HBS Group

Key Projects

Server Migration

To deliver a strong foundation to support the HBS website we needed to migrate to a new server which was configured by our team to use the latest in caching and database technology such as Varnish Cache, Elastic Search and more. Within the new server we have adjusted the schedules for the crontab to run certain magento indexers at certain times in the day to save resources and also provide a faster website for the front-end user.

Integrating with ESS SIMS

SIMS is the school Management Information System of choice for thousands of schools across the UK. A big part of the HBS customer base being schools, this was a key project to them as it would make ordering for school a breeze by saving time and resources. Upon the receipt of the documentation we have started coding our way into the completion of this project, the end result being just as the client expected. The customers could enable SIMS ordering from their Magento dashboard and they would be given a login and a password to add HBS as a supplier in their SIMS system. A customer can now checkout using SIMS and all of their orders would sync with their SIMS program, once the order has been acknowledged in SIMS they can approve it and it would go back with a confirmation to the HBS Group website and into their business system for processing.

Importing Furniture Products

Another key project was to open up their Furniture Category which meant building an entirely new category structure, new attribute sets and importing over two thousand products and adding them into configurable products by various attributes and link them with the stock and price sync with their business system. We have managed to get this project over the line by building our own import scripts and adapt the current integration and sync to work with the newly created products. The process was smooth without downtime for the website.

Custom Product Configuration

Due to the nature of the furniture products being highly customizable this required a lot of maintenance in the back end to make sure the right products got the right attributes and customizable options, as well as helping the customer chose between the different options when ordering these products. A very good example for this feature would be the tray configuration for the Gratnell tray storage items.

Purchases by Products by Category

This feature was built into the dashboard of HBS customers where they can view their order history based on the category that their products were in. This is very easy to use for the customer and a very helpful sales tool as it makes reordering a breeze by making it easy for the customers to find the products that they want.

Integrating Magento with Invoices from Access Dimensions

We have integrated the Magento customer dashboard with Access Dimensions in a way where customers can download their actual invoices created by the sales team on Access Dimensions.

Refer and Earn extension

We have created a feature where HBS magento customers can send invitations to their friends via email straight from their HBS dashboard. They can then manage and track the status of the invitations they have sent (ie if the users have signed up etc.). Upon signup both the referrer and the new user will benefit from the system by receiving discounts or reward points which they can then use on the website.

Various Upsell extensions

We have implemented various ways where the client can upsell items that they have on stock. These offers can come in the form of a pop-up or modal with targeted offers per customer or group of customers with special prices. All of this via an easy management dashboard within the Magento admin panel.