Archiwum autora: Marcin Rutkowski

Modus operandi of the creative team

The role of teams dealing with the visual side of systems has evolved over recent years. Currently, they are focused on helping users understand where they are, what surrounds them and what to expect from taking a particular action. It is safe to say that these teams play the role of „architects of understanding.”

The creative team is a combination of people specializing in UX, design and frontend. Over the years, many good practices have been created in the field of product presentation, search, filtering, purchasing process and navigation in the online store. All this so that the website could fulfil its business goals. The main elements that build the usability of the e-commerce system are:

– learnability, the level of difficulty of simple tasks performed by a user at the first contact with the system,

– efficiency, the speed of using already known solutions by the user,

– memorability, the ease of recalling the mechanisms of system operation after a longer period of time,

– errors, the number of errors made by the user and how easily they can recover from them,

– satisfaction, how pleasant is it to use the system.

Main methods

In order to create a well-designed e-commerce system based on the above-mentioned elements, the following methods can be distinguished:

– user research (scenarios, tests with the supervisor),

– analysis of user behaviour via analytical tools, e.g. Google Analytics,

– organization of content to support usability. This information architecture consists of: organization, method of content grouping, naming, navigation and searching (formulation of queries that are compared with relevant documents in all information sets).

All methods are based on universal concepts of design and principles regarding human perception.

Supporting tools

There are dozens of tools supporting the work of information architects on the market. Among them, it is worth choosing those most suited to the specifics of the target industry. Among the used tools of the UX team, we can find:

– paper and pencil, which will be used for the fastest possible version of modelling and transferring ideas,

– UXPin, Axure, which will enable modelling in a more structured form,

– Silverback, enabling to perform video tests on users, according to a previously prepared scenario. In this case, both the actions performed in the online store and the facial expressions of the user are registered. Such material is the basis for analysis and allows for the introduction of possible improvements by the project team,

– heat maps, such as CrazyEgg and Hotjar, which are used to diagnose the main areas of interest of users,

– analytical tools like Google Analytics and online store panel helpful in sales analysis.

All the above elements, combined with the intuition, experience, team knowledge and openness to search for new solutions, mean that „architects of understanding” can successfully fulfill their role.

 

The summary of Q4 at i-systems

End of the year – a busy time in almost every company. In those related to e-commerce, perhaps even more intense. How was it like in i-systems and how did we reconcile the work on systems for our clients with product development work? What are the main aspects of our work for next year? You will learn about this and many other interesting things from today’s summary.

New projects as trend determiners

The last three months, and in fact even the entire past year, were marked by systems for B2B companies. They are more and more open to new solutions optimizing their work and enabling new sales opportunities.

Among the projects from the B2B sector in the last quarter of the year, we can distinguish among others: a system created in the PWA (Progressive Web App) standard for a nationwide distributor selling products and systems for cleaning and hygiene. PWA allows you to build a consistent communication for both mobile devices and web browsers. One application means a number of benefits – firstly, the team of developers and the customer himself saves the time, and secondly, its positive impact on the quality of the project.

Other interesting projects were implemented, among others, for the company offering materials for roofing systems, irrigation installations or object floors, as well as the company that imports and distributes household appliances.

It seems that the new year will also be all about B2B solutions – we are already rubbing our hands just thinking about the next challenges that await us.

Strategic development of the organization

In the last quarter, we also focused on integrations, mainly developing connections with such systems as Asseco Softlab ERP, Streamsoft Verto or imoje offered by Silesian bank – ING Bank Śląski. Our next steps are aimed at even deeper integration, and thus, support for more processes in our e-commerce system.

In the last months of the year, part of our team was attending events such as the 6th Retail Channels 360 Forum – Multichannel Grow, Web Summit, Heads of Sale Forum and Fashion Business Congress.

Internal quality improvement projects

The recently adopted model of work in contextual teams is already fully functional. Current teams focus on areas such as: CI, integration, orders, RMA, CRM, PIM, discounts, GUI, Shop App, Allegro and POS.

To illustrate how this model works, we decided to briefly describe the workflow of two contexts. Continuous Integration (CI) team has recently focused on refactoring CI-Builder and Kubernetes Builder, as well as updating GitLab. They also worked on accelerating the system operations and stabilizing PHP images. These activities resulted in the possibility of handling much more traffic. On the other hand, the team responsible for Product Information Management (PIM) improved the functioning of products in the store, and also focused on price lists, product sets and advanced sorting.

