B2B store programming for Reininger AG with OXID eShop EE

Online store support and further development

Frankfurt-based Sanitätshaus Reininger AG(www.reininger-ag.de) is one of the most important full-service providers in Hesse and offers its customers a wide range of specialist medical retail services in the field of healthcare and preventative care: from orthopaedic and rehabilitation technology to medical technology, decubitus and wound care through to complete overall care concepts for care facilities. The range of services is rounded off by high-quality training, education and further training for employees, customers and even competitors.

Since 1999, the company has also been programming its own in-house industry software to electronically map its diverse business processes, which is successfully marketed throughout Germany under the product name "Sanifakt"(www.sanifakt.de). Reininger AG operates both a traditional retail store in Frankfurt am Main and an online store at www.reininger-shop.de on the technical basis of OXID eShop for the sale of medical supplies. eWorks was commissioned to develop this B2C store into a combined B2C and B2B store by programming customized B2B functions, which can now also be used by business customers such as care facilities in addition to telephone and fax orders in order to carry out ordering processes faster and more cost-efficiently.

Before the store programming began, the existing OXID eShop Community Edition (or OXID eShop CE) was migrated to an OXID eShop Enterprise Edition (or OXID eShop EE). The main reason for switching to OXID EE was its enterprise functions: User management, rights management, caching, load balancing, master-slave etc. As part of this OXID CE EE migration, an update to the current (at that time) version OXID eShop 5.0 was carried out at the same time. As an OXID partner, eWorks was responsible for the entire store migration and update process, from consulting in advance, including license procurement, to updating the OXID store and OXID modules, to migrating the OXID templates as part of the store web design.

At the beginning of the store implementation, the needs of its B2B customers were analyzed together with the client and compared with the standard functional scope of OXID eShop. The identified functional requirements were then implemented as part of a software development process lasting around six months, in which numerous store modules were individually programmed with OXID eShop, PHP 5 and MySQL to meet the B2B needs of Reininger AG. These programmed B2B extensions are intended to provide Reininger's corporate customers with the best possible support in their day-to-day ordering and controlling processes.

In the first development step, the Reininger online store was expanded to include the management of B2B customers: while OXID eShop considers all store customers as natural and independent persons, which is sufficient for B2C stores, B2B customers have a more complex structure: a B2B customer is not a person, but rather a company such as a care facility, which in turn is divided into organizational departments such as kitchen, purchasing and property management. Facilities and departments have facility managers or department heads who may - or may not - initiate orders of a certain type. To manage this data, the OXID database was expanded to include tables and fields for facilities, departments, cost centers and customer numbers, and corresponding maintenance masks were programmed for convenient data maintenance and seamlessly integrated into the OXID administration area. The OXID ordering process was extended to automatically store all store orders with the ordering institution, department, cost center and customer number - or not, if the orders are B2C orders. As customer management and order processing at Reininger AG are not carried out via the integrated merchandise management system in the OXID admin area, but via the ERP system Sanifakt, which is connected via an interface, the associated CSV interface for exporting customer and order data from OXID eShop to the backend system was also extended.

In the second development step, the web store of the Hessian full-service provider was expanded to include professional controlling functions to enable B2B customers to both restrict and monitor order processes. This individual programming enables facility managers, for example, to restrict the range of articles according to department in order to prevent accidental (or intentional) incorrect orders. If desired, facility managers can also receive an additional order confirmation email for all orders from their departments so that they can view, check and archive them. In addition, the functionality was developed to offer certain store articles exclusively for all B2B customers, certain B2B customers or (vice versa) only for B2C customers. At the request of Reininger's business customers, the possibility of a personal union was also created so that, for example, one and the same department manager can be assigned to several departments - in this case, the store automatically ensures that the ordering department is selected before each order process. The usual payment systems such as prepayment, cash on delivery, direct debit, credit card, PayPal etc. have been completely deactivated for B2B customers; instead, B2B invoicing is carried out directly to the respective company via a monthly collective invoice. Last but not least, the OXID store has been expanded to include detailed order statistics for B2B customers, which can be filtered, grouped, exported to Excel, printed and saved as a PDF.

In the third development step, numerous store functions were programmed directly into the web store for B2B customers to manage themselves ("self-service"), enabling them to make administrative changes themselves - without having to rely on the Frankfurt-based medical supply retailer's customer service, which is also significantly relieved. Thanks to these individually programmed store functions, new departments can be added and deactivated at any time, department managers can be appointed and dismissed and much more. The range of articles from which a department can order can also be edited. To ensure that the process is as error-free as possible with as little training and support effort as possible, various e-mail notifications have also been integrated to provide information about important issues: for example, when a department manager is changed, both the previous and the future department manager are automatically informed by e-mail. Despite this extensive self-administration by the store customers, all administration functions were also made available to the Reininger AG administration so that they can intervene and provide support at any time, anywhere and without restriction in the event of a problem.

In the fourth and final development stage, numerous store functions were programmed to "make life easier" (or ordering easier) for B2C and B2B customers. For example, an online order form was programmed that significantly speeds up mass orders in the sense of an order form and even allows recurring orders. Furthermore, extended search functions for searching for store articles were implemented, which are closely aligned with the article range and enable, for example, the search for a specific manufacturer.

During the entire software development process, great attention was paid to the ease of use of the new B2B functionalities for store customers. This is reflected in a particularly tidy web design with a high degree of clarity, self-explanatory controls and numerous e-mail notifications about all important store events. In addition, a comprehensive PDF manual was created for Reininger AG's business customers, which explains all store functions in detail and provides clear illustrations.

The Reininger B2B store saw the light of day as planned in late summer 2013. Since then, Reininger AG's business customers can no longer just place their orders by phone or on paper, but finally also via the online store. Reininger AG's private customers, on the other hand, continue to use their familiar online store and in some cases even benefit from the new functionalities, such as the improved article search in the store. Following the store implementation, the developed online store was migrated to a more powerful web server, which had previously been recommended and rented - thanks to the faster page delivery, customers of the store receive an even better user experience.

Following the launch of the migrated, updated and expanded web store, eWorks provides its client with continuous and reliable support for store operation: any tasks that arise are reported by the store operator by e-mail, telephone or ticket system, and eWorks implements these customer requests at short notice. In addition, eWorks is available to its client for technical consultations in order to plan the strategic further development of the web store - and contributes its own eCommerce experience gained over many years in the online store business. In 2014, the Reininger store was entered for the OXID eSales AG "Golden Cart Award" eCommerce prize. With eWorks, Reininger AG has a technically highly experienced eCommerce contact partner and can rely on the availability and expertise of the eWorks support team at all times, both for strategic business development and for day-to-day store operations.