TL;DR - OmaGS1 case in a nutshell
GS1 Finland is a neutral, non-profit entity that leverages open standards to assist its customers in enhancing and managing their supply chains. The organization boasts a team of around 25 experts and serves approximately 7,300 companies, ranging from small entrepreneurs to some of Finland's largest corporations.
GS1 wanted to provide better, more user friendly services for their clients through a digital service portal. They also faced significant Salesforce licensing costs due to the structure of their existing customer portal, prompting a need for a cost-effective, user-managed solution. By implementing a separate open source Identity and Access Management system and developing the OmaGS1 portal with advanced integration capabilities, we significantly reduced costs and enhanced the user experience
"OmaGS1 portal project was part of the organization's customer journey development project. Overall, the goal of this main project was to improve the customer experience and customer service, make operations more efficient and to strengthen the brand."
Riina Muhonen, Development Manager, GS1 Finland
The business challenge
GS1 knows their clients expect a straightforward approach to managing their products. Developing the OmaGS1 portal was a leap towards better usability, more efficient user journeys, and centralized management. GS1's Salesforce instance plays a crucial role in their service offerings, managing both user and process-oriented operations internally and externally, with around 10,000 end-users. Regular internal use of Salesforce's management interfaces and the customer-facing OmaGS1 portal through the Experience Cloud highlights the strategic importance of digital interaction in GS1's service evolution. Development projects, including a website renewal in 2020 and the adoption of an online store in 2022, have laid the foundation for a digital service path focusing on enhanced customer experience. The revamp of the OmaGS1 portal is a key element in GS1's strategy to elevate customer interaction in the coming years.
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The solution
We conducted a comprehensive analysis, identifying the pivotal role of an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system in resolving the cost issue. This led to the redesign of the OmaGS1 portal, aiming for seamless integration with business-critical systems and a user-friendly CMS.
In our approach to developing the OmaGS1 portal, we adopted a headless architecture to separate the frontend and backend, allowing us to utilize the best components for each solution. We proposed Next.js, a React-based framework for creating intuitive and fast single-page applications, enabling comprehensive user interface functionality. This strategy aimed to enhance the portal's performance and user experience significantly.
"We started the project with a discovery phase to review the existing design layouts, conducted stakeholder interviews, executed a technical setup research and information mapping for integrations in order to draft the best technical architecture and user experience for the future service. Once the initial architecture plan and design Figma's were ready we scoped the project together with the customer and kicked off the project delivery by onboarding the project team and stakeholders to agile scrum ways of working.
In order to deliver high complexity projects, transparency and close collaboration is the key and we believe sticking to scrum and bringing involved parties like product owner, design and delivery team and experts together was a major part of project success. Combining the expertise with trust into the scrum process allowed us to deliver the new OmaGS1 Portal MVP launch in only 12 weekly sprints!”
Zane Petrovska, Head of Delivery, Digitalist Open Tech Finland
Integrations enhancing the OmaGS1 service portal experience
In the journey to optimize customer management and interaction, the OmaGS1 Service Portal by GS1 Finland has embarked on an ambitious path of digital transformation. Central to this transformation is the integration of Salesforce for customer and process-oriented operations management and Keycloak for authentication, streamlining user access and enhancing security.
Salesforce Integration
Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, serves as the backbone for GS1's service offerings. It manages a wide array of operations, from internal processes to customer-facing interactions. By integrating Salesforce with the OmaGS1 portal, GS1 Finland can leverage real-time data synchronization, ensuring that customer information, service usage, and billing details are up-to-date and accurately reflected on the portal. This integration enables a seamless experience for customers, allowing them to manage their products, access GS1 services, and view payment information effortlessly.
Keycloak for Secure Authentication
Keycloak, an open-source Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution, plays a pivotal role in the OmaGS1 portal's security architecture. It provides a robust and flexible solution for user authentication, supporting a wide range of authentication mechanisms and protocols. The decision to implement Keycloak was driven by the need for a cost-effective, yet secure, user-managed authentication system. This integration not only enhances the portal's security posture but also offers users a streamlined login experience, ensuring that access to the OmaGS1 portal is both secure and user-friendly.
Technical Implementations and User Experience
The technical execution of the OmaGS1 portal focused on adopting a headless architecture, allowing for the separation of the frontend and backend. This approach facilitated the use of Next.js, a React-based framework, to develop a fast, intuitive single-page application. The integration with Salesforce and Keycloak was meticulously planned to ensure that all technical components worked harmoniously, providing a seamless and secure user experience. The portal now stands as a model for efficient customer portal management, significantly reducing licensing costs and improving operational efficiency with streamlined access and integration.
Roadblocks and Solutions
During the project, we encountered a roadblock when integrating numerous fields to enhance user experience (UX). The importance of field mapping in the design process became clear; our initial designs had to be adapted to align with the technical capabilities of our setup. This experience underscored that effective design for integration projects requires an understanding of the technical framework to create solutions that are both feasible and user-centric.
The results
The revamped OmaGS1 portal now stands as a testament to efficient customer portal management, significantly reducing licensing costs and improving operational efficiency with its streamlined access and integration.
Customers now have a one point access to the relevant information regarding their collaboration with GS1. In the portal customers can review their Company information, GS1 services in use within company, payments and billing information. Customers can create, modify and accept users to access services and their company information in OmaGS1 Portal.
It is also possible to receive support related to GS1 services by submitting tickets directly in the portal and being able to track the support progress. Streamlined UX with access to GS1 webshop where more products can be purchased is ensured.
"OmaGS1 portal project was part of the organization's customer journey development project. Overall, the goal of this main project was to improve the customer experience and customer service, make operations more efficient and to strengthen the brand. Now OmaGS1 portal streamlines and unifys the GS1 customer experience.
Project schedule was challenging during the project, but the result was rewarding. OmaGS1 portal brings the entire GS1 customership to the same address and thus streamlines our customers' digital path. In addition to maintaining one's own data, it introduces the single sign on login with the OmaGS1 ID, which our customers much wish for, eliminating the need for separate user IDs for GS1 services."
Riina Muhonen, Development Manager, GS1 Finland
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