What are the i-systems plans for 2019?

The areas of i-systems activities in the new year will be divided into two main categories. The first one will be the globalization of the company’s activities and products. The activities will start in the first quarter of 2019.

The second category will concern the main i-systems core – the software. Works on the development of products are carried out by all the above-mentioned contexts, therefore the development will take place in a parallel and coherent way. The most important activities include further work on PWA, the work on even bigger separation of the frontend and backend.

Such separation will allow creating unattainable, till now, possibilities of scaling the application, and thus achieve greater efficiency with less cost. The plans also include: completing the new API (CRM) and completing the new discount policy module.

We will keep you informed on the details of further works on the blog. If you don’t want to miss the next summary of key development activities of i-systems, we invite you to subscribe to our newsletter.

The summary of Q3 2018 at i-systems

The previous quarter at i-system was highlighted by the new organization of teams which were transformed into contexts. This directly influenced the change in our approach to the design and development of the e-commerce systems. Here is an overview of Q3, which is a collection of the most important news from the life of i-systems.

New projects

Despite summer holidays, we have initiated several new projects as well as moved to the final stages in a few of those already underway. One of the highlights is the B2B platform for one of the largest distributors of construction, workshop and welding equipment in Poland and a complete system for an automotive company which after the analytical stage is now being implemented.

Trends in system development

Among the most interesting trends we observed both on the market and when developing new systems, we can distinguish the penetration of the B2C related features, to the B2B systems. Apart from adapting an increasing number of functional solutions, it is also worth to highlight all aspects related to the usability and appearance of the systems. Currently, B2B systems, apart from their natural business features, are also characterized by easy management and ability to quickly adapt to new market expectations.

Strategic development of the organization

At the beginning of July, i-systems invested in a company specializing in blockchain technology. GamerHash, is a solution that uses the unused processing power on users’ computers. Currently, it is mostly used for legal mining of cryptocurrencies, but in the future it will be also used for CGI rendering or machine learning. In practice, this means that the shared processing power can be used to process animations and scenes using special effects, as well as improve the the data acquisition for the needs of the self-learning processes of computer programs. In addition to the direct investment, i-systems will also support GamerHash technologically. The company will use its experience in the area of transaction systems and will be responsible for expanding the e-commerce part of GamerHash. Tar Heel Capital Pathfinder made their investment before as well.

During the last quarter, i-systems team, represented the company in several events that blend business and technology. These were: InternetBeta, Shopping Centre Forum 2018 CEE Exhibition & Conference and E-commerce Expo in London.

If anyone missed us at any of the previous shows, we’ll be joining the VI Forum of Retail Channels 360, which will be held on 18 and 19 October in Warsaw, and at the Fashion Business Congress, planned for 25 October in Łódź. Both conferences will feature our presentations, focused on the modern day e-commerce systems. We will be also present at the eCommerce Fair in Warsaw, scheduled for November 7th. We encourage you to catch up with us there!

Internal quality improvement projects

The biggest internal change, was the one related to the organization of work of people involved in the implementation and development of the systems. We have been preparing for this change for a long time, so that the process would be smooth for all the involved parties. From now on, most of the work related to the IT-related projects will be carried out by the so-called contexts.

The background behind the creation of contextual teams is related to the … termination of the research and development department. This department consisted of highly skilled and competent people who where not, however, directly involved in any project. This organization had its advantages and disadvantages, both for internal product development and for the team members themselves. The change in our sales model associated with the launch of the CI-based solution has also affected the implementation and development model itself. In this model, the new system is implemented by many contexts, each one of which has the best knowledge of the specific issue and the product to which it has been assigned. Thanks to this, the knowledge in our organization is now more aggregated and arranged in an even more accessible way than before. Such work organization significantly accelerates the implementation process and improves the quality of our solutions.

Current context teams include Product Information Management, integration, order management, CRM, RMA, GUI, promotions and Shopapp app. We will be posting more about the contextual teams on our blog soon.

Selected awards

As our quarterly summary shows – the last months have been really intensive for us. Last but not least, we are proud to announce that at the beginning of September our company was awarded with the „Highest Quality” title in the Ambassador of the Polish Economy 2018 competition, organized by the Business Centre Club.

