development over the years and the recent redesign.

In the future, NOD aims to add new features to the platform, bring new tools to resellers, improve the API for diverse eCommerce needs, and expand to Europe.

If you want to learn more about this project or Zitec’s capabilities in eCommerce solutions, get in touch. Whenever you’re ready.