Putting The Future In Focus With A Modern Digital Platform

With a proliferation of channels designed to serve several different audiences, ABB Optical needed a modern digital platform to unlock new opportunities and reduce maintenance by having a centralized back-office that could offer quick turnaround to their business partners and customers. Thinkmax equipped them with a robust commerce platform that could handle their B2C, B2B and B2B2C offerings in different regional markets.

ABB Optical Group (ABB) is America's leading authorized distributor of all major soft contact lens manufacturers. In addition to having the broadest portfolio of optical products in the industry, they are also the foremost manufacturer of custom soft and gas permeable contact lenses. They are dedicated to being the premier independent optical platform, supplying two-thirds of eye care professionals across the country with products, logistics, services, and tools to help increase patient retention and satisfaction.

The challenge ABB Optical faced was to develop a B2B offering and dedicated website to eye care professionals in Canada as well as a robust platform for their different B2C online storefronts in the United States with a centralized back-office that would give them a single source of truth.

They are on a mission to offer their customers the best options for the best price and provide their business partners with the convenience of a one-stop-shop, incredible access and choice, relevant data and business insights, and enhanced services to help them drive revenue, decrease expenses, and reduce marketplace noise so they can focus on provide quality care to their customers.

The Thinkmax team worked closely with key players from ABB to produce a plan that would help them achieve their goals. Our approach was to deliver two minimum viable products, one for the Canadian B2B Platform and one for an American B2C pilot platform. Both websites would reside on the same Optimizely (Episerver) and D365 instance for a global view into business operations on both sides of the border. Subsequent phases of the plan would build additional functionality on the websites, iterating over time and allowing ABB to onboard other BC2 storefronts to their D365-EPI system in the future.

Thinkmax delivered the implementation of Optimizely and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Retail module on-time and on-budget for both Canadian and American operations. Their US B2C site went live in November 2020 and the Canadian B2B site went live on May 3, 2021. Both Optimizely implementations were successful and demonstrate and excellent evolution in our digital practice by confirming customer satisfaction of previous deliveries. We are looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with ABB Optical as we continue to develop solutions for their offerings.