From the Hazard to the Product

Multi-vendor Marketplace as a Preventative Instrument

Many people are exposed to hazards at work and in their free time. With its extensive prevention programs, Suva aims to support companies in creating a safe working environment for their employees and in preventing accidents at work and occupational illnesses. Sapros, the multi-vendor marketplace for safety products, plays a key role in this. Based on the existing hazards, it supports the buyers in selecting the right safety products.

From the Hazard to the Product

But Sapros is much more than an online shop for safety products. In line with Suva’s motto, “from the hazard to the product”, buyers are provided with additional prevention information during product evaluation. An elaborate faceted search guides customers through a complex product range. The information architecture, navigation concept and order process are intuitive and easy to understand. Extensive details on every product, detailed descriptions of the different variants and additional information such as warnings, hazards and protective functions ensure that the customer selects the right product. On top of this, customers can also find spare parts or accessories for products they are already using.

Multi-client Platform

Sapros.ch supports multiple clients and is available in three languages. All activities and access are managed through a complex rights and role management concept. Since the product range is vast, 19 different product types were defined. A data entry process with specific rules facilitates product entry for vendors as well as key checks before publication for Suva, providing dual control.

Efficient Product Entry for Vendors

All 60 vendors enter their own products in the Sapros backend. An intuitive workflow guides them step-by-step through the generation of a complete product description. The process reflects Suva’s quality standards. Hints, alerts and rules for the individual steps support vendors entering products. Different product states and workflows ensure that the vendors and the operator of the marketplace always have the right options for next steps. This strict and guided workflow increases the quality of the product information, decreases the administrative workload for the vendors and significantly decreases the error rate.

Eliminate Critical Error Sources

All process steps for vendors and Suva checks are tracked and analyzed automatically. Sapros administrators and vendors are aware of the quality of product entries on the marketplace at all times thanks to a well-structured dashboard. Comprehensive options for analysis allow for targeted optimization of processes and implementation by Suva. In addition, the system provides various views, exports and statistics per vendor.

With the User in Mind

Sapros supports all three stakeholder groups — Suva, vendors and buyers — with their specific tasks, challenges and demands. Suva wants high-quality product information, buyers are looking for an intuitive shopping experience and easy access to the right products, and vendors want to sell their products on Sapros efficiently. These requirements are met via tailor-made processes and a needs-based user experience.

Easier Administration for All

All three stakeholder groups profit from the new platform. Buyers intuitively find safety products tailored to their hazard situation and can order products from several vendors in one place. This makes administrative processes significantly easier, especially for safety officers who are in charge of operational safety in their company. The new workflow helps vendors enter their products into Sapros directly, efficiently and without errors.

Thanks to precise specifications for the product information required, Suva can bring down their own workload for corrections and rejected products due to data entry errors. The dashboard helps Suva identify frequent sources of errors and enables them to take targeted action to further decrease the error rate. This way, Sapros provides immediate support to Suva in their mission to prevent accidents at work and occupational diseases.

Store-in-Store Concept

There are some vendors that don’t operate their own online shop. They use sapros.ch as their primary information and sales channel. Thanks to the store-in-store concept, the entire shop view is limited to the products and categories in the portfolio of the specific vendor. Vendors get their own online shop at no additional cost.

A Technically Complex Process Landscape

As well as the purchase process, the platform also covers the entire product life cycle from product entry to product management and release in one system. All product data is checked and released by Suva before initial publication. Safety-related properties can only be changed after being re-checked by Suva. The entire process landscape was modeled with the Drupal framework and existing modules and tools as far as possible and enhanced with customer-specific add-ons where necessary.

The technical requirements included an open-source solution with a modern technology stack, a high degree of flexibility and a solid rights and roles concept. Drupal 8 with Drupal Commerce 2 is the ideal combination of content and commerce features, making it an ideal technical foundation for Sapros.

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