Austral Trade is more than just a stationery supplier. Its 30-year evolution has transformed the company into an integrated office solutions provider, enabling customers to find everything they need for smooth business operations in one place.

The company's mission is to be the trusted partner for its customers, offering promptness and flexibility to meet all their needs, regardless of the industry they operate in. This vision led to the development of an online platform that caters to the specific requirements of their B2B (business-to-business) clients, with tailored developments to match their way of working.

Collaborating with major B2B clients requires a personalized platform, which became the primary bond between Austral and Commergent, as Commergent understood the business model and the company's need for growth in recent years.

Before implementing the new solution, Austral created its first online store. However, shortly after this change, the need for greater flexibility and dynamism arose.

Austral desired a more modern portal with enhanced possibilities and functionalities to improve the B2B order flow. On the other hand, the clients wanted a more flexible and efficient approval process for orders from their superiors. They needed access to specific, personalized products tailored to their interests and within their budget limits. As a result, the necessity for a more complex and scalable B2B online platform emerged.

The company integrated the Dynamicweb solution with Microsoft AX, their ERP system, which offered multiple functionalities.

One of the specific features of this platform is the integrated approval workflow, which allows customers placing orders to receive approval from supervisors directly within the platform. Supervisors can modify, approve, and place orders through this approval process, which can be done on multiple levels, with supervisors being notified of new orders.

Other features of the platform include synchronized personalized prices for each client, stock information, users, and the approval center. Additionally, the platform benefits from a "PunchOut Catalog" system that enables buyers to access the product catalog directly from their procurement system.

Administrators have the power to decide and select which products will be displayed for each client, based on preferences. Thus, product assortments and budgets are personalized according to individual clients, locations, or users.

The latest upgrade of the platform has just been completed, providing a modern look, improved loading speed, and new functionalities and integrations with suppliers, in addition to the existing ones.

The collaboration between Austral and Commergent started 11 years ago, and the austral.ro project continues to thrive. The website has evolved significantly, from simple automation of stocks and prices through connection with Microsoft AX to advanced functionalities that enhance the customer relationship.

Today, the platform serves over 10,000 users and offers the possibility for other integrations with clients' own platforms, resulting in over 80% of automated product lines out of the total, surpassing 53,000 product lines per month in online orders.

"The collaboration with Commergent is a long-lasting partnership, a friendship formed after 11 years of joint projects. Austral.ro was a challenge, considering the specific B2B audience we cater to, composed of large companies with specific needs that required multiple personalized developments to match their way of working.

We couldn't handle these additional developments without a reliable partner who truly understood our business model and all the other platforms involved in the process. That's precisely why our collaboration with the Commergent team felt like having an internal department within Austral, understanding our requests and providing us with advice and solutions to offer our customers such a complex platform; and our projects certainly won't stop here." - Oana Vatra, Marketing Coordinator, Austral