How can all digital services be modelled on the central service platform of a company that works with 15,000 suppliers and 200 retailers across Europe? This was the challenge faced by adesso partner Markant at the start of the project, which has now been honoured with the reta Award in the Best Connected Retail Solution category. adesso itself received the Top Supplier Retail 2024 award. The reta Award ceremony took place for the 17th time in 2024. A panel of experts representing key industry players, universities and research institutes selected the winners from numerous entries in five categories: Best Customer Experience, Best Instore Solution, Best Enterprise Solution, Best Connected Retail Solution and Best AI & Robotics Application. When assessing the solutions, the panel paid particular attention to the degree of innovation and the strategic and financial benefits of the projects. The service providers of the reta Award winners also received recognition. They were honoured as Top Suppliers Retail for their support in the use and implementation of innovative technology solutions. The award ceremony took place in Düsseldorf on Tuesday evening as part of EuroCIS, the leading trade fair for retail technology in Europe.
Markant B2B platform honoured
The vision behind the award-winning project is to build the leading B2B platform for digital services in the European retail and industry market – a goal on which Markant and adesso have been working intensively for the past 1.5 years. Based on an MVP approach, adesso devel-oped the software for the B2B platform as an individual, tailor-made solution. Around 160 employees of the partner to suppliers and retailers joined forces with the adesso team to oversee the project and successfully launch the platform. In the process, they built up associated services with an agile process model, including a digital transaction file, raw materials monitoring, the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (LkSG) and e-invoicing. There are also plans to attract new partners to Markant by leveraging the platform’s appeal.
“Together with adesso, we went live with the Markant B2B service platform for industry and retail in the FMCG and DIY sectors on 31 July 2023 after just 12 months of development using an MVP approach,” says Mark Michaelis, CEO of Markant Services International GmbH. “From setting up a customer-centric B2B customer journey model and developing tailor-made software to building the platform infrastructure and implementing a new CRM system, our partnership was always on equal footing so that we could achieve our goal together.”
“Digital commerce creates and establishes new business channels or shortens existing ones,” says Thomas Gasber, Business Area Lead Industrial & Retail at adesso. “It is important to understand the needs and touchpoints of both the customer and the retailer. This is precisely where Markant’s B2B platform comes into its own, by bundling the upstream processes into integrated services and mapping them digitally in order to better connect retail and industry, thereby responding more quickly to changing customer needs. In a nutshell: it gives you more time to get down to business.”
