Technology services provider has created online marketplace to provide real-time stock availability
Elly Yates-Roberts |
Probrand is a technology services provider that offers customers IT products, solutions, cloud, managed and digital services.
The firm has always prioritised saving its customers time and money but wanted to further differentiate itself from the competition. The team at Probrand realised that they needed to invest in new marketplace technology to deliver the unique experience their customers demanded. For this, they looked to Mercato Solutions.
Probrand has a strong existing relationship with Mercato. The firm’s original e-procurement offering The IT Index provided price comparisons long before the meerkats and the technology behind it was delivered by Mercato. This site even received the Queens Award for Innovation in 2011 for saving private and public sector organisations millions in time and money.
However, as technology evolved, users needed richer experiences, real-time pricing and stock availability and the ability to purchase more than just IT products. With Mercato, Probrand transitioned to a new online marketplace called Progora which gave them all of these requirements and much more.
“Our focus was to make Probrand’s platform very competitive and highly flexible when it comes to dealing with a multitude of stakeholders, buyers, suppliers, sales and supply chain teams,” said Neil Tonkin, chief technology officer at Mercato. “We used artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the user experience on the site and added features like real-time price checks and guided advisors for professional services made the marketplace powerful, intuitive and easy to use.”
With Mercato’s technology and their ability to deploy it fast, Probrand’s new platform provided real-time pricing for over 300,000 products, access to guided advisors for IT services and solutions as well as a better user experience.
KnowledgeKube allowed Probrand to create a smart and faster marketplace that improved self-service. The new systems allow users to configure, price, quote and buy relevant bundles of products and services.
Probrand now has 100% adoption across internal sales and supply chain teams, plus distributor and vendor partners. The marketplace is continually evolving with new features based on ongoing customer feedback. By implementing an agile approach to these continued developments, Probrand and Mercato have developed a strong relationship.
“Our marketplace approach has given us competitive advantage,” said Mark Allbut, director of Technical Services at Probrand. “It is disruptive and has cut inefficiency from the supply chain, giving buyers and suppliers a better experience and greater value. With a flexible platform we can scale and grow features and new business with our communities.”