If you don’t want to miss the next summary of key development activities of i-systems, we invite you to subscribe to our newsletter.



Sign up to our newsletter

Is mobile app a missing link in omnichannel sales?

In 2018, the omnichannel strategy seems to be the standard. All major brands having a chain of offline stores have merged online and offline sales to some degree. But except for combining IT systems, can we combine customer experience as well? Strong yes! And this is the role the mobile application should play for an online store.

Why didn’t it work out the first time?

The market boom for e-commerce mobile applications took place several years ago. However, the technology couldn’t keep up with the ideas. Applications for online stores were very simple. They were limited practically to the possibility of checking the products of a given brand and only sometimes there was an option to place an order or use a discount. However, the biggest disadvantage of mobile applications was the lack of a permanent connection with the sales system.

The applications were just layers to the system, with no real connection to it. Most of them didn’t have any processes of constant and automatic updating of information about products, availability or discounts in the online store. Working on the update itself was time-consuming and eventually, the brands stopped doing it. As a result, after the first installation, most customers stopped using apps. The website, along with its responsive design, has fulfilled the customers’ needs for mobile online shopping for the next few years.

Currently, the purchase process requires the presence of the company and its products in several sales channels. In order for the mobile application to be part of a multi-channel strategy (omnichannel) and to fulfil its role, it must always be up-to-date. This can be ensured by full integration with the brand’s e-commerce system. Therefore, the whole sales process, for both the online store and the mobile app takes place in one administration panel, which makes it much easier.

Available solutions and their capabilities

There are several types of mobile applications available on the market, such as native and hybrid. Hybrid solutions allow you to instantly create apps for two operating systems at the same time. IONIC is an interesting tool for creating hybrid applications. This rich framework uses the power of the native functions of the mobile device, such as: camera, microphone, location services or TouchID, and a blend of web technologies. On the other hand, the Cordova tool is responsible for the native part. Angular, HTML or SCSS are used in the case of IONIC. This framework allows you to create mobile applications for Android and iOS operating systems. IONIC has a huge database of components, allowing you to create advanced mobile solutions

Modern applications have many solutions that influence the creation and development of omnichannel strategies as well as sales. The most important of them include:

– checking the product availability in offline stores with a mobile app; more and more people check the product online; however, once they know what they want to buy, they do it offline; a good solution is to enable customers to check the product availability in the given offline store;

– checking the product availability in the online store while shopping offline; very often omnichannel is defined as the permeation of the internet world into the world of offline sales; however, the mobile application can extend these possibilities, for example when it’s equipped with the barcode scanner. functionality works when the customer in an offline salon, wants to read more information about the product himself or wants to order a different variant (color, size, model – depending on the product); then the only thing he has to do is to scan the barcode and the application itself will transfer him to the specific product in the online store; such a solution is also in line with the currently popular self-service model used by the younger generation. Then the mobile application acts as an additional store employee, thanks to which the customer can receive the necessary information about the product;

– push notifications. There is a significant difference between push notifications and text messages. According to research, they are much more often read and they encourage better interaction. Through integration with the e-commerce system, they can contain information about the status of the order, the status of the complaint or specifically tailored offers to the user.

Przykład powiadomienia push z CTA do obwiedzenia salonu stacjonarnego marki w celu odbioru zakupów

Custom ideas

There are other possibilities to use mobile app. Shop service can identify customers in individual places of a salon. In this vision, you just need to implement beacons. They will show the approximate location of the customer, as well as other data, e.g. the history of shopping in the online store, so that they can be used by store employees to build offers in real time. For example: when the client passes the shoes, the mobile application via beacon registers his presence, the e-commerce system checks if the client has recently browsed the product on the internet, and finally displays a special offer on the TV screen in the salon.

Informacja dla pracownika sklepu stacjonarnego ze wskazaniem klienta, jego lokalizacji oraz historii zakupów

The second option will benefit mainly customers. Retailers will be able to send personalized messages to them regarding special offers, discounts or events. Sending such messages will be possible only after the client agrees to analyze its purchases, preferences or locations. This solution will definitely not suit 100% of customers, but those who will agree and will demonstrate a large purchase commitment – may become natural brand ambassadors. Such a solution will also increase the involvement of the communities – clients or trade partners of the specific brand. In result, this system will be able to link different components of our client’s purchasing process in cause and effect way: from products, through history, to the location. For example: we can send information about the discount for an associated product with an earlier purchase, available only in the salon which the customer visits most often – that means we combine sales, e-commerce, mobile phones and location.

