B2B Portals

Business-to-business relationships are often more complicated than a standard consumer transaction. Different customers may have different products, pricing, payment terms, permissions or approval processes. Dealers and distributors may need access to resources that are not available publicly. Suppliers may need to exchange information with operational teams or update records through defined workflows.

A B2B portal can bring these interactions into one secure environment.

Depending on the organisation, this may include:

• customer and trade accounts
• dealer portals
• distributor portals
• supplier and vendor portals
• reseller access
• contract pricing
• account-specific products
• quotes and approvals
• document libraries
• service requests
• account information
• reporting and dashboards
• sales and marketing resources
• training and product information

The portal can be designed around a single type of relationship or support several business audiences within the same platform.

We use user experience design and user flows to understand what each audience needs to do and create clear pathways through what can otherwise become a complicated set of rules and processes.

For many organisations, ordering is one of the most valuable functions a B2B portal can provide. Unlike a typical consumer store, B2B eCommerce may need to account for negotiated pricing, customer-specific catalogues, minimum quantities, repeat orders, purchase orders, credit terms or internal approval processes.

The portal may allow customers to:

• browse approved products
• see customer-specific pricing
• check stock availability
• create and save order lists
• place repeat orders
• request quotes
• use purchase order numbers
• view previous purchases
• track orders and deliveries
• access invoices and statements
• manage multiple buyers within an account

Our broader eCommerce capability allows the transactional experience to be considered alongside the rest of the portal rather than treated as a separate system.

For some businesses, commerce will be the centre of the experience. For others, ordering may be one feature alongside documentation, support, reporting and account management.

The technology and interface should reflect the way customers actually buy from the organisation rather than forcing a consumer eCommerce model onto a more complex B2B sales process.

The value of a B2B portal often depends on the information and processes it connects to. Product availability may come from an ERP. Customer records may sit within a CRM. Pricing could depend on existing account rules. Orders may need to flow directly into fulfilment, accounting or warehouse systems.

Depending on the project, systems integration may include:

• ERP systems
• CRM platforms
• accounting software
• product information systems
• inventory and warehouse systems
• payment gateways
• shipping and fulfilment
• document management
• marketing automation
• identity providers
• internal applications
• third-party APIs

We work through where each piece of information should come from and which platform remains the source of truth, which can remove duplicate data entry and reduce manual processes for both customers and internal teams.

It also means the portal can present customers with current information, such as pricing, order status or account details, without requiring staff to manually provide it each time.

B2B portals often need to support organisations rather than individual users. One customer account may have several people who need different levels of access. A buyer might be able to create an order, a manager may need to approve it and an accounts user may only need access to invoices and statements.

Requirements can include:

• organisation-level accounts
• multiple users per customer
• user invitations
• account administrators
• purchasing permissions
• approval workflows
• spending limits
• different product access
• customer-specific pricing
• secure document access
• single sign-on
• multi-factor authentication
• audit history

These rules need to be understandable to the people using the portal as well as reliable behind the scenes.

Where appropriate, the application can also include administrative tools that allow internal teams to manage customers, permissions, content and exceptions without requiring development support for routine changes.

Like our customer portals, B2B portals can begin with a focused set of high-value functions and expand over time. New commerce capabilities, integrations, account types and self-service functions can be introduced as customers adopt the platform and the organisation identifies further opportunities to move business processes online.

The goal is to create a practical digital channel that makes it easier for business customers to work with your organisation while reducing the manual effort required to support them.