See how Korcomptenz empowered a logistics and cold storage client with Power App Portal with custom Azure .NET Apps and Azure B2C single sign on and help generate measurable results in the real world.
The demand for cold chain transport has been increasing manifold since the last decades. So is the need for full lifecycle service and support for cold storage and transport of perishable products. The client is a technology-driven rental refrigerated trailer services provider having global expertise in cold chain logistics. The firm looked forward to leveraging technology to offer customer-specific and flexible cold chain logistics solutions. Korcomptenz partnered with the client and identified their unique requirements. With the help of appropriate technology, Korcomptenz enabled the client to view crucial data in real time while allowing their customers to get full visibility of their engagement.
The client is one of the largest refrigerated storage specialists in the United States. The company provides sales, service, leasing, and support for thousands of refrigerators trailers, providing full lifecycle support for products requiring cold storage. The company serves the needs of large, national organizations with thousands of locations, and smaller, niche markets. They are also a division of a large multinational corporation.
They are the largest technology driven company dedicated to the cold supply chain, combining fleet management and cloud-based data solutions to create flexible, customer-specific programs that reduce costs and drive productivity.
The company had been using Microsoft Dynamics CE, NAV, and Azure, but had not been able to maximize return on investment by capitalizing on key self-service features that streamline operations and improve the customer experience. The overall usage of Dynamics CE was limited and didn’t address key functional areas in a strategic manner, especially when it comes to streamlining customer service.
They were maintaining multiple Azure databases that housed important customer usage data from IoT devices attached to the refrigerated trailers, but the customer experience was poor because this data was only presented to customers through separate portals provided by the unique IoT provider. They also maintained a repository of statement and usage information that was of high value to their customers, but needed to be delivered manually, requiring a lot of effort to prepare and distribute. In addition, customers did not have access to this information on demand, resulting in increased calls to customer service if a report was needed outside the standard monthly delivery.
Limited customer self-service tools, resulting in heavy call volume to customer service and sales for common questions.
Manual creation and delivery of monthly customer usage reports was labor intensive and prone to error, plus the reports themselves were cumbersome with no search or customization capabilities.
Multiple systems were required to support their IoT data, resulting in customers having to log-on to different portals and having difficulty finding the information they need.
No use of case management, routing, or other service features to streamline and process requests.
In addition, the survey application and its associated database were hosted locally on older infrastructure. The organization’s parent company was hesitant to move resources to the cloud for security reasons. Korcomptenz also partnered with their information security team to identify a hybrid solution that both matched their information security standards and enabled maintenance free scalability.
We collaborated with the customer to identify their short-term and long-term needs for the portal followed by design, development, training, and deployment. This process included design thinking workshops around their user experience needs, account and contact structure, and different data sources to identify the optimal technology architecture. In addition, the project required a multitiered customer hierarchy that would enable large corporations to report on usage globally and locally. These power users would have corporate accounts with full visibility to every aspect of the engagement plus local accounts with visibility based on the user’s unique location and business unit. The number of levels in the hierarchy were also variable for each company, resulting in a large amount of flexibility to address customer security concerns while allowing the right level of access.
Given the complexity of their technology stack, we recommended the usage of Azure B2C for single sign on, and a combination of standard Microsoft Power Portal functionality accessible through Microsoft Dynamics CE and custom .NET applications for usage reports and an IoT dashboard. This hybrid approach enabled a seamless experience for customers and authentication integrated with their customer data in Microsoft Dynamics CE while allowing for the custom functionality required to support their business needs.
The final product utilized Power App Portal functionality for basic features like account and case management, enabling customer to update their account information, view related contacts tied to their account based on permissions, and submit cases directly through the portal. The custom. NET components included a customizable customer usage report application that allowed customers to view key information on their assets, search and filter as needed, save custom reports, and download as Excel or PDF files. An IoT dashboard was also included that visualized the location of every asset directly on an interactive map of the United States and enabled users to search and view details about their assets including temperature, location, operating hours, etc. in near real time.
In a subsequent phase, the entire customer invoicing process was migrated to the portal and made available, replacing the previous manual process. The invoicing process leveraged the features available in the custom asset usage module but displayed precise monthly invoices and reports with the ability to filter and download as needed. A future phase will enable online invoice payments with credit cards and bank wire transfers.
The Power App Portal with custom Azure .NET Apps and Azure B2C single sign on generated measurable results in the real world. Even before the wide release of the portal, there was broad interest from the customer base. The portal was launched to select customers for a 3-month beta period to ensure all the complex data displayed correctly, the correct security protocols were maintained, and the customer team was ready to provide technical support as needed.
Following a successful beta period, invitations were sent to all customers and the initial uptake quickly reached over 50%. The release of the invoicing portion of the portal was then used to ensure 100% compliance among their customer bases. These were some of our deliverables:
With our Power App capabilities and unique strategies, we can offer powerful business management solutions and support to meet your needs. Find out more about how we use our expertise as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner to #FocusOnYou. Visit www.korcomptenz.com/services or mail us at [email protected] to learn more.
