Sontay: An integrated website and client portal

A multi-lingual, multi-currency website and online product portal with custom integrations into the Microsoft NAV ERP system.

Challenge

Sontay is a market-leading provider of sensing and peripheral devices used in complex building control applications to provide essential environmental data.

Before the website project, customers had access to product data via online and printed catalogues, with orders emailed to the Sales team.  This was time-consuming and error-prone.

The challenge was to give existing partners access to the 2,000 SKU product catalogue via a portal and provide the ability to either:

• request a quote,
• create tender documents with technical datasheets, certificates and pricing
• or place an order.

Customers needed to be able to view prices in their local currency with their agreed discount structure applied.

They also needed access to their historical quotes, orders and invoices.

Solution

We deployed our multi-lingual technology platform JUMPSuite, comprising Article, People and Membership modules. This forms the main structure of the site and provides the functionality for the “Resources” section and “Who we are” for team bios. All content is categorised to allow related products to be included in articles and related articles to be shown on product pages.

The membership module allows customers to register for an account on the site.  Their application is moderated by customer services and connected to the appropriate company.

Once approved, customers can log in to review prices with personalised discounts, add products to their basket and submit them to the ERP system as either a quote request or an order.

We built custom integrations that synchronise the product and customer data from the ERP system to the website.  Based on data from the ERP system, we dynamically create compliance certificates for each product code for download.

We also built real-time API access for the posting of Quotes and Orders and the subsequent tracking of historical invoice details.

Finally, we created a custom “Distributors module”, which acts as a filterable directory of distribution partners. Take a look at the new Sontay website here. 

The result: from just a few hundred sessions per month to more than ten thousand

Since we started working with Sontay, traffic to the website has increased from just a few hundred sessions per month to more than ten thousand.

There are 1,800+ partners with access to the site, and all orders are now initiated from the portal. That has reduced errors whilst still giving the Sales teams full control in the ERP system after the quote/order has been submitted.

Launching the Sontay Academy

Having built a solid base for the products, we worked with the team to integrate their industry-leading training programme into the website; in September 2023, we launched the new Sontay Academy.

Accredited by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and an official partner of the building controls industry association, Sontay has been delivering CPD training to customers and clients for many years. 

Previously accessible via a separate website, the team wanted to improve performance, simplify user experience and better integrate the Sontay Academy with their core offering. 

We deployed our Events module along with dynamic filters to create a new Sontay Academy hub within the new website. Revolving around a series of intuitive landing pages, the new Sontay Academy helps visitors quickly and easily find and book the training that they need. 

Next steps

The website and Sontay Academy been relaunched, but the project is not over. We’re working with team to further enhance Sontay’s offering; scoping a configuration tool for the more complex product variants to further simplify the customer further and an integration with their internal asset management platform to improve efficiency.