Part 3: Technology and Development

In Part 2: Information Architecture and User Experience, we established the importance of creating a unified source of truth through a robust Information Architecture (IA). This laid the foundation for our digital transformation, ensuring data accuracy, consistency, and reliability. With this groundwork in place, we shifted our focus to building the technology stack to support our new platform, enabling efficient development and seamless integration of various systems.

Selecting the Right Tools

To create a cohesive and efficient tech stack, we carefully selected tools that would complement each other and meet our specific needs:

• Kentico for our Content Management System (CMS): Kentico provides a comprehensive enterprise solution for managing content, allowing us to efficiently update and maintain our vast catalog of products and resources. Its flexibility and scalability made it an ideal choice for our requirements.
• Orbweaver, LLC for our Product Information Management (PIM) system: Orbweaver ensures that our product data, sourced from over 6,000 manufacturers and covering 2 million+ products, is accurate and up-to-date. By centralizing our product information, Orbweaver helps us maintain a unified source of truth, streamlining data management and improving overall data quality.
• NetSuite for our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. This would be another massive project for us to undertake, requiring new development partners and additional investments in our IT, but it would connect all our systems and build the foundation of our digitalization advancement.

Building the Tech Stack

With these tools selected, we embarked on the journey to build our tech stack, ensuring seamless integration and optimal performance. This phase involved extensive planning, development, and testing.

• Integration and Data Flow: One of the critical challenges we faced was ensuring smooth data flow between our CMS, PIM, CRM, and ERP systems. This required creating robust APIs and data synchronization processes to enable real-time updates and consistent data across all platforms. We also connected our PIM to APIs from trusted industry sources and manufacturers directly to validate and complete our product data efficiently and quickly.
• Customization and Scalability: We customized each tool to meet our unique needs and ensure scalability. This involved developing custom modules and extensions for Kentico, configuring Orbweaver to handle our extensive product catalog, tailoring Oracle NetSuite to integrate seamlessly with our existing workflows, and aligning our CRM, Pipedrive for strengthening business development while ensuring a great customer experience.

Development and Implementation

The development and implementation phase was a collaborative effort between our team and EETech’s experts. Together, we worked to bring our vision to life, focusing on both the front-end user experience and back-end functionality.

Martin Chatterton , CEO of EETech Group , highlights the importance of collaboration and innovation: "EETech is empowering digitalization in the electronics industry through its knowledge of the needs of online communities coupled with a team of experienced electronics specialists that are able to execute customized web experiences based on specific company needs. By leveraging innovative technologies and strategic partnerships, EETech fosters collaboration and innovation resulting in client growth and success."

• Content Management System (CMS): Using Kentico, we developed a robust CMS that allows us to manage and update our extensive product catalog efficiently. Kentico's flexibility enabled us to create custom modules tailored to our specific needs, ensuring that our content management processes are both streamlined and scalable.
• Product Information Management (PIM): Orbweaver was configured to centralize and standardize our product information. By connecting the PIM to APIs from trusted sources and manufacturers, we validated and completed our product data quickly. This centralized approach ensured that all product specifications were accurate, up-to-date, and accessible.
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Oracle NetSuite was tailored to integrate seamlessly with our CMS, PIM, and CRM, providing real-time visibility into our operations. This integration enhanced our decision-making capabilities and operational efficiency by consolidating various business processes into a unified system.

We developed robust APIs and data synchronization processes to ensure seamless integration between these systems. This allowed for real-time updates and consistent data flow across all platforms, ensuring that our CMS, PIM, and ERP systems worked harmoniously.?

Enhancing the CMS and PIM with AI and LLMs

Our website, hosting over 2 million content and product pages, required an advanced CMS that could handle this vast amount of data. Kentico was instrumental in this, allowing us to efficiently manage and update our extensive content library. To further enhance our tech stack, we integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) to expedite and quickly validate content output.

• AI Integration in the PIM: We enhanced our PIM data with AI capabilities to validate parts, match manufacturers, and find alternatives with fast specification comparisons to power features on our website.
• LLMs for Validation: Leveraging large language models, we could quickly validate product specifications and descriptions, ensuring consistency and reliability across our vast catalog. These models helped maintain a high data accuracy standard, which is critical for our users.

This phase was an eye-opening discovery, almost like an "aha" moment—we had finally found the key to maintaining truth. Once we established how to ensure data accuracy and consistency, we laid the foundation for our digital transformation.

Next, Part 4: Content Creation and Optimization will dive into our strategies for creating compelling content and optimizing it for search engines, ensuring that our platform not only meets today’s challenges but also leverages future opportunities.

We invite you to continue this journey with us and join the conversation. T