Project · Empl
An ordering portal for fire services, 2008
Fire services bought their equipment from Empl in the Zillertal. From 2008 they did it online: register, sign in, order. For a trade like that, at that time, it was unusual.
Where it started
Empl, in Fügen in the Zillertal, equips fire services. Fire services are not passing trade: whoever orders is an organisation with procurement rules, and what they order is equipment rather than goods for the open market.
In 2008 an online shop was still a new thing for most companies. In a specialist trade like this one it was rare. The obvious answer would have been to carry on with the telephone, the fax and the catalogue, which worked.
What was built
A closed shop. Anyone who wanted to order registered first, and ordering happened behind the sign-in. The catalogue was not meant for the general public but for the fire services who buy there.
Technically it was Magento 1, in the year Magento 1.0 shipped. It was my first Magento shop.
Why it still counts for something
Register, be approved, order behind a sign-in: that is exactly the pattern a B2B ordering portal is made of today. The difference is in customer price lists, approval flows and the connection to inventory management, not in the idea.
Customers who still take orders by phone and fax are often told this is a large step. It is not. It was buildable in 2008, with what 2008 had.
What I do not know
How long the shop ran, how many orders went through it, and what Empl uses today, I do not know. The project is a long way back and I hold no figures for it. What is here is what I remember with confidence and what matches my own records: the year, the trade, the closed shop and the platform.
The reason it is here anyway: it is the evidence that an ordering portal for business customers is not a new idea for me.
Related services
Do your customers still order by phone?
Tell me how an order reaches you today and what happens by hand afterwards. I will tell you what a portal would change about it.