Since 2004, Natec has been active in the world of solar energy. Over the years, they have developed into a leading wholesaler on the global stage, specializing in A-brand solar products. Natec serves professional installation companies that deal with solar projects on a daily basis.
Challenge
Developing a customer portal was nothing new for Natec. Initially, they had the development and implementation of such a portal carried out together with another party. At the time, this portal matched the needs and wishes of Natec and their customers: it worked properly, and was simple and clear.
However, as Natec began to grow, challenges emerged. With an increase in customers, orders, and staff, there was a need for a more advanced customer portal. Natec needed a scalable and flexible platform with extensive functionalities and integrations. It had to be a customer portal that would increase customer value by proactively thinking with customers at a personalized level and offering solutions. A standard solution no longer met these requirements.
Solution
Unraveling the complexity of the first customer portal and developing a renewed, custom B2B customer portal was the long-term IT solution. For Natec, the customer portal serves not only as an ordering and communication platform but also as a development platform.
Solvy developed this customer portal using the Laravel framework, an open-source framework for building web applications with a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. It serves as a powerful tool for implementing complex backend logic with a structured and clear setup. Laravel also offers a wide range of useful functionalities that accelerate development, such as object-relational mapping (ORM), templates, routing, caching, and more — making it well-suited for custom solutions.
For Natec’s customer portal, Laravel was used for the following applications:
- Dashboard overviews
- Order management
- Product management
- Invoicing management
- ERP integrations
- ESB integrations
- Open API for customers and suppliers
- CRM components
- Sales reporting
- Database
- Invoicing management
User experience
Speed, insight, and user-friendliness.
The solar industry is undergoing disruption.
- How is the large volume of demand processed?
- How is stock distributed among customers?
- How is logistic handling efficiently managed?
So many questions and so many challenges. Solvy helps Natec tackle these challenges by incorporating business logic into the customer portal. With this approach, major issues are already addressed before the data reaches Business Central.
Would you like to take a look inside one of our clients' businesses? You can! We would be happy to take you to visit our clients and demonstrate our solutions in practice.
Customer Portal Explained
A B2B customer portal is an online platform for business customers. It is a secure and integrated web application in which companies, suppliers, and/or partners have access to specific and personalized information, tools, and functionalities relevant to their business interactions. This includes managing orders, viewing prices, products, and inventory, as well as support and communication.
Laravel
Custom Application in Laravel
Solvy developed this customer portal in the Laravel framework. But what is Laravel exactly?
Laravel is an open-source framework for developing web applications with a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. It is used to implement complex backend logic with a clean, organized structure. It also offers many useful functionalities for rapid development, such as object-relational mapping (ORM), templates, routing, caching and more.
Powerful, personal and scalable
With a custom customer portal as a development platform, Natec can now reach an even broader customer base and focus on achieving 100% digital revenue. (There is a reference video in Dutch below that shows the success story of Natec and explains how a personal touch, digitization and a reliable partner can be crucial for company growth in a rapidly evolving sector.)
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