Custom Ordering Portal With Dynamics 365 & Power Apps Portal

TechReach developed a custom ordering portal for a bespoke manufacturer to help to streamline and professionalise their sales and maufacturing process.

Challenge

The manufacturing company creates bespoke fittings for building interiors. Demand for its services is high, with both repeat and one-off orders flowing in on a daily basis.

As an attempt to manage the volume of enquiries in a more efficient way, the company had setup a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for calculating order pricing based on effort and raw material costs.

However, a large degree of manual effort was required in this pricing process, which could easily go wrong. As material pricing was often out of date within the spreadsheet as well, orders were being under-costed.

The spreadsheet process also increased the risk of human error in copying and pasting, resulting in order mistakes. This then resulted in more issues for customer services to resolve. A better solution was required.

Solution

Understanding the need for a smarter way of managing sales the company worked with us to develop a custom ordering process. Starting with an out-of-the-box Dynamics 365 Sales setup,  TechReach then designed and linked an order portal. Designed in Power Apps Portals, the ordering portal was configured to allow customers to calculate and raise orders of their own accord.

The portal is also linked to resource suppliers, allowing resource costs to be fed in directly. This ensures that pricing is always an accurate reflection of resource costs.

TechReach then customized the Dynamics 365 Sales to allow for the stages of the manufacturing process to be reflected in the ordering portal. This allows customers a view of order progress, from initial request to manufacture, shipping and eventual delivery date – all within the portal view.

Result

The ordering portal has significantly improved service delivery. Rather than engage in a lengthy quoting and ordering process via phone or email, regular customers can now self-serve, raising new requests directly in the order portal of their own accord. This allows the manufacturer’s sales team to focus on supporting new customers instead, providing better service for those that need it.

The new system has radically sped up the sales process, meaning orders can now be processed at higher volume and with few (if any) mistakes.

As the ordering portal also gives a full update of the order status, customers are also able to see progress on their own orders, reducing enquiries to the customer service department.

Overall, the order portal system has reduced time spent on ordering while also improving customer service. This has kept customers happy and made them more likely to provide repeat business.

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