The digital foundation of B2B sales at 3W Group

Customer story: a merger and a challenge

3W Group is a large, expansive organization in the building and plumbing materials distribution sector. In 2023, Tadmar joined the group. This was the tenth, and largest acquisition to date, in 3W's history - a deal that doubled the scale of its operations. When Tadmar joined the Group, 3W was already in the process of working on the foundations of digital transformation.

The story of 3W and Strix's cooperation began with the search for e-commerce solutions. In the course of joint analysis, the two companies came to the conclusion that the biggest and strategic area for improvement was the work of sales representatives. It was for them that the first digital tool had to be created - a system that would become the daily work environment and the starting point for further steps towards B2B e-commerce and the development of a Unified Commerce strategy.

The solution: a tailor-made Sales Panel

The impetus for launching the Sales Panel project was the need to improve the efficiency of the sales team's daily work. More than 500 sales representatives of the 3W Group are responsible every day for contacting customers and quoting specialized assortments. Previous tools, including the ERP system, were not suited to this role. The ERP system - inherently designed to handle internal processes - did not support smooth, intuitive quotation creation, nor did it allow for the rapid deployment of new employees who must operate with knowledge of tens of thousands of SKUs.

Strix came up with a proprietary, headless solution: the Sales Dashboard, which on the one hand resembles ERP in features designed for salespeople and managers, but on the other hand is much more flexible, easier to use and tailored to the realities of work - both in branches and in the field.

From the beginning, the project was ambitious. The client needed:

• A single place where salespeople create quotations and orders, have an overview of inventory and contractor data.
• Increase the efficiency of daily work: the panel was to allow tasks to be completed more efficiently by up to 30% and to prepare offers faster than before from any device, including when the salesman is on site at the customer's site. 
• Reducing the implementation time for new salespeople, down to a few days.
• Maximum simplification of the process - thanks to wizards (software that provides a kind of user interface, breaking down complex processes into smaller, easier-to-follow steps), prompts and automation.
• A solution that, on the one hand, will communicate with the ERP system in real time, and on the other - will take a large part of the tasks on itself, thus relieving the burden on the already heavily used system.
• The ability to adapt quickly: e.g. add new functionality, integrate with PIM or handheld scanners.
• A flexible process for managing offer prices and individual discounts under the conditions of price list integration with the ERP system.
• A convenient, modern panel for the sales division containing all the necessary modules, tools and functionalities used in daily work.

Strix did not just play the role of a service provider. From the beginning, the client treated the Strix team not just as a contractor, but as a consulting partner who understands both technology and business realities in B2B.

Scale: from an MVP to a platform for a thousand merchants

The project started in April 2024, and within nine months managed to launch the MVP for the first company and a month later for the next one.

What was created?

• A sales dashboard supporting two independent teams: 3W and Tadmar.
• A system that integrates with ERP, which enabled a "soft transition"-no downtime for the business.
• Headless architecture, based on Magento, allowing for quick deployments and expansions.
• Modules to facilitate quoting for salespeople and user and role management for administrators.
• Responsive solutions: e.g. integration with handheld scanners, personalization of offers.

In the end, the sales panel included nearly a thousand active users. Importantly, it is used not only by sales, but also by directors, managers or the board, e.g. for accepting offers.

In parallel with the construction of the Panel, the implementation of the Ergonode PIM system began, which is a key component in product information management. It allows the 3W Group to standardize data, improve the quality of descriptions and attributes, and ensure consistency of information in offers made by salespeople. PIM was also developed with a target B2B e-commerce platform in mind.

Innovation: what sets this project apart?

The project stood out in several respects, from its technological flexibility to its deep understanding of merchant processes. Key elements include:

• Headless architecture - flexible, allowing the system to develop independently of the front- and backend, prepared for future growth.
• Tailor-made - off-the-shelf Magento components were not enough, so Strix created personalized quotation and order objects to suit 3W's specifics.
• Simplified onboarding - it no longer takes months for a new merchant to learn how to create an offer; the system guides him step by step.
• Performance and scalability - the Strix team anticipated performance challenges from the beginning, such as with dynamic pricing.
• Team agility - the project was executed by a dedicated Strix team that operated in a rapid iterative cycle, working closely with the client.
• Mobility and work continuity - users can work freely on both computers and mobile devices, seamlessly continuing on a device tasks started on another; automatic saving ensures that progress is always safely preserved.
• Optimization of product management - integration with the PIM system and transfer of data on more than 70,000 product indexes to a single, standardized source with a full set of attributes.

Effects and development of the project

The implementation of the Sales Panel is a key step in 3W Group's digital transformation, but not the final step. Only a few months have passed since the launch of the MVP version, and the project is still evolving.

Already today, the system is having a real impact on salespeople's daily work - it allows them to quickly and conveniently create offers, access full product and customer data, manage price lists and discounts, and work from mobile devices. The panel is used not only by sales representatives, but also by managers, directors and management - as a tool for accepting offers and a source of reporting data.

Since the implementation of MVP, in close cooperation with the business, the Strix team has already delivered hundreds of micro enhancements and a number of new modules, responding to the reported needs and daily challenges of users. Importantly, this is still a project under intensive development. Ahead of the team are further implementations and functionalities that are needed to maximize the system's potential in the target work environment.

All the while, work continues on Ergonode PIM, which is the foundation for product data quality at 3W Group. PIM enables the organization and enrichment of data for more than 400,000 active indexes, which translates directly into better quality offers, fewer errors and faster actions by salespeople. Additionally, PIM prepares the organization for further digital expansion, including in terms of future sales channels and process automation.

"This implementation was unique, because from the beginning we created the system with the client's long-term growth vision in mind. For me, it's a particularly passionate project because of the huge scale of modern technologies we integrated into a coherent whole. This synergy of technology and partnership with the Client allowed us to make bold design decisions. When I see how these tools are revolutionizing the work of 3W teams, I am convinced that we are really pushing the boundaries in the Polish B2B sector." Sebastian Urbaniak, Project Manager at Strix

An example for the entire industry

Although digitization is gaining momentum in B2B companies, in many cases salespeople still operate the same way they did 10 or 20 years ago - without the support of systems, with manual processes, delays, and data chaos.

This project shows that true digital transformation in B2B is about changing the foundation of an organization: the way salespeople work, manage data, integrate systems and approach customers. Strix, in its role as a technology partner, helped 3W get through one of the most complex stages: creating a cohesive, integrated, flexible foundation that will support their growth for years to come.

Projects like the one implemented for 3W don't just change a single organization. They exemplify for the entire market that courage in technology investments is a prerequisite for building an edge in the coming decades. 

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This project is built with our technology partners: