NFQ Technologies

Never shrinking away from a challenge, we built a modern and sophisticated ERP system covering the entire auto export cycle for Atlantic Express Corp – a major U.S.-based logistics company servicing 200 countries around the world.

Over the span of 5 years, the solution helped Atlantic Express Corp increase the number of daily orders from less than 2.500 to around 10.000. Virtual sorcery brings real-world results.

Business problem:

Our relationship with the company began when it started to struggle with its standard ERP system that, given the complexity of the business, was failing to bring about the desired return on investment.

Before we stepped in, Atlantic Express Corp was having trouble with the manual assignment of drivers needed to truck newly purchased vehicles to its warehouses, which consistently led to stopovers and the loss of potential revenue.

To make matters worse, vehicle inspections conducted in-person often resulted in pesky issues like undetected malfunctions and missing documents and keys, causing prolonged delays. 

Technological solution:

The company wanted a state-of-the-art system capable of pooling data from individual departments that would enable automated order processing and driver assignment, as well as a means for clients to keep track of their cargo.

To do this, our software engineers first had to overcome a number of challenges, such as data sync between different states and companies, integrations with third-party APIs, and the development of a custom CRM system, which required a number of advanced solutions.

With the help from NFQ’s Data Science and Mobile teams, our Delta team was able to build a unique ERP system from scratch – including a mobile app for on-the-ground operatives and a trucking service ordering system – that’s fully integrated with all the relevant customs and border defense authorities, as well as INTRRA (the ocean shipping industry’s largest neural network) and the key auto transport marketplace CentralDispatch.

Results:

Our ERP solution covers the entire auto export cycle, including:

• Full internal process automation and document management across the logistics cycle
• A mobile app with CentralDispatch integrations that allows drivers to see vehicles to be trucked in real-time
• App-supported vehicle inspections designed to forestall human-error
• Optimal route planning for trucking loaded containers to port and back
• Customer touchpoints, including order placement and tracking, designed to reduce the need for customer service
• ERP sub-system takeover upon reaching the final destination for handling the unloading process, as well as cargo inspection and delivery
• Digitized and fully ACE-compatible management of the customs clearance procedures
• Invoicing

Outcome? From 2016 to 2021 the volume of Atlantic Express clients rose 4 times.

Business problem:

The company, running a total of 93 stores, was struggling to manage its internal processes as sales volumes increased and could not offer a fully developed customer experience in the journey among sales channels. That was causing considerable inconvenience for customers since: regular customers, for instance, could not use their loyalty cards at the e-stores.

With the goal of rapidly expanding multi-channel retailing both to other brands the company owns and to other markets, the business realized it was vital to upgrade its technology, solve the problem of unified and centralized management, and improve the customer experience.

While it already had some multi-channel retail features, like pickup at a physical store, the speed of the service was no longer sufficient. The order handling processes had to be reviewed and optimized to reduce administrative costs and increase customer satisfaction. As turnover rose, order fulfilment from more than one warehouse was becoming inefficient, adding administrative and logistics costs – the business needed to optimize that.

And finally, the company wanted to standardize loyalty programs across all online and physical stores.

Strategic solutions:

Set on improving the Kotryna Group’s multi-channel retail model, NFQ’s CEO Paulius Insoda, CTO Tadas Gliaubicas, and Head of Business Development Tadas Četkauskas got actively involved in the design stage. They raised hypotheses about what needed to be changed or enhanced, debated the priorities, and helped specify the investments that change required. The teams at Kotryna Group and NFQ worked together closely to develop a data-driven solution and to clearly define the innovations to be carried out, why they were needed and how their business value would be measured. 

Technological solutions: 

The decision was made to migrate the Kotryna Group's online shops for further development using PHP Symfony technology on the Sylius e-commerce platform. Sylius does not limit how many e-shops can be activated, and sales channels can be set up based on assortment, brands and different markets.

The e-shops interact stably with each other regardless of the size of each one’s product range or volume of users. Customers can log in to different e-shops with one single account and thus form a single shopping cart and take advantage of the loyalty program on any e-commerce channel.

The solution allows for independent, channel-specific e-commerce campaigns and flash sales. Online sales channels have an adaptive user interface, so customers can use them no matter how big their device’s screen is (whether it is a computer, tablet or smartphone). Note that the assortment published in the e-shops is managed by central multi-channel sales process software.

Results: 

The system that NFQ developed and the algorithms it applied have helped optimize the Kotryna Group’s fulfillment of e-commerce orders. The company, which sells toys and products for babies and children in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland, has one central warehouse and 88 physical stores. In optimizing processes, the goal was to pick a customer’s order from the optimal number of warehouses and send it to the customer as one parcel composed of multiple parts rather than as separate shipments from each warehouse, thus saving on logistics costs.

Considering the dynamic nature of product information and the strict criteria for its presentation, NFQ's developers implemented an Akeneo PIM centralized product information management system. The system enables the centralized provision of product information to an unlimited number of sales channels. It also standardizes processes for entering and updating product information, streamlining the everyday work of the staff that handle product information. The system avoids duplication of work in managing product information and makes it possible to organize large amounts of information about products very quickly. 

To maximize the benefits of a multi-channel business, a special solution was also developed that lets sales attendants, right on their handheld device or tablet, find an item a customer is interested in that is not at the physical store, and order it for the customer and have it delivered to their home. 

Today the Kotryna Group has 11 e-shops in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The flexible and easily scalable Sylius e-commerce system is enabling the Kotryna Group to centrally manage e-shops that maintain their uniqueness and are packed with useful business features. By broadening its multi-channel business possibilities, the Kotryna Group improved the performance of retail locations without increasing their floor space and the availability of products without investing heavily in inventory. It also improved sales without increasing the cost of the sales team and kept administrative costs in check while expanding from five to 11 online stores.

We have helped this luxury sales retailer by building a B2C e-commerce system that can handle not only huge data loads but also huge traffic spikes.

How have overcoming technical challenges helped HomeToGo spread to 17 countries in just 4 years?

Can you imagine the technical challenges we face ensuring search performance in an exponentially growing system with terabytes of data and millions of users?

NFQ is a core technology partner for HomeToGo – a dedicated team of software engineers and data science professionals driving innovation to power the world's biggest vacation rental marketplace. We put together a team of 90 professionals, and the product they’ve developed from the first line of the code has already managed to change the entire vacation rental search market.

HomeToGo is the marketplace with the world's largest selection of vacation rentals, listing millions of offers from thousands of trusted partners, including Booking.com, Vrbo and TripAdvisor. From vacation homes, cabins, beach houses, apartments, condos, house boats, castles, farm stays and everything in between, HomeToGo combines price, destination, dates and amenities to find the perfect accommodation for any trip worldwide.

Founded in 2014, HomeToGo operates localized apps & websites in 25 countries across Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Asia-Pacific. HomeToGo also operates brands such as Agriturismo.it, AMIVAC, Casamundo, CaseVacanza.it, e-domizil, EscapadaRural, Tripping.com and Wimdu.

One of the most authoritative business news sites in the world, Forbes, included HomeToGo on its list of the top 10 fastest-growing European businesses in 2017. German startup magazine Gründerszene, meanwhile, ranked the fastest growing digital service companies by revenue in 2017-2018, and HomeToGo took first place. For a startup to achieve such rapid growth in such a short time is phenomenal.

We co-founded one of the leading German e-commerce solution providers in 2003. Renowned for its scalability and development velocity, OXID eSales was named the best B2B e-commerce platform of 2016.

Our web & app software solution enables restaurants to be promoted on the portal and set up their own white-label order channels with just a few clicks. The 100% automated system covers the entire order-preparation-delivery chain and delivery time forecasting.

Founded in 2003, Takeout Group specializes in innovative SAAS solutions targeted the restaurant and grocery takeaway industries. Our partnership with TakeOut Group started when the company has decided to scale and the old platform needed improvements to serve a growing number of restaurants. 

After a closer look at this complex business, we came to the conclusion that successful scaling needs not only a facelift of the website but more sophisticated tools for restaurants and clients. And we were eager to try and build these tools.

Today, it offers an all-in-one food ordering and dispatching platform with thousands of participating restaurants in 8 markets. Every year, the platform is processing orders worth more than €25 million.

The challenge

New goals require new tools: With a growing number of restaurants onboard, TakeOut Group saw the need to update its technological platform.

New goals might require a new approach: sometimes, a simple update is not enough. To scale big, TakeOut Group needed an array of sophisticated tools from back-office management, to dispatch apps and a multichannel approach to their business.

Technological solution

We have built a platform that ticks all the boxes of this complex business simultaneously.

• White label model for restaurants: for a small fee, a restaurant can start an account at TakeOut Group where they get their own web, app, and ability to accept orders not only through the TakeOut platform but also directly. TakeOut not only has an omnichannel approach themselves – they are able to offer it to all of the restaurants on the system.
• Automated menu and back-office management: previous to our automated solution, the restaurants had to contact TakeOut by phone to inform them about changes on the menu. Imagine this with thousands of restaurants on board. Now, the system is automated, menu updates and connections to restaurants are seamless and unbeatably efficient.
• The dispatch app includes a driver`s app and a dedicated system to connect drivers with restaurants and clients.
• Built via Jenkins, our platform allows automated app building for restaurants on the platform.

Business problem:

But first, let’s look at the obvious – e-commerce in Europe has never seen such numbers as today, and further growth is only imminent. According to data by TradingPlatforms, in 2020 there were 480.9 million digital commerce users in Europe, and by the end of 2021, this number will most likely surpass 500 million. In this highly competitive market, any company that helps bring down operating costs and streamline the journey of goods to customers has the potential to scale at warp speed. Provided they are not late to the market themselves. That’s where having a tech partner like NFQ can help immensely.

Technological solution:

To build a well-functioning software solution from scratch (be it an e-commerce platform or a SaaS product), a young company would, first of all, need to hire across many different verticals – from seasoned software architects to developers and QA engineers. And focusing too much on the actual tech itself, the company would have limited resources to dedicate to business development, sales and marketing – components as crucial as the underlying technology.

Mindful of these constraints, Alaiko, then an early-stage startup taking its first steps knew it wanted to build a scalable, automated logistics and warehousing system to enable smooth order fulfilment. As e-commerce experts, they understood well the problems their future clients were facing – sub-optimal inventory reconciliation, a lack of effective connection between store and