For keeping a competitive edge Wasco develops its own on-demand catalogue in 5 weeks with the OutSystems Agile Platform

The Challenge:

• Wasco is a Dutch wholesaler that offers a wide range of products, spare parts and support services for the heating and sanitary sector;
• Wasco sells spare parts predominantly to technical services companies, whose engineers install and repair equipment at customer sites;
• In line with its strategy for keeping a competitive edge through innovation, Wasco came up with a very simple and yet innovative idea – make its catalogue available on-demand;
• The key objective was to allow service engineers to access the company product offerings when they were at the installation site. The main goal was to accelerate service delivery by simplifying and speeding up the selection and ordering of the most appropriate products;
• Wasco wanted the new web business application to be ready in 5 weeks, in time for an upcoming trade show where it would be introduced to its customer base;
• Being an innovation driven company, Wasco set an extra challenge – make this application flexible enough to easily reflect evolving business requirements and at the same time leverage previous IT investments. 

The Solution:

After evaluating several available options, Wasco chose the OutSystems Agile Platform to create Wasco Mobile. This web business application, which includes PDA and Smartphone interfaces, was delivered on the tight 5 week timeline with the following relevant features:

• Full access to Wasco’s catalogue - Product descriptions, detailed views, stock info and net prices for over 450,000 products immediately accessible to service professionals;
• Fast and accurate product search - A customized search (tree structure) provides fast and easy product selection and catalogue browsing. This simplifies product identification and minimizes risk of ordering wrong items;
• Real-time ordering - Wasco’s customers may order the product in real-time, from their PDA or Smartphone. The application displays a user-friendly shopping cart, which makes it easy to confirm or change an order;
• Secured customer area - To order products and to see net pricing, customers usually must register and login. Wasco chose to make its catalogue public, allowing everyone to browse it and see gross pricing with no need to login. This drove new business from interest in the service;
• ERP integration - Wasco Mobile catalogue is integrated with the company’s ERP, ensuring that all information is fully aligned, up to date and available to the business. 

Results:

• Business Alignment - Following OutSystems Agile Methodology, frequent iterations with business users allowed for constant feature prioritization. This ensuring on time delivery and an application that meets business’ expectations. On-going requirements are easily added with minimal effort;
• Integration - The Agile Platform’s integration capabilities and support for Web Services allowed Wasco to leverage its previous IT investments while minimizing the risks typically associated with integration projects;
• Fast time to market - The Agile Platform’s visual development environment and productivity enhancement tools provided a development environment able to integrate, assemble and deploy this solution very fast, in only 5 weeks.

About Wasco:

Wasco is a Dutch wholesaler that offers a wide range of products, spare parts and support services for the heating and sanitary sector. The company supplies a range of more than 450,000 items with a 24 hour delivery guarantee from state-of-the-art distribution centers in Twello and Rotterdam. Wasco is part of the stock market listed Wolseley enterprise.

Visit Wasco website