Custom manufacturing worldwide: How JANSSENS Alusystems ensures seamless order and delivery flow

Motivating dealers worldwide to make custom sales

JANSSENS knocked on iO's door in 2018. The manufacturer of quality greenhouses was looking for a way to support its global network of dealers and ensure that they could offer superior sales services to their customers. Catalogues and technical information sheets are certainly not enough, the organisation needed to present their products clearly, supported by a strong order and delivery flow. And helping to develop them is perfect for our iO experts. We started by developing a dealer portal and 3D configurator that allows dealers and customers to design, order and monitor the Alusystems greenhouses easily.

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Challenge

JANSSENS Alusystems wants to improve customer experience and simplify the purchasing process. It aims to guarantee its dealers and customers that their orders are placed, processed and delivered in the correct configuration and at the right price.

Solution

iO developed a dealer portal with a 3D configuration tool seamlessly integrated with JANSSENS' ordering, delivery and invoicing systems. This allows dealers (and their customers) to easily configure, order and track their greenhouse purchases.

JANSSENS and iO: a flourishing partnership

JANSSENS, a Belgian family business, produces high-quality aluminium greenhouses, garden rooms and orangeries. In addition to standard models, they also offer tailor-made models, assembled according to people's needs. JANSSENS distributes these products through a international dealer network in Europe, Scandinavia and America.

Since 2018, JANSSENS has called on us as their long-term partner to support their dealers with a digitised sales flow from a dealer portal with a 3D configuration tool. Our partnership continues to evolve, with continuous updates and extensions to the tool to meet the ever-changing needs of the market.

Pioneer in digital 3D configuration

The style, the dimensions, the RAL colour and the many options around decorative features, installation and glass panels ... Everyone who orders a JANSSENS custom-made greenhouse has countless options. That doesn’t make the choice any easier for potential customers. How can a dealer give prospects the information they need to decide to buy? The iO team took a closer look at this challenge and proposed developing a multipurpose dealer portal site to run a configuration tool that includes all custom parameters. This tool was the first step in a digitised sales process that would eventually be embedded in JANSSENS online systems.

Based on iO’s user research and the target group’s responses that were gathered from questions from the dealer network, we improved the configuration tool, built with the Three.js framework, and seamlessly integrated it into the JANSSENS dealer platform. We built the backend in Symfony to allow dealers to work more closely with the greenhouse manufacturer, linked to JANSSENS' order, delivery and invoicing systems.

Digitised sales flow: more efficiency

Distributors have to be able to easily customise their offer in the JANSSENS dealer portal and 3D configurator. After all, not all dealers carry the same models and run the same promotions, and the 3D configurator has to accommodate this. So we made sure that dealers could easily create a personalised page using an iFrame, that they can load the configurator with their preferences on their website. This tool page showcases their logo and branding, giving the configurator the appearance that it is part of their website, while it remains part of the JANSSENS portal.

Superior experiences for customers and dealers

With the dealer as a trusted advisor, buyers can put their dream greenhouse together on the iFrame screen with confidence. The dealer gives them a price and delivery date on the spot, and the customer leaves with the certainty that their order has been placed on the JANSSENS order and delivery flow portal. Thanks to Symfony, the configurator is connected to the JANSSENS order and delivery system. So they can provide customers with a quote, place an order and then confirm the delivery seamlessly.

Customers who register on the dealer's website can also work with the 3D tool themselves – to a limited extent. They can put their ideal greenhouse together, save, print it as a PDF and save it to their account that they can access later with a code. However, this is not an online shop, they still have to visit the dealer to complete their order.

Results: Exceptional customer experiences

Thanks to the dealer portal with its 3D configurator and seamless connection to its order flow, JANSSENS has not only streamlined the sales processes for their dealers, but also significantly improved customer experiences.

Dealers experience their partnership with the greenhouse manufacturer with added value: the dealer portal reduces the margin of error to almost zero, provides greater transparency in price calculations, model options and follow-up of order and delivery. In turn, dealers offer their customers an exceptional order experience. This builds confidence and loyalty for the JANSSENS brand.

The partnership with iO continues to evolve, with continuous updates and expansions of the tool to meet the changing needs of the market.