Przykładowe powiadomienia dla klientów ze specjalnymi ofertami czy wydarzeniami

However, it should be remembered that such data analysis requires a client’s declared consent. For this purpose, the mobile application must clearly indicate such intention. Therefore, the role of the brand is to show the client a number of benefits of expressing such consent.

The mobile application for online stores has gone a long way. The first versions were too simple, then the brands didn’t have an idea for its full use. Now all components of the new omnichannel dimension are available. All you need is a decision of retail chains and a person who would implement it in the retail world.

The article was originally published in Magazyn E-commerce, 2(2)2018.

The i-systems company invests in blockchain technology

The i-systems company has invested PLN 1 million in the GamerHash app. The application is extremely easy to use and allows you to convert unused computing power into digital products for its users or payouts in Bitcoins.

GamerHash is a platform for Windows systems that opens up new opportunities for users of home computers.

When buying a computer, usually for a couple of thousands PLN, its full potential is not used. Especially when browsing websites, watching movies or listening to music. Our PC in such tasks simply „gets bored” – explains Patryk Pusch, Chairman of the Board at GamerHash. – We wanted to use the resources that users already have – the computing power, and give them the opportunity to exchange it for some benefits. At current Bitcoin rates, the benefits value is up to PLN 300 per month. Such benefits include Netflix or Spotify premium accounts, cinema tickets, GSM top-ups, top-up on player platforms, e-vouchers, virtual currency in games or simply PC games – adds Pusch.

The obtained computing power through GamerHash is used for legal cryptocurrency mining, and in the future will also be used for CGI (computer-generated imagery) rendering or machine learning. This means that shared computing power can be used to process animations and special effects scenes or to influence the faster acquisition of knowledge by self-learning computer programs.

GamerHash online store - product page

GamerHash online store – product page

Technological support

In addition to direct investment, i-systems will support GamerHash technologically. As the company has vast experience in the area of transaction systems, it will develop the e-commerce part of GamerHash.

At i-systems we always want to be close to the latest technologies. Investing in GamerHash is a natural step towards blockchain solutions for us. We believe that those solutions have a much wider application than just financial operations. We also think that distributed applications will significantly affect the way of creating modern IT systems – says Paweł Szewczyk, Vice President at i-systems.

Tar Heel Capital Pathfinder has also invested in GamerHash. This is part of Tar Heel Capital, which supports innovative and forward-looking technological projects at the seed and start-up stages.

The summary of Q2 2018 at i-systems

Upcoming holidays do not mean e-commerce actions will slow down. Actually, on the contrary, it is the best time to prepare and implement new solutions before the peak period for most e-commerce companies. Here is an overview of the last quarter in the daily life of i-systems.

New projects

The second quarter of the year brought a number of new contracts. Except for those strictly connected with online sales and customers switching to continuous integration, it is worth paying attention to new analytical projects. The analysis was made for a company specializing in thermal insulation distribution and a company that supplies tools and machines for construction and heavy industry. These contracts show great demand related to trade and distribution solutions.

Trends in system development

Among the most interesting trends observed on the market and while working on particular systems, we can distinguish widely understood integrations. Our recent work in this field covered, for instance, warehouse and accounting programs of the Asseco group. A large part also concerns and will concern integration with the marketplace, which is an external system that aggregates offers from different places. Integration with marketplace means a couple of challenges, such as two-way inventory integrations or automatic display and removal of offers, according to the previously adopted sales logic.

Strategic development of the organization

In the second quarter of the year, representatives of i-systems participated in several business and technology events, such as Retail Marketing Forum, XIV Targi eHandlu [en. XIV E-commerce Fairs], E-commerce Innovations, E-commerce B2B and E-commerce Universe. During enlisted events, we focused on educating the market and presenting the effects of research & development team. Continuous integration was the most frequently discussed topic. It is a response to quickly changing market expectations, as well as the desire to have a constantly developed and up-to-date e-commerce system.

