V-ZUG is a Swiss manufacturer of premium household appliances. In Australia, its spare parts and service operation runs on a technician ordering portal built on Core dna and connected to SAP. Three groups use it: internal technicians, independent service agents, and V-ZUG's own service team, who order for walk-in and phone customers.
The main V-ZUG story covers the three buyer types and the SAP order flow. This one covers the portal itself: what each user can do in it, and how V-ZUG keeps SAP as the single source of truth behind it. For the wider topic, see our guide to the B2B eCommerce portal.
The challenge
People ordering spare parts know what they want: a part number, for a job, usually today. They don't browse. They need to find the part fast, see whether it's in stock, and order it at the right price with the right paperwork attached.
Behind them, SAP holds the products, customer accounts, stock and orders. If a portal keeps its own copy of any of those and lets it drift, technicians see stock that isn't there or prices finance doesn't recognize, and the service desk ends up fixing orders by hand.
What V-ZUG needed
- Fast part search and ordering for people who know the part number.
- Quotes that can be saved, reused and turned into orders.
- Reorders and returns from order history, linked to the original order.
- Different prices for retail customers, internal technicians and agents, from one catalog.
- Job details captured at checkout and passed to SAP.
- SAP kept as the source of truth for products, customers and stock.
How the portal works
Order Express. Users start typing a part name or number and add parts to a list. Each line shows the part ID, price, description and availability, and quantities can be changed or removed. From the list, they check out or save it as a quote.
Out-of-stock parts. Parts that are out of stock are marked and can't be added to the cart. Users can opt in to an email when a part is back in stock. Selected agents are allowed to order out-of-stock parts, and those orders are held until the stock checks pass.
Quotes. A saved quote can be viewed, printed as a PDF, deleted or restored to the cart to check out. A cart can also be saved as a quote during checkout.
Checkout with job details. Checkout runs in four steps: cart, delivery, payment and confirmation. Users add the V-ZUG job number and their own reference, and pay by card or on account. The service team first chooses whether they're ordering for themselves or for a customer. For a customer, they search SAP by email or add a new customer on the spot.
Orders, reorders and returns. Order history shows every order, including orders placed outside the portal and stored in SAP. Users can view an order, print it, reorder it or start a return. A return creates a new order linked to the original, and both are labeled so it's clear which is which. The reason for the return and the condition of the part are recorded and sent to SAP.
FAQs by group. Each user group sees the FAQs that apply to it, with search.
Want to see how it works?
Book a call with Core dna. We'll walk you through a parts portal connected to your ERP, and how it would work for your technicians, dealers and customers.
How SAP stays the source of truth
- Products. Name, part code, description, cost price and tax class sync from SAP. Product changes are made in SAP, not in the portal.
- Prices by group. One catalog carries three price lists, for retail customers, internal technicians and agents. The team updates them in bulk from a spreadsheet, and each user sees the price for their group.
- Customers. Customer details come from SAP. When the team adds an external technician with their SAP account number, two automations run: one pulls the customer record from SAP and one pulls their order history. Users see their details in the portal and ask V-ZUG to change them in SAP.
- Internal technicians. They don't have a customer account in SAP. They look after one or more service locations, which are set up as addresses on their portal account.
- Stock. Stock levels come from SAP. When an order is placed, the portal sends the update to SAP, and the new level shows on both sides.
- Orders. Every order goes to SAP with its job number, reference and return details, and the SAP sales order, delivery and stock transfer references are stored back on the order.
Behind the portal, a daily job also keeps SAP's master data complete for every part at every service location. See how V-ZUG automated SAP master data.
Questions to answer before building a parts portal
- Which system owns each piece of data? Write it down for products, prices, customers, stock and orders.
- Who are your buyers, and how does each one pay? Internal staff, trade customers and retail customers rarely share a price or a checkout.
- What do you need at checkout? Job numbers, references and return reasons are easier to capture with the order than to chase afterwards.
- How do returns work? Linking a return to the original order keeps stock, credits and reporting straight.
- What happens when a part is out of stock? Block it, notify the buyer when it's back, or let trusted users order with a hold.
- Can buyers change their own details? If the ERP owns them, route changes through your team.
For more, see B2B eCommerce ERP integration.
