Who is BIKAR Metals?
EVERYTHING with tradition - these three words sum up the company's philosophy. BIKAR Metals is a family business that can look back on a very successful history since its foundation in 1962. As specialists in the processing of non-ferrous metals and plastics, BIKAR is a globally active company.
https://www.bikar.com/
The challenge
BIKAR recognized early on that well thought-out automation and digitalization is a real competitive advantage. The fully automated high-bay warehouse was linked to the company's own saws and intelligent production planning back in 2000.
In summer 2020, BIKAR was looking for the right partner to develop a store solution including a tailor-made customer portal in order to further advance its own digitalization. The website was also to be relaunched.
After the first contact between punkt.de GmbH and BIKAR in summer 2020 and further discussions in the fall, which could only take place remotely due to Covid-19, the initial framework conditions for the project were defined and the basis for a joint workshop at BIKAR in Bad Berleburg was laid.
Project goals
It quickly became clear that one of the biggest tasks would be to integrate the customer portal and the store into the existing system landscape.
The in-house ERP "BIKAR Next" for the customer data and an Akeneo PIM for the product data were to serve as data sources. It was also important to BIKAR that the entire infrastructure be operated on-premise.
It is precisely this combination of individual application requirements and integration into an existing system landscape that is one of the core competencies of punkt.de.
BIKAR - 3 projects, one concept!
Before the three projects website, customer portal and store could be tackled, it was important to create a new basis in terms of design, UI & UX. As a purely technical agency, without our own web design or specialized UI/UX expertise, we have been working very successfully with our partner agency made in together.
We had already invited our partner agency to the workshop. This also paid off directly in the creation of the "digital design system". Without complicated onboarding for the projects, made in was able to create a superordinate design system with BIKAR that works for all three projects. Fonts, markups, colors, graphic elements and individual components were thus already created as a cross-media design before the actual development began. To avoid additional effort during development, our front-end developers are involved in this process right from the start.
In addition to the visual ideas, we naturally also needed an individualized, overall technical concept before the actual start of implementation. The interaction and interfaces of the sub-projects were defined and made available in the corresponding resources of the on-premise infrastructure. The diagram shows the result at that time and has only changed in a few details to date.
Project 1 - Website relaunch
Once the digital design system had created a superstructure that took into account BIKAR's corporate design (CD) and corporate identity (CI), the actual development of the new BIKAR website could begin.
We chose TYPO3 as the CMS in order to display editorial content in several languages in the front end for specific users. Initially, only German and English were to be available as language dimensions, although there is always the option to deliver additional languages at a later date.
The website was primarily developed for static content as a "content page" and designed in such a way that even a small editorial team can work efficiently with the CMS.
One exciting aspect was the implementation of a faceted search based on Elasticsearch, which can also access cross-system content and products from the store and user-specific data from the customer portal.
Project 2 - Customer portal
The customer portal was given high priority by BIKAR right from the start. The challenge was to relieve the burden on its own sales department while maintaining BIKAR's high level of service.
It was therefore an important goal to provide the customers themselves with the usual data such as order status, complaints and the download of documents in self-service. And all this at any time, whether during BIKAR's office hours or at the weekend. To achieve this, it was essential to design an intuitive customer portal that represents real added value for BIKAR's sales team and the customer . In an environment that is traditionally handled by telephone and e-mail.
At present, the customer portal offers customers functions such as a dashboard, user administration for their own employees, order overviews with filter options and status display, the option of submitting complaints directly online in the workshop and downloading additional documents relating to the orders.
To increase acceptance, UI & UX and the performance of the customer portal play a major role. The art of covering a wide range of products with a large number of product variants required a lot of conceptual design before the actual development.
From a technical point of view, we used the synergy between the Sylius store solution and the PHP framework Symfony. The customer portal is therefore already implemented directly in the store as an individual Symfony solution. This strong connection between the store and the customer portal will also make things a lot easier for us in further development.
This architecture also makes it easier to connect the various systems consisting of BIKAR's own ERP, Akeneo PIM, CMS and cross-system Elasticsearch search , while at the same time utilizing all the advantages of the Sylius store system.
The ERP was developed in-house by BIKAR and was adapted to the company's own requirements. Close coordination with BIKAR's IT department was essential for the connection in order to develop the appropriate interfaces for the customer portal so that the corresponding data from the ERP is always synchronized accurately and almost in real time. To this end, we created processes and solutions that strengthen the connection between BIKAR and the punkt.de team, not only from a technical but also from an organizational perspective.
The current PIM did not yet exist at the start of the project and was introduced in parallel to our project. We supported BIKAR in their decision to choose Akeneo as their PIM system and used our network to help them find the right expertise for the introduction of Akeneo. Akeneo is ideally suited to managing the large volumes of product data and integrating it into the connected systems such as the customer portal and store. While the PIM was being implemented by BIKAR, we developed the corresponding interfaces in parallel.
Once the data from ERP and PIM was available, the customer portal was continuously optimized and prepared in several phases in order to be tested with a selected group of BIKAR customers in a preliminary phase and at the same time to integrate BIKAR's own sales department at an early stage.
Project 3 - Online Shop
Another project following the relaunch of the website and the customer portal is the store for BIKAR. In addition to the traditional sales channels, the aim was to create an uncomplicated way of ordering metal and plastic products from BIKAR.
This sounds very simple in principle, but in a complex product world with countless product variants and even individual cuts, it poses a number of challenges. In contrast to conventional products, the prices of non-ferrous metals in particular are very volatile and have to be calculated individually.
We are currently working with BIKAR to implement the store using the Symfony-based store framework Sylius. The aim is for the customer portal and store to interlock seamlessly and also merge visually. The real magic of digitalization lies behind the scenes in the interaction between the customer portal, PIM, ERP and website.
The aim is to map the entire process in future, from ordering and cutting the metal or plastic part to delivery, and to bundle it transparently for the customer in one place.
This project is in full swing after the customer portal, so BIKAR customers will be able to enjoy additional store functions in 2025.
BIKAR & punkt.de - Together into the digital future
What began as a challenging project under the difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic developed into a deep and trusting partnership between BIKAR Metals and punkt.de. From the first conversations throughout the entire development phase, openness and trust were at the center of our collaboration. Although the initial discussions took place exclusively remotely - a challenge for many at the time - we were quickly able to build a solid foundation that goes far beyond a normal customer relationship.
Regular exchanges between our development teams, mutual visits and joint participation in events such as Sylius Days 2024 in Mannheim underline the strength of this partnership.
Our technical expertise and a working environment characterized by respect and openness have made it possible to successfully accompany BIKAR on its path to digitalization. This collaboration lays the foundation for many more joint projects in which trust and innovation will go hand in hand.
