Putzmeister, one of the world leaders in construction and underground mining, has developed an omni-audience platform that is instrumental in shaping the company's global digital profile.
Customer Self-Service Portal Drives Digital Transformation at Putzmeister
80%
faster user registration & onboarding
45:1
reduced effort for data maintenance
60%
reduced effort for backend administration
Outline
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Key Takeaways
- Improved user experience.
Thanks to single sign-on instead of multiple logins, users of the Liferay-based dealer and customer portal have access to all services and applications, including seamless use of third-party solutions. - Role-based personalization.
The granular segmentation capabilities of Liferay DXP enable users to find the correct information faster and ensure that users can only access relevant content, data, apps, and services. - Reduced back-end administration effort.
Liferay DXP's integration and automation capabilities were critical in eliminating data silos, streamlining business processes, and introducing time- and resource-saving self-service offerings for dealers and customers.
Background
Putzmeister Holding GmbH, headquartered in Aichtal, Baden-Württemberg, develops, manufactures, and distributes high-tech machines for concrete production, transport and paving worldwide. As one of the global market leaders in construction and underground engineering, the company, founded in 1958, has been involved in numerous international large-scale projects, including the construction of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the expansion of the Panama Canal, and the Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles.
With more than 20 branches, 12 languages, and 3,000 employees, Putzmeister enjoys an excellent reputation among dealers, customers, and the industry. For many years, the company has pursued an ambitious digital strategy and has been relying on Liferay software solutions since 2016. The collaboration began with a project to connect Putzmeister's globally-distributed collaboration platforms. After implementing an intranet based on Liferay, the extranet was relaunched with an aftersales platform with SAP integration.
With more than 20 branches, 12 languages, and 3,000 employees, Putzmeister enjoys an excellent reputation among dealers, customers, and the industry. For many years, the company has pursued an ambitious digital strategy and has been relying on Liferay software solutions since 2016. The collaboration began with a project to connect Putzmeister's globally-distributed collaboration platforms. After implementing an intranet based on Liferay, the extranet was relaunched with an aftersales platform with SAP integration.
Challenges
The latest milestone of Putzmeister's digital transformation was the design and implementation of an omni-audience platform. The platform, named MY Putzmeister, was created to address a number of challenges:
- The top goal of MY Putzmeister was to unite the heterogeneous online offerings and platforms in the Putzmeister digital universe "under one roof": a single touchpoint that offers personalized content and data to dealers, customers, and employees according to their authorization and integrates the existing intranet as well as the webshop and fleet management tool.
- Previously, users had to use multiple logins for different services, navigate through visually and functionally different user interfaces, and figure out which application contained which content and services. The resulting user experience needed to be a "Single Source of Truth" with an appealing and seamless user experience.
- Another important goal was eliminating the time-consuming and redundant maintenance of data and content on multiple platforms. Due to the heterogeneous tech stack, changing or adding data like product information or machine options required the manual editing of data records in up to 45 places in the back-end and connected applications.
The feedback for MY Putzmeister has been overwhelming. Our dealers are thrilled because they get all the information they need in one place.
Implementation
The Putzmeister team designed and implemented the project with the help of the certified Liferay Platinum service partner USU as part of a five-year plan with several milestones. The successful partnership of Putzmeister and USU AG dates back to the implementation of the intranet and global collaboration platforms.
After requirements were collected and consolidated in mid-2018, the initial focus was on aftersales and the implementation of a new webshop. Mid-2020 a new corporate website based on Liferay went live. After that, the focus turned to the implementation of the dealer and customer portal, which premiered with the go-live in Singapore and, shortly after, in the Americas. By August 2021, MY Putzmeister was finally available in the EMEA region, including Germany.
After requirements were collected and consolidated in mid-2018, the initial focus was on aftersales and the implementation of a new webshop. Mid-2020 a new corporate website based on Liferay went live. After that, the focus turned to the implementation of the dealer and customer portal, which premiered with the go-live in Singapore and, shortly after, in the Americas. By August 2021, MY Putzmeister was finally available in the EMEA region, including Germany.
The MY Putzmeister dashboad for customers.
Today, the MY Putzmeister program team operates the intranet, corporate website, and dealer and customer portal on a Microsoft Azure virtual machine. This way, all services offering content that’s editorially maintained are based on Liferay DXP. In addition, third-party solutions like the webshop, warranty, and fleet management are seamlessly integrated and can also be accessed via MY Putzmeister.
Since the main focus of the dealer and customer portal lies in offering users personalized content and data based on their permissions, Liferay's segmentation functionality proved to be extremely valuable. Thanks to this "out of the box" feature, each user can be clearly identified and given appropriate permissions based on their user segment – a very practical capability for customers from larger companies who can provide different kinds of access levels for their users. For example, one user might be granted access to executing service tasks and another user for spare parts procurement.
