Collaborate to Create
Concretely, we carried out a vast discovery and strategy planning phase to grasp every particularity in Agri-Marché’s business sector, as well as its existing processes and its extensive product and service offer. Simultaneously, the audit of existing technological tools enabled us to correlate them to business needs and to create a roadmap for the deployment of the portal.
Managing Documents
Our close partnership with the client allowed us to concentrate an important and constant volume of orders, invoices, news, and messages all in one place.
To conform to the complexity of the farms’ organizational structure, we implemented a perfected model enabling account creation, flexible data structure and secure management of access to increase customization and safety.
Customizing Online Orders
This versatile functionality enables Agri-Marché to personalize the most relevant products for each client based on their last order, their representative’s recommendations, and the availability of products. As for clients, they can now place orders and plan the delivery date according to their needs.
"Order personalization reduces the number of clicks required in the ordering process as information is entered based on the customer's habits. In our industry, this is a priority because our customers are asked to do a lot of things. In addition, this function minimizes the risk of error during the ordering process."
Business and User Access Management
Listing and grouping all the companies allowed to get a global picture of the company structure, as well as to manage Agri-Marché’s multiple divisions while giving access to the portal to each representative. To do so, we developed a notification system that makes it easy to share information with customers and company representatives.
The web app also allows to manage and to organize each employee and representative by distinctive farm. The employees and representatives can manage their orders individually and the owner can have an overview of all the transactions made on the portal.
"Our customers are business owners who need to monitor their supply daily. Our site allows us to modulate the delivery of documentation according to the structure or management method. Both small and large companies get a solution tailored to their needs. In a small business, the owner can receive notifications on his mobile phone related to the operation of his business, while documents related to the administration can be sent to him by e-mail. For a larger business, it is possible for the owner to provide customized access to the various employees. Thus, he can manage the information and privileges granted to his staff as he sees fit."
Processing Large Volumes of Third-Party Data
Because we need to process an important quantity of data provided by a third party ERP, followed by research and filter applications, this type of project represents a real challenge. We started by analyzing the ERP’s architecture to determine how to transform this data and store it in the client portal. In parallel and in collaboration with the Agri-Marché IT team, we validated and integrated hundreds of users, whom all received access to the portal as soon as it was online.
Conclusion
Outcomes
The result of rigorous work, the Agri-Access Portal has been highly praised by its users. In fact, the initial goal of achieving a 50% adoption rate for the application was met right at launch. Today, more than 85% of Agri-Marché’s customers use the Agri-Access Portal, with a steady increase in orders placed through the platform.
Evolution
As part of an ongoing commitment to continuous improvement, nventive continues to collaborate with Agri-Marché to enhance the portal with new features. Since the solution’s deployment, we have developed the Grain Bank functionality, allowing each agricultural producer to monitor their available inventory levels. The grain (corn, soybeans, etc.) stored at Agri-Marché can then be used as raw material for animal feed production, enabling producers to better manage their resources and reduce purchasing costs.
We have also integrated the full range of JNB Agricole products, a company within Groupe Brochu, so that their products can be added to the shopping cart and incorporated into the existing ordering process. A new tab now allows users to browse the complete product offering, with filtering and search options for a more optimized navigation experience. When the shopping cart is submitted, the items are automatically sorted to generate separate purchase lists—one for Agri-Marché and another for JNB’s customer service team.
