We were thrilled when Rolls-Royce approached us with an adventurous new project in mind. The luxury car manufacturer wanted to bring its supply management process into the 21st century, moving from an offline process to a smooth, digital solution which channelled their strong corporate identity.
Battling with a manual supply management process is not very “Rolls-Royce”. In order to inject their own high-end, beautifully-made ethos into their “behind the scenes” systems, Rolls-Royce needed to bring their offline process online, so they asked our web development masterminds to build a brand new, shiny automated digital platform – a platform which left much less room for human error.
As any fan of Rolls-Royce will know, it’s not just what goes on ‘under the hood’ which makes these cars special, it is also their impeccable looks. This strong aesthetic needed to be mirrored in the platform we developed, making our design as important as the development work beneath the surface. We were asked to comply with the company’s stringent brand guidelines, which reflected the beauty of Rolls-Royce’s design flair.
The new system didn’t just have to look good and include all the right parts, Rolls-Royce also needed it to handle effectively. We applied our User Experience (UX) knowledge to the project to create a seamless, intuitive digital platform which allowed dealers the freedom to order official showroom decor and goods from Rolls-Royce approved suppliers.
Working closely with Rolls-Royce was fundamental to the success of this project. This world famous, well-established company understands its supply routes and processes better than we ever could, so communicating extensively about stakeholders, dealers, suppliers and user journeys was an essential part of getting every detail right. We conducted scoping sessions and many face-to-face meetings with Rolls-Royce to ensure we had the insight we needed to build a “perfect fit” new digital platform.
Once we were able to define Rolls-Royce’s detailed requirements, we structured a roadmap for our design and web development teams to follow, based on the priority features outlined by the client.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was the use of different quotation templates by a variety of suppliers. We needed to produce a ‘one size fits all’ quote form. To do this, we worked closely with suppliers to drill down to a core set of questions that were common to all. The finished Quoting Order Form automatically transposed details into an official RR branded PDF format, resulting in a cleaner quote form and a much simpler process.
With a functioning system revving and ready to go, it was time to test, test and test again. As Rolls-Royce’s team were the end users, their involvement in the testing process was pivotal, and their feedback was indispensable in fine-tuning and honing the finished system. The “grand unveiling” to suppliers and dealers was announced with a worldwide welcome email and ran just as smoothly as any Rolls-Royce automobile.
We built a bespoke online order portal for Rolls-Royce’s exclusive dealers and approved suppliers, allowing them to securely log in, browse products by category and request a quote to be sent to a list of their chosen approved suppliers.
We also developed functionality which allowed dealers to create a quote in any chosen currency, and which generated an official RR branded PDF for suppliers, featuring all necessary requirements. But our shiny new system didn’t stop there! Other useful features we implemented included:
Our work with Rolls Royce in ongoing. We work alongside the company to continually offer fresh ideas and new functionality such as multi-language support in Chinese. Rolls Royce is under our ‘Managed Service’ this entails continuous enhancements as well as managed the web hosting for the portal. We ensure that both the hosting and application run as smoothly as – well, a Rolls-Royce!