Conversations during E-commerce Fairs

Conversations during E-commerce Fairs

Internal projects for quality improvement

Among the internal projects developed in the last three months, the Progressive Web App can be distinguished. This solution is designed to provide the customer with the best experience, regardless of which device he or she uses. This idea at first glance has a lot to do with Responsive Web Design. However, the solution has a deeper purpose than just displaying things correctly on every available device. Its main goal is to significantly improve the efficiency and speed of the system, by changing the organization of tasks performed by its frontend and backend parts.

Selected awards

At the beginning of April, i-systems was awarded in the FT1000 ranking. The ranking is being prepared by the Financial Times – one of the most opinion-forming global economic and financial magazines in cooperation with Statista Research Institute – a leading provider of data on markets and consumers. The company’s place in the ranking is determined by the increase in revenues that the company reported in the years 2013-2016.

In addition, it is worth mentioning the appearance of i-systems in the ranking of the 500 best providers of B2B solutions from Poland and Ukraine, responsible for the design and development of IT systems. The ranking was prepared by the Clutch agency.

Should you not miss the quarter summaries of i-systems development, we invite you to subscribe to the newsletter.



Sign up to our newsletter

Foreign expansion of Vistula with i-systems

Vistula brand begins to develop online sales on foreign markets. Together with i-systems, a new version of the brand’s e-commerce system has been prepared. The Vistula online store is now available in English and Czech, thus favouring the development of cross-border sales.

After the implementation of the online store on the domestic market, Vistula decided on further development of the services and to match its online offer to the foreign customers. In addition to the English version, which is adapted to a wide range of recipients abroad, the brand’s actions were also directed slightly to the South. The result is the launch of the store in the Czech language. The system currently supports deliveries to the customers from 25 countries.

New language versions of the store are not everything. Each of them has the equivalents of existing banners and graphics from the Polish-language store. Currency versions have also been designed to ensure automatic price recalculation. For the English version, the default currency is the euro. The Czech edition of the store, on the other hand, offers prices in Czech koruna. Prices in those currencies are visible after selecting the appropriate language version.

New language versions are a step towards expanding sales to the European market – says Aneta Kazanowska, Director of Online Stores at Vistula Group S.A. – Proper implementation of cross-border sales is possible when all processes related to online transactions are automated and ensure the free flow of information about orders. Therefore, it was necessary to integrate the system with the warehouse and accounting environment, logistics processes and discount policy – adds Aneta Kazanowska.

All above-mentioned solutions are matched to the appropriate language and currency versions, in order to efficiently process orders from English and Czech websites.

New language versions of the Vistula store are available here: evistula.cz and vistula.eu

Solutions for online stores Omnichannel solutions

The summary of Q1 2018 at i-systems

It appears that 2018 will be a year of big technological changes in e-commerce. The first quarter has already proven that. We invite you to read the summary of the first three months of the year.

New projects

The most interesting projects from the first quarter of the year, mainly concerned B2B solutions. One of them is the system for one of the largest importers and distributors in the Polish HoReCa industry. The second project concerns a company dealing with the production and distribution of chimney and ventilation systems. The scope of this system includes both B2B and B2C solutions.

Another of the key projects concerns the omnichannel solution for one of the well-known Polish brands, with approximately 100 offline stores located throughout the country. In January, work for the automotive sector has also begun. Details of the solutions will be published in the next quarterly summaries.

Trends in system development

A large part of the most important consumer ratings of online stores relates to time and quality of delivery. On the other hand, more and more often companies do not want to freeze revenues for storing products. Dropshipping meets those expectations. Dropshipping is a warehouse policy model in which the shipment of the order to the customer takes place on the side of the producer, distributor or wholesaler. While the role of the online store is focused on activities aimed at encouraging purchase, order acceptance and redirection of information to a business partner for the purpose of shipping. The adoption of such model has many benefits. It is a way to expand the offer of an online store with an assortment of many manufacturers, and also it allows it to reduce the costs associated with the storage and transport of goods.

In order to implement dropshipping in e-commerce, it is initially required to download information about products from the business partner’s website and to map them to the sales system. This process must be repeatable because the manufacturer’s product range changes. Then, data on categories, VAT rates and margins for individual products or entire categories are verified.

In addition to the standard solution, some brands implement and use the so-called reverse dropshipping. It means selling brand’s own products to other online stores, which are then selling them to the target customers. This sales policy is a good choice when the brand wants to exist on the foreign market through its partners.

