IDcreation developed the e-commerce platform
for Katoen Natie and Defense.
IDcreation received an assignment from Katoen Natie and Defense (the Belgian army). Katoen Natie is a company based in Antwerp specializing in logistics services. The company employs over 13,000 people worldwide, of which 3,000 are in Belgium. Katoen Natie has seven operational units: petrochemicals, industrial products and automotive products, fine chemicals or specialties, projects and engineering, port operations, consumer goods and general cargo and commodities. These operational units are located in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Katoen Natie is led by Fernand Huts. Defense refers to the Belgian armed forces or the Belgian army. It is effectively a professional army, as conscription was suspended on February 5, 1995. The army has 25,000 professional members and 3,000 reservists. For this 'Zalando for soldiers', Katoen Natie built a new warehouse of 36,200 m² in Beringen. 40 full-time logistics employees are active there.
The Challenge
IDcreation developed the e-commerce platform for Katoen Natie and Defense. This 'webshop' includes more than 50,000 SKUs (Stock Keeping Units).
Access to this highly secure web application is granted to 25,000 Belgian soldiers, accounting for more than 250,000 order lines per year.
The Result
'Zalando for soldiers'
A fully custom-built 'webshop' where more than 25,000 soldiers can find their personal equipment, field materials (tents, kitchen equipment, etc.), as well as all spare parts for the military fleet.
Integrations
Realtime webshop integration with Navision (Microsoft Dynamics NAV) and Ilias
More than 50,000 SKUs are included in the webshop. All product information is available in the webshop, and with just a few clicks, each soldier can place their order from their PC, tablet, or smartphone. The web application retrieves all information of the 25,000 Belgian soldiers in real-time from Ilias, a custom ERP package for defense.
We highly recommend IDcreation because of their custom solutions, flexibility, direct and personal approach, local presence, and realistic pricing.
KOEN VAN MULDERS from KATOEN NATIE:
In the spirit of Katoen Natie, which focuses on leveraging strengths, we sought an external partner for our Defense project to create a webshop for all active military personnel. We found IDcreation, a clear specialist in custom-made webshops.
We chose IDcreation for their entrepreneurship. From the beginning, they embraced our ideas and made concrete proposals without blinders or limitations, all at an acceptable cost. IDcreation’s local presence in Belgium was an important factor for Katoen Natie in collaborating with Defense.
We experienced their project-based approach and personal guidance throughout all phases of the project as a significant added value. This ensured we never felt like just another project within a large organization. Their flexibility in graphic and technical aspects was an additional plus.
Thanks to direct communication with a project manager who was in close contact with the technical team, which was always accessible, it almost felt like they were part of our own startup team. This greatly contributed to the smooth and correct execution of the project.
We have full confidence that all future functionalities will be implemented in the same flexible and pleasant manner by the IDcreation team.
In short, we highly recommend IDcreation because of their custom solutions, flexibility, direct and personal approach, local presence, and realistic pricing.
