"IT simply successful" is the slogan of BYTEC Bodry Technology GmbH, a leading German IT distributor based in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. In order to significantly strengthen its e-commerce sales channel, bytec is relying on INFOLOX's PXC (Product Experience Components) with a Sylius-based e-commerce module and prodexa's PIM 8 for its new content and commerce presence.
bytec distributes products for IT infrastructure, software-defined storage and databases, including servers, notebooks, DTP computers and IT accessories to system houses that serve corporate customers and public institutions of all sizes. Complex and high-priced products in particular are individually configured by bytec's customers.
"Although our business is largely volume-based and we process several thousand order items every day, configurable individuality in hardware is one of our greatest strengths. Offering individual configurations of our products is therefore our USP and the key to our long-standing success," says bytec Managing Director Reinhold Egenter.
In e-commerce, excellent product data is essential, and this is especially true for configurable products. That is why bytec decided to introduce a PIM system. At the same time, the existing merchandise management system was to continue to be used.
For the relaunch of its entire B2B content and commerce presence, bytec needed a fully integrated yet customised solution that could be connected to both a PIM system and merchandise management and offered a powerful configurator in addition to a convenient and fast B2B web shop. After a selection process, the decision was made in favour of INFOLOX's Product Experience Components with prodexa's PIM 8 system. INFOLOX also took on the analysis, design and implementation of the content and commerce solution, its operation in the cloud and the connection of third-party systems.
Eine besondere Herausforderung stellte hierbei das komplexe Preismodell dar. Dieses umfasst nicht nur kundenindividuelle Preise und Staffelpreise, sondern auch individuelle Rahmenverträge sowie Promotionpreise der Hersteller, die mit Bannern und Streichpreisen hervorgehoben werden. In Rahmenverträgen werden für B2B-Systempartner individuelle Pakete aus Produkten, Bestellmengen, Gültigkeitszeiträumen und Preisen vereinbart. Somit kann bei einem Partner ein Produkt mit mehreren individuellen Preisen und Verfügbarkeiten gleichzeitig vorliegen, das mehrfach angezeigt und durch den gesamten Shoppingprozess geführt werden muss. Alle betreffenden Elemente des E-Commerce-Systems, wie die Preisanzeige auf der Produktdetailseite, der Merkzettel, die Anzeige verfügbarer Rahmenverträge und natürlich der Einkaufswagen, wurden an dieses äußerst umfangreiche Multipricing angepasst.
In addition, all changes to prices, availability and framework agreements must be displayed in real time in the shop. To this end, INFOLOX developed and implemented a price engine with a database cluster that combines high availability and high performance.
The configurator must also meet specific requirements. Since bytec assembles a wide variety of products from multiple manufacturers, the configurator is cross-product and cross-manufacturer. It uses logic that allows complex relationships to be mapped using a simple set of configurable rule types.
This intelligence can be used to map any type of configurable product. Whether it's necessary or mutually exclusive components, minimum quantities, intervals, exclusion quantities, or maximum-minimum relationships: all of this can be easily mapped. In the front end, users are not only shown all available components for a configuration – any conflicts that arise and possible solutions are also clearly displayed. Since all product data is managed in the PIM, all data for the configurations is also managed there. This means that no separate back end is required for the "configuration of configurations", which greatly simplifies data maintenance.
Of course, the other modules of the Product Experience Components, such as product comparison, download centre, search and the editorial CMS part, are also used. Like the entire Product Experience Platform, the content and commerce solution for bytec is implemented in a modern MACH architecture: with microservices, API-first, cloud-native and headless.
"We were only able to implement our highly customised content and commerce presence with the support of a strong partner such as INFOLOX GmbH. It was particularly important to us that the INFOLOX team gained a deep understanding of our processes and business model. This was the only way INFOLOX could create this solution for us, which we successfully launched online in October 2022 after only a year and a half of project work," emphasises Egenter.
For INFOLOX, this project was an opportunity to combine all of the company's strengths in one focus, from analysis and technical design to technical implementation and the connection of various systems.
"At bytec, INFOLOX's e-commerce expertise was put to use in all its breadth and depth. In conjunction with PIM and merchandise management, INFOLOX Product Experience Components form a powerful basis on which individual modules complement the specific requirements of bytec. Working with bytec was very challenging and also particularly enjoyable," summarises Gunnar Fuelle, Managing Director of INFOLOX.
During implementation, a large number of additional requirements were already incorporated, which are now being implemented in an agile development process. In the coming months, the design, UX and, of course, the functionalities for customers and editors will be further optimised and comprehensively expanded.
