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~ Intershop ~
Therefore, it is crucial to kick off with a deep dive into be left out or replaced by new, out-of-the-box features.
your organisation, clients, processes, IT landscape, etc. This This allowed us to first focus on the basics needed for an
is the best way for your partner to get to know you and initial launch that had to support the running business.
your business, share knowledge and experience and jointly This main goal prevented us from distractions and
make the right decisions towards solution design and internal discussions that could hinder the first release,”
approach. Especially in the case of complex integrations Freddy adds. When defining what functionalities must
with multiple ERP’s, it is essential to create blueprints be part of the MVP, make sure they add significant value
at an early stage together. Next to your clients, it is also to the platform and dare to say no if they don’t. Try to
crucial to involve the business and the most important continuously find the optimal balance between business
people who will be working with the new platform. value and implementation costs.
Ensuring their involvement from the beginning helps with
making difficult decisions and adopting the new platform. Free up the right resources and give them mandate
A well-executed definition phase creates a solid base and “Another important part of success is that we, as a client,
enables the much-needed flexibility for the development also realised that we had to invest a lot of time into the
phase. collaboration. We knew that a project like this would
be a joint effort. We, therefore, involved people in the
Work agile project who had a track record within the organisation
Freddy says: “When looking for a partner, Intershop and understood the business. They were freed up to spend
suggested working with Evident because of their a significant amount of their time helping the project
experience with both Intershop and B2B. More specifically, succeed. This dedication also justified their mandate to
because of their focus on the B2B aftermarket and spare make decisions based on business value and feasibility,
parts business. We also chose Evident because they work which is very important in an agile way of working.”
in an agile way. Agile/Scrum is a methodology that we
knew we needed to be able to meet the tight deadline and Look beyond your region to attract expertise
budget we had while coping with existing uncertainties. “Based on Intershop’s advice, we selected Evident as our
We especially appreciated the frequent releases, as well implementation partner. To be honest, this was a difficult
as the clear communication lines and insights that were choice, as Evident is primarily based in the Netherlands
Text: Nico Hoeijmans // Photos: Dagmar Sporck, Drestige
provided every week. We created a rhythm together, and Portugal. But they convinced us that a combination of
continuously steering the project in the right direction. working remotely, in an agile way, and being regularly on
Because ready-to-use features were delivered every two location in Germany during the process should do the job.
weeks, we were also able to continuously add content to the And then, just when we started the development phase,
platform, instead of having to wait until the very end of the the COVID-19 situation arose. Luckily, the key team
development phase. This was a huge time-saver.” members already knew each other very well, and we’d built-
up experience in working remotely. We brought the whole
Share complexities with your partner Dynapac-Evident team together and defined a new optimal
Creating this user-friendly and smooth client portal way of communicating and working together. We adjusted
required quite a few complex integrations. “A good quickly and experienced literally no hiccups during the
example of the pragmatic partnership with Evident was development phase. We did miss the get-togethers, dinners
that we divided the complexity between ourselves. Instead and celebrations, though. But we will make that up one
of pointing at each other, or ignoring challenging tasks, day,” Freddy says.
we analysed where the complexities were, and decided
together by whom they were best addressed. Thus, equally Dynapac discovered that this situation also offers an
sharing and embracing the challenges in an open and true opportunity. “Since everyone’s working remotely, this
partnership. So, don’t just expect everything to be handled means you can look beyond the region you are active in to
by your partner, but take joint responsibility for success,” find the very best fitting partner out there. Partners and
says Freddy. team members can be selected based on their experience
instead of their geographical location. This opens up huge
Start with an MVP and stay focused potential for new partnerships and recruitment,” Freddy
To meet the tight deadline, Dynapac took the approach of adds. ••e Descartes pixi whitepaper:
starting with the basics. “We created an MVP and stayed
away from all the extras and extravagant requirements
for the first phase. We also analysed what functionality
from the existing platform was not essential and could
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS B2B COMMERCE SOLUTION? PLEASE VISIT WWW.EVIDENT.NL OR WWW.INTERSHOP.COM
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