Strategic development of the organization

Part of the company’s activities is aimed at people interested in working in i-systems. Among such activities, in the last three months, „Programming holidays”, for those who wanted to start an adventure with IT can be mentioned, along with the study visits. Recently, we hosted students from WSB in Chorzów and Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Katowice department.

Classes during "Programming holidays"

Classes during „Programming holidays”

In the last quarter, the company’s representatives were also present at industry events. These included E-commerce EXPO in Berlin and the E-commerce Trends conference. During those events, ideas and solutions have been presented that will have a major impact on e-commerce in the near future.

Internal projects for quality improvement

The Research & Development team is working on the development of Continuous Integration capabilities. Creating systems in this method allows faster launching of individual functionalities or even the entire systems. An example of such an action is the launch of a ticket booking system for Termy Bania, which took only a month.

We are also working on client’s transition to CI solutions. The Polish company – Dalia – decided to take such step.

Another project that is being developed, is a web application for an online store, built using Angular tools in RWD and PWA technology. The logic of these works boils down to making the storefronts independent of the server part. The aim of the activities is to increase the client’s positive experience by improving the efficiency of the system and enabling the easier introduction of new mechanisms. The web application is also built based on the Continuous Integration method.

Selected awards

In the first quarter, the company’s „hall of fame” expanded by two positions. The first of these was the nomination in the Mobile Trends Awards competition in the „m-commerce” category for a mobile application, created for the R-GOL.com brand.

In addition, at the beginning of March, Inc. Magazine published a ranking of 5000 fastest-growing private companies in Europe. In this year’s ranking, i-systems was listed for the first time, with a growth rate of 183%. Details of the ranking can be found here.

Should you not miss the quarter summaries of i-systems development, we invite you to subscribe to the newsletter.



Sign up to our newsletter

The summary of Q3 2017 at i-systems

July, August, September have passed. Hence it’s time for the next summary of the third quarter of 2017 at i-systems. The holiday months did not affect the pace of development of the organization.

New projects

Two companies made a decision to implement the system. One of them sells services using e-commerce and the other is engaged in a wide range of activities: from high-quality bathroom fixtures to home furnishings such as furniture, carpets, blankets, bedspreads and bathrobes to sports equipment. The mentioned system will allow sales in B2B and B2C model.

Another five companies invested in conducting a business analysis. Among them there are manufacturers of glass, electronics, as well as distributors of shoes and children’s articles.

Systems for the customers operating in furniture, interior and garden equipment sector, as well as those representing fashion industry, had its premieres. One of them was Vistula Group S.A. The project included the implementation of sales systems for three brands – Vistula, Wólczanka and W.KRUK. After a successful implementation, the company signed a contract with i-systems for further development.

The first stage of the new online system for W.KRUK is already behind us. Now it is time for systems’ development. We have plenty of interesting ideas, which will be put through systematically – commented after implementation Bartosz Twardosz, e-commerce manager at W.KRUK. 


Trends in system development

One of the trends that will significantly impact e-commerce will be m-commerce. However, it will not be understood as having a mobile website or using Responsive Web Design (which is a widely used standard in 2017). It will rather be understood as the combination of sales systems with the mobile application and the use of this connection as the next step in the implementation of the omnichannel strategy through retail networks. Currently, such work is being performed for one of i-systems customers.

push

Strategic development of the organization

With the rapid development of the company, the demand for professionals grows. Twelve months ago, i-systems employed 57 people. Today this number has risen to 93. It is because the company was joined by 18 men and 18 women, of whom 12 new people were employed in the third quarter.

Keeping in mind the development of IT professionals’ local market, „Vacation with Programming” – a course for beginners in programming – was organized at the end of July. Several people, who stood out of the crowd, were chosen to participate. Then, from the 13 topics available, participants chose the ones that were most interesting for them. For the next two weeks, our specialists shared their knowledge of, for instance, MySQL, Webservice and unit testing.

In order to optimize and facilitate the implementation work, a decision was made to divide the departments responsible for each stage into micro teams. From now on, each team is run by a Project Manager or Support Manager and consists of testers and programmers and any other required persons to perform the tasks. More information on the new work organization and its impact on customer solutions will be published on the i-systems blog.

Internal projects for quality improvement

The internal Research & Development team has been working on i-systems software long-term technology development projects. One of the issues is Continuous Integration, which means merging the results of the development team’s work to the main repository. Thanks to CI, the customer will have constant access to the latest version of the system, it will also increase the efficiency of the developers’ work and database security.

