Welding solutions manufacturer Welding Industries Australia (WIA) has chosen Sana Commerce to launch a new integrated eCommerce website and customer portal.

Sana Commerce says the goal of the project is to strengthen the WIA's existing online presence by creating a single website that provides access to everything from product details and pricing to ordering, invoicing, and after-sales support.

WIA IT manager Tim Melbourne says the company has been working with a customer portal and a separate website, using Expression Engine as their back end.

"We could see there would be significant efficiency benefits for our customers if the two resources became one," he says.

WIA had also decided to upgrade its existing Dynamics Navision ERP platform and adopt Dynamics365 Business Central.

"Initially, we looked at the potential of building a bespoke website that would extract details from multiple ERP data warehouses and provide it to customers," says Melbourne.

"However, it quickly became apparent that this would be a very complicated exercise and one that would require high ongoing maintenance and could risk providing incorrect product details to customers."

Following a market review, WIA decided in early May 2022 to use Sana Commerce Cloud.

Melbourne says the WIA could see that Sana was able to provide the capabilities it required to combine the website and portal into a single platform.

"We could also see that it could readily deliver an out-of-the-box website and also had tight integration with Business Central," he says.

"It was clear that Sana Commerce would give us the ability to provide the look-and-feel of a customer portal within the website itself while leveraging the key business logic real-time from the ERP which was very appealing."

Melbourne says the primary aim of the new website and portal is to improve customer satisfaction. He says the new site will allow customers to easily access all the product information they are seeking, create quotes, track orders, and manage their accounts.

"This, in turn, will free up our customer service team to focus on other value-adding activities and finding additional ways to improve the customer service experience," he says.

As well as new orders for equipment, the new integrated site has the potential to eventually allow customers to order spare parts and make warranty claims. It will also enable users to start credit applications online.

Sana Commerce head of APAC, Marcus McNamara, says when it comes to a successful online offering, being able to provide accurate data to customers is critical.

"The new e-commerce platform will allow WIA to leverage accurate, real-time data, including customer agreements, stock availability, pricing, and promotions," he says.

"By fully integrating with their Business Central ERP they can provide buyers with a single source of information. In other words, they can show data and logic that's in their ERP directly in their Sana Website, without the threat of duplications, disruptions, delays, or manual synchronisation."

McNamara says delivering accuracy and reliability of information will help to strengthen WIA's relationships with its customers and help improve the accuracy of cross-selling and upselling opportunities.