Challenge

Hynds Group operates multiple brands Hynds Pipe Systems, Hygrade Water, Waters & Farr, to name a few. All were based on the same core process and capability. As a traditional manufacturing business, Hynds' processes were built around monolithic ERP capabilities. These were manual (phone calls, emails and paper-based) across all stages of the customer lifecycle - from ordering, to manufacture, to delivery, to invoicing, to stock levels, to account management. The business performed well in spite of this.

The need for digitalisation was recognised in order to modernise and act on the opportunity to leapfrog competition be a sector leader in digital experiences and most importantly, provide a great B2B digital experience.

The vision was to build a Microservices and API-based B2B ecosystem that would digitally deliver all manual operations, and give their business customers a modern, digital experience. MyHynds - the B2B customer portal of Hynds Pipe Systems was the solution, to be built on a MACH Architecture. Multiple options were tabled to eliminate the risky manual processes that under-pined the business.

Strategy

Hynds embarked on a transformative journey to digitalize its operations, focusing on enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency. The initiative was structured into three phases, each meticulously planned to manage change and introduce new capabilities seamlessly. The transition from paper to digital was managed with a customer-centric approach, ensuring each customer adapted comfortably to the new system.

Phase 1: MVP Development

The first phase involved creating a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to lay the foundation for the new system. The core objective was to develop the MyHynds customer portal, allowing users to self-serve digitally. This portal provided access to crucial information such as invoices, product availability, and order updates, leveraging native APIs and new microservices built on top of Infor M3. A secure authentication system using Auth0 was implemented, and customers were empowered to manage user roles and permissions within the portal.

Key components of this phase included:

• Setting up customer profiles and accounts.
• Securing the system with Auth0 for authentication.
• Providing digital access to essential documents and information.
• Developing microservices to extract and display data from Infor M3.
• Laying the groundwork for a robust microservice and API layer.

Phase 2: Enhancing Functionality

Building on the foundations, Phase 2 focused on expanding the portal's capabilities. This included the development of new microservices to facilitate quote and order processing and the ability to export invoices and statements into clients' financial systems for streamlined reconciliation. Additional features such as bulk ordering and support for parent-child account structures were also introduced.

Highlights of this phase:

• Development of microservices for quotes and orders.
• Exporting of Client’s financial documents.
• Introduction of bulk ordering options.
• Support for complex account structures.

Phase 3: Enriching Customer Experience

The final phase aimed at enhancing the digital customer experience by introducing an e-catalogue, enriched with content and imagery from Kontent.ai, and custom pricing features. An advanced search service powered by Algolia was implemented, enabling efficient navigation of the product catalogue. Additionally, a Content Gateway API was developed to control access to inventory and content, supporting third-party product development. An early proof of concept for a Shopify store was also introduced, catering to retail customers outside the traditional account framework.

Key achievements in this phase:

• Launch of an e-catalogue with enhanced content.
• Implementation of customer pricing within the portal.
• Deployment of Algolia for advanced search capabilities.
• Development of a Content Gateway API.

The deployment of the MACH platform has enabled Hynds to start planning a series of future projects aimed at:

• new commerce solutions
• near real-time inventory
• manufacturing efficiency

The business is now able to test and validate new offerings quickly and run pilots in quick succession delivering significant business value and business-customer improvements.

Method

MyHynds is built as a B2B Customer portal with OutSystems, integrated to InforM3 via API's/Microservices, Auth0 for authentication, Algolia for search, GCP for integration, and Kontent.ai for content/assets/imagery. The philosophy for the approach was based on building a central capability that was loosely coupled, scalable and secure, to serve the needs of multiple business units, and fundamentally to deliver a great digital experience for both, our business 3 of 3 customers, and our technology consumers. An API and Microservice architecture was always part of the solution. When we initially set out we called it SoA (service-oriented architecture), but Maker.Tech quickly moved it to a MACH Architecture. Maker.Tech brought in various composable technologies, cloud-native, and headless, to power our industry-leading B2B customer platform. They introduced Kontent.ai, Algolia, Auth0, AWS, and GCP, to help us land on a future-proof, scalable, secure MACH-architected technology platform.

The main philosophy we held true to was ensuring our future wasn't hamstrung with tight coupling but instead was underpinned with loose coupling and ease of integration, with tools that deliver exceptional business customer and developer experience. We wanted a capability that could serve internal and external parties securely.

Considering the target audience was predominantly businesses in the construction industry, it was a prudent decision to focus our efforts on stability, scalability, security and data pipelines. Instead of focusing efforts on a custom UI layer, we opted for a low-code platform called Outsystems.

These are all services exposed securely so Hynds Pipe Systems has the ability to test and trial but also the architecture is in place for the rest of Hynds Group to also leverage for their own initiatives eg. :

• Additional business unit-specific customer portals
• near real-time inventory
• manufacturing efficiency (RFID scanners integrated ERP)