R&D team works also on the new desktop application. This project is based on the latest Angular framework. This client application communicates with the store via the REST API. The project is built independently of the server and the only common line of communication is API, which makes development and maintenance of the application more efficient. Separation of the backend and frontend will make introducing changes faster and easier. Angular, a powerful JavaScript framework, allows building web, mobile and desktop applications. Applications built in Angular consist of components, services, directives and other available solutions. Angular uses dependency injection and module division, allowing developers to have greater control over the responsibility of individual application components. The most popular tool for building mobile applications is Ionic, which is created in Angular itself. Ionic is a rich framework for building hybrid mobile applications, that use the power of native features and a mix of web technologies like Angular, SCSS and HTML.

The work of R&D team is aimed at improving the quality of delivered solutions.

Selected awards

In the last three months i-systems has been awarded twice. In the plebiscite, organized by the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Gliwice and the Marshal’s Office of the Silesian Voivodeship, i-systems company was honored with the title „Marka Śląskie” [Silesian Brand] in the Service category. In September, i-systems received the title of „Ambassador of the Polish Economy” in the 9th edition of the competition organized by BCC.

Should you not miss the quarter summaries of i-systems development, we invite you to subscribe to the newsletter.



Sign up to our newsletter

Vistula Group S.A. and W.KRUK S.A. with a new e-commerce system created by i-systems

Vistula Group S.A. is a company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It specializes in the design, manufacture and distribution of men’s and women’s clothing. Due to the dynamic development, Vistula Group S.A. successively develops its e-commerce activities. Cooperation with i-systems has resulted in new dedicated sales platforms for Vistula and Wólczanka. The project also included implementation of a new e-commerce system for W.KRUK, the oldest jewelry brand in Poland, managed directly by W.KRUK S.A. – a part of the Vistula Group S.A. Capital Group. The i-systems company is responsible for all technological works.

Business analysis

The scale of the project and its level of advancement made it necessary to start work from business analysis. This particular type of examination of the current IT architecture has identified key processes, actors, and areas for the company. It also determined points which are worth to develop in order to achieve even better business results. The result was a document that laid the foundation for the implementation of all three systems. This stage took i-systems analysts team a month of work.

– The analysis showed the possibilities of the new system and defined a preliminary work schedule. At the same time it was flexible enough to correct a plan, for example by adding new options at the stage of implementation. It is important to stay open for new options during such large implementations – says Aneta Kazanowska, e-commerce Manager at Vistula Group S.A.


Effective implementation process

Development works started immediately after the business analysis stage. A team dedicated to the project was created, which included people responsible for each area (analysis, UX, frontend, price policy, integration, import, omnichannel solutions, etc.). The number of the team members was flexible throughout the whole process. All the design and implementation works for three brands were made in less than three months and ended according to the schedule. The new system for the company was launched in three stages. The first online store to be launched was Wólczanka, then Vistula, and the last one was e-commerce system for W.KRUK.

– It is one of the largest e-commerce implementations in Poland, which took such a small amount of time. It is worth appreciating the involvement of the customer’s team in the project – comments Marek Pawlak, Project Manager at i-systems.

wkruk_mobile

Omnichannel solutions

The Vistula Group has a rapidly growing network of stationary stores. It currently has 370 showrooms, with a total sales area of 30.9 thousand sqm. (including 118 Vistula stores, 116 Wólczanka stores). W.KRUK jewelry chain has 106 boutiques. Therefore, the implementation of multichannel solutions was immediately taken into account. These are for instance: the ability to check online the availability of products in the store, the ability to order home delivery products while shopping at a stationary store, a consistent customer loyalty program – regardless of the place of purchase, or advanced inventory management.

New systems in the long-term perspective

Immediately after the launch of the e-commerce system, the Vistula Group, W.KRUK and i-systems signed agreements for further development. The agreements cover Service Level Agreement, dedicated cloud infrastructure, and post-implementation support.

– The first stage of the new version of e-commerce system in W.KRUK is already behind us. Now it is time for the development of the systems. We have a lot of interesting ideas, which we plan to enforce – comments Bartłomiej Twardosz, e-commerce Manager at W. KRUK. 


More details about the implementation will be described in the nearest future in the form of a case study.