Veolia Selfservice Portal
The portal for efficient waste management
- Headless commerce
- Shopware Composable Frontends
- Shopware Beyond
Company
Veolia Umweltservice GmbH, based in Hamburg, is responsible for Veolia's waste disposal business in Germany. With 9,500 employees and over 250 locations, the company offers comprehensive waste disposal and industrial services. Together with the Energy and Water divisions, Veolia generates sales of 2.8 billion euros in Germany and is part of Veolia's global business of 45.3 billion euros (2023).
The project
In recent years, the automation and digitalisation of business processes has become increasingly important. As an experienced e-commerce agency, we migrated a powerful self-service portal based on Shopware 6 for our long-standing client Veolia. Back in 2018, we developed both the self-service portal and the new customer shop for Veolia on Shopware 5.
The portal offers Veolia's customers a modern and efficient platform for handling business processes relating to the collection and delivery of containers and bins completely digitally. The portal also offers extensive administrative functions for end customers, such as viewing business contracts, managing transport orders and flexibly managing branch offices and user authorisations.
THE top reference for large & complex Shopware Projects.
Says Shopware.
We are proud to be part of the official keynote for the 25th anniversary of Shopware with our project self-service portal for our long-standing customer Veolia!
"Unique project"
says Shopware.
"Headless Architecture", "Composable Frontends" and "B2B Components" are just some of the reasons why Shopware presented our project in the keynote for the anniversary.
The collaboration with sitegeist was an absolute enrichment for our project, but also for me personally. All the gears really fitted together here and it is a collaboration at eye level. I was able to learn more from sitegeist in a very short space of time than would ever have been possible in any workshop.
Challenges and goals
With the migration to Shopware 6, Veolia pursued the goal of further digitalising and automating existing processes in order to reduce manual effort for both end customers and the company itself, in addition to the technological implementation based on one of the most modern e-commerce platforms. One of the key challenges was to ensure that the implementation of the complex and extensive B2B processes met all compliance and operational requirements due to the strictly regulated waste management industry. It was also necessary to ensure a smooth connection to Veolia's internal systems in order to optimise the continuous exchange of data.
Highlights
Project overview & organisation
- Project duration: 10 months from conception to go-live
- Project team: 5 developers and 1 project manager
- Target group: B2B and B2C market
Functional highlights
- Dashboard with a quick overview of customers' current and planned pick-up dates
- Calendar function with status display and scheduling of customer orders
- Centralised management of employees and user rights
- Document management: save, manage and download contracts, orders and relevant documents in one place
- 24/7 waste disposal enquiries: Simple enquiry form accessible at any time
- Generate analyses with a click
Technology & architecture
- Headless commerce architecture
- Use of Shopware Composable Frontends
- Shopware Beyond-Plan incl. B2B components
- Connection to the internal VeoliaBackend for smooth data synchronisation
- Hosting on an autoscaling cloud infrastructure (Amazon Cloud)
Our solution approach
The project was launched in November 2023 with joint concept workshops. Interface-specific details and the infrastructural orientation of the project were defined here. Based on these findings, we decided in favour of the setup based on a headless approach and the development of the Frontends using Shopware Composable Frontends
Veolia decided in favour of the Shopware 6 Beyond plan in order to be able to make optimum use of the full range of functions and the B2B components. In order to meet the specific requirements of the industry, we developed customised functionalities that meet the legal requirements. The integration of the extensive interfaces to Veolia's internal systems ensured that data exchange between the systems runs efficiently and smoothly. The high-performance cloud hosting solution based on Amazon Web Services (AWS) also ensures the necessary scalability and reliability.
For the relaunch on Shopware, the headless architecture enabled a clear separation of Frontend and Backend. This decoupling gave the developers the necessary flexibility to realise a customised solution for Veolia's customers. The headless approach not only shortens the time-to-market, but also makes it possible to react more quickly to new requirements and implement individual customisations efficiently.
By choosing the Shopware Beyond plan, the team had the complete toolset from Shopware at its disposal - ideal for tailoring the platform precisely to Veolia's specific market needs. A central element of this was the B2B Components, which were used to add essential B2B functionalities to the portal, such as the targeted management of user access and authorisations.
In addition, several internal systems were connected to the portal in order to digitise and centralise the processes to a greater extent. The migration not only significantly reduced the manual workload for customers and internal teams, but also noticeably increased added value and user-friendliness for customers.
Central functions at a glance
24/7 online ordering:
Existing customers can now easily and quickly manage deliveries and collections of containers and bins online. This significantly reduces manual effort and speeds up the process.
Just-in-time notifications:
Just-in-time information about status changes via text message or email is particularly important for major customers, some of whom have several hundred locations where waste is regularly collected. The corresponding notifications can be individually configured by the customer in the portal.
Efficiency gains through digital administrative processes:
The portal provides a complete overview of all current and past orders. End customers can view business contracts and create customised annual and monthly overviews.
Individual access rights, centrally controlled:
A robust authorisation system, based on B2B components, enables existing customers to create additional accesses to their company access and assign corresponding access rights individually.
Digital document management for a better overview and less effort:
Invoices and other important documents can be accessed digitally at any time, which increases transparency and further reduces administrative effort.
Results and added value
By migrating to Shopware 6, Veolia was able to significantly advance the digitalisation and automation of its business processes. End customers benefit from an even more user-friendly self-service portal that enables them to manage their orders, invoices and contracts efficiently.
Functions such as the automatic notification system by e-mail or SMS when the status of transport orders changes increase customer satisfaction and the efficiency of operational processes. Thanks to the new solution, Veolia has been able to significantly reduce its administrative workload and increase customer satisfaction.
The investment in Shopware 6 has proven to be a valuable step towards meeting the growing requirements in the B2B sector and at the same time creating the basis for further digitalisation and optimisation.
Outlook
The successful migration of the self-service portal to Shopware 6 underlines our expertise and experience in the implementation of complex e-commerce projects in the B2B sector.
With customised solutions and a deep understanding of our customers' specific requirements, we help companies like Veolia to continuously improve their digital business processes and ensure long-term success.
In the coming project phases, the platform will be continuously expanded and additional processes will be digitalised. The next major milestone will be the implementation of a new customer shop - supplemented by the integration of further shops for specialised products.
