Working with RI-Solution Data GmbH to Reduce Complexity
About RI-Solution
RI-Solution – a subsidiary of Raiffeisen Ware Austria (RWA) and an IT service provider for the entire RWA and Lagerhaus network – provides Lagerhaus cooperatives in Austria with a powerful digital infrastructure. With customized IT solutions, it supports the cooperatives in optimizing their business processes efficiently and offering their customers a modern digital shopping experience.
As key economic partners of Austrian agriculture, the Lagerhaus cooperatives ensure a reliable supply of agricultural products, machinery, building materials, garden products, and much more.
Customer Challenges
Fragmented digital architecture
Lagerhaus used highly-customized on-prem solutions by different partners and vendors, which didn’t work well together.
Limited scalability and performance
A high level of customization made it challenging to scale the commerce backend systems and adapt them to different business scenarios and regions.
Unnecessary additional efforts
Lack of a unified platform strategy led to many overlaps and redundancies in the system components.
All these challenges led to an overly complex and outdated digital architecture, making it difficult for the Lagerhaus cooperatives to modernize their business.
Therefore, RI-Solution, as the responsible IT service provider, together with Lagerhaus Franchise GmbH, the franchisor of the Lagerhaus cooperatives, decided to invest in a robust and future-proof web architecture that aligns with their business objectives.
The Solution: A headless frontend solution supporting an omnichannel customer experience paired with backend architecture consolidation.
RI-Solution took NETCONOMY’s advice and adopted an iterative approach to transforming the digital architecture for the Lagerhaus cooperatives. As a result, we are able to add best-of-breed solutions to their landscape with maximum business impact.
The first step in this journey was to create a state-of-the-art headless fronted, which serves as a robust foundation for future scaling and business cases.
The next phase of the project focuses on creating a composable digital landscape, allowing Lagerhaus cooperatives to further consolidate their backend systems and reduce complexity.
Project Highlights
Phase 1: Modernization of the Touchpoint Layer – Going Headless
- We completely rebuilt the front-end customer experience with our custom-made Archibald storefront, using a headless front-end architecture.
- Aside from improving their customer experience and shop performance, the new frontend solution allows us to easily introduce new channels and touchpoints – for example, a mobile app or an in-store digital kiosk.
- This architecture reduces both developer costs and time to market, allowing the RWA to quickly answer new market opportunities.
Phase 2: Consolidation of the Backend Landscape
- We started by performing an in-depth analysis of the legacy architecture to identify areas for strategic investment and consolidation.
- The Lagerhaus Franchise and RI-Solution business strategy team provided targeted recommendations, prioritizing modernization efforts that aligned with business goals to optimize operations and drive growth.
- By updating key components incrementally, we minimized disruptions, addressed immediate needs, and ensured the architecture continued to meet business requirements, all while enhancing scalability for future growth.
Technical Foundation
- SAP Commerce Cloud
- Archibald frontend (NETCONOMY solution)
- COVEO
- Bloomreach CMS