Since the main focus of the dealer and customer portal lies in offering users personalized content and data based on their permissions, Liferay's segmentation functionality proved to be extremely valuable. Thanks to this "out of the box" feature, each user can be clearly identified and given appropriate permissions based on their user segment – a very practical capability for customers from larger companies who can provide different kinds of access levels for their users. For example, one user might be granted access to executing service tasks and another user for spare parts procurement.
Product information stored in Liferay DXP (like images and documents) can be accessed through the "NO1SE" web app.
Results
As a comprehensive omni-audience platform, MY Putzmeister reflects Putzmeister's high standards in terms of service quality and innovation. Moreover, the platform provides access to a wide range of tools and applications, with seamless digital experiences for over 1,550 customers and dealers worldwide as well as 2,800 internal users. MY Putzmeister includes services like:
- The "Service Center," which provides comprehensive information and web content related to machine services and support (spare parts catalog, downloads with software updates for machines, and troubleshooting videos to enable customers to fix problems without a support request).
- The "Marketing Center," where dealers can access marketing and trade show materials (logos, brochures, etc.).
- "PM Products," which contain details about the machines (technical data, brochures, product comparisons).
“As of now, around 280 products with all corresponding content assets are available on MY Putzmeister in 12 languages – approximately 23,600 documents and media. In particular, the speed and flexibility with which this volume of content and data was made available excited the management and completely convinced them of Liferay," explains Holger Bartholomä, webmaster of Putzmeister Holding GmbH. Consequently, MY Putzmeister has been continuously growing, counting around 50 new customer and dealer registrations per month. More results include:
Improved User Experience
- Thanks to Single Sign-On, users only need one login for all services and applications offered on MY Putzmeister. Third-party applications are integrated under the same domain, so that users do not notice these transitions thanks to a consistent user interface and a seamless user experience.
- Depending on their authorization and role, dealers and customers are provided personalized content, services, and applications. On the one hand, this enables them to retrieve correct information and content faster. On the other hand, the granular permission management ensures that users can only activate the apps and services that are necessary for their daily business.
- The personalization of the customer experience also benefits the Putzmeister IT: Thanks to the categorization of content, only authorized user groups or segments can access it. In addition, the user interface can also be customized. Frequently-used apps, represented as tiles on a dashboard, can be moved to the top.
Saving Resources
- The time and effort spent on back-end administration has been reduced by approximately 60 percent, which in turn has freed up considerable resources in the IT department. Since all editorial content and data is now maintained on a central data hub – Liferay DXP – redundant data maintenance and data silos are a thing of the past.
- Users can register as a customer or dealer and request the activation of certain apps through self-service. Because of the integration of the third-party ticketing system ServiceDesk via API, these processes have been automated, accelerating them by 70 to 80 percent. Requests no longer have to be forwarded and processed manually by email.
Integration
- The product data and options as well as all images and documents available in Liferay DXP can be accessed in a web app developed by Liferay partner USU AG. Thanks to the NO1SE app (Number One Sales Experience), redundant maintenance tasks, which were necessary with previously used stand-alone solutions, were eliminated. The next step is to implement offline availability, enabling the app to store content and data locally on the user's device, allowing it to be easily displayed offline, for example on a construction site.
- With Liferay as the central hub for content, Putzmeister employees can reuse content from the Liferay Content Management System in different scenarios and on different touchpoints, be it the website, the NO1SE app, or the product configurator.
- Thanks to the flexible integration of third-party solutions such as SAP Commerce, SAP Concur Travel, and Salesforce, numerous business processes have been optimized. In addition, the IoT solution "Machine Cockpit," which is also connected via API, provides real-time operational data (e.g., fuel consumption, pump performance, etc.) and offers various evaluation/analysis options.
High User Satisfaction and Future-Proofing
- The feedback for MY Putzmeister has shown that the improved user experience, significant resource savings, and flexible integration options have been enthusiastically received by both external users (customers and dealers) and internal users (IT department, marketing).
- The platform's great flexibility and scalability, combined with high stability and 24/7 availability, make Liferay DXP the ideal solution to provide all of Putzmeister’s target groups with a consistent customer experience and a single source of truth, including all relevant information.
Conclusion and Outlook
What started with connecting Putzmeister's globally-distributed collaboration platforms has now become the company's global digital face, including corporate websites and a self-service portal for customers and dealers. Given the successful track record, it is no surprise that Putzmeister plans to rely on Liferay long term, aiming to continuously evolve the platform.
Plans are being discussed to update to the current Liferay DXP version. As Holger Bartholomä explains: "We were already able to take a close look at many new features during a workshop, and we are really looking forward to it. We’re hoping to tackle goals like improving the search function, introducing a document shopping cart, or expanding the dealer self-service."
Plans are being discussed to update to the current Liferay DXP version. As Holger Bartholomä explains: "We were already able to take a close look at many new features during a workshop, and we are really looking forward to it. We’re hoping to tackle goals like improving the search function, introducing a document shopping cart, or expanding the dealer self-service."
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