silver.solutions is a service provider for B2B e-commerce solutions. Since 2000, the Berlin-based company has been developing powerful online platforms, B2B shops and integration solutions for companies from the technical trade and other industries. silver.solutions advises companies on their digital strategy and has realised more than 200 customer projects.
Tyczka Energy is one of Germany's leading specialists in the field of LPG. The medium-sized company has many years of experience in procurement, logistics with tank and tanker trucks, as well as the storage of liquefied petroleum gas and bottling. Tyczka Energy's head office is in Geretsried, Bavaria. The company has two service centres in Geretsried and Leipzig as well as more than a dozen warehouses and bottling plants for the nationwide supply of customers.
K3 Innovation, as the general contractor, requested the participation of silver.solutions as a specialist for the integration of the SAP system. The aim of the joint project was to set up an extranet solution for Tyczka Energy (formerly Tyczka Totalgaz), which initially targeted the German market. The new online customer area is aimed at both private and business customers. Both tank and bottled gas orders can be handled comfortably in the online customer area. In the background, the extranet also facilitates the work processes for the employees. Parallel to the extranet, K3 Innovations relaunched the website based on Ibexa.
The Solution in Detail
The project was implemented in partnership with K3 Innovationen.
The silver.basic shop solution is used for the online customer area, which communicates with the customer's SAP system via the Web-Connector for SAP. The main data source for the item master file, the customer data as well as the pricing information and delivery conditions is stored in SAP. In the Ibexa environment, these data are supplemented with marketing content and further information. The connection to SAP makes it possible to offer customer-specific conditions in real-time. The bottled gas ordering system graphically represents the pallets filled by the customer, thus facilitating the ordering of bottled gas.
Tyczka Totalgaz customers will in future be able quickly and easily to report meter status online, simultaneously reviewing their gas consumption as compared with the last report at any time. Via the "My Tytogaz" feature, customers can easily download invoices and manage their data online.
For questions there is a callback function intended further to improve customer communication. With just one click, customers can enter their query in a form and ask for a call-back by stating their telephone number and the desired call-back time. The service staff will then contact them to resolve the query in person.
A function that is particularly important for business customers is the differentiated operating facilities and offices selection option for goods recipients as well as a targeted selection of the meters and containers required at each site. Orders can also be placed for ongoing deliveries at intervals determined by the customer.
In the extranet, service center staff are provided with special functions to manage customer requirement mixes and ongoing deliveries, as well as tools to facilitate customer support and advisory tasks.
The result
Following the relaunch, the website presents customers with a fresh, modern and informative look. In combination with the new extranet, it means a substantial improvement for Tyczka's customer service. Customers are no longer hampered by opening hours and can place their orders, download their bills, or send inquiries at any time of the day or night, even while off site. There is also a first-time integration into the ERP system, optimizing the customer's business processes. At the same time, this also results in clear costs savings due to the broad automation of many of the processes involved. The open interfaces and the modular structure of the software ensure that the solution can be further developed and adapted to new requirements in future projects.
I particularly like the fact that everything happens so quickly and easily, and that with the clearly structured price viewing feature I immediately know how much my order will cost. Also any errors in the ordering process become immediately apparent - I know that once, when ordering pallets, I entered 12 instead of one. This resulted in an unexpectedly high total being shown - so I immediately noticed that something had to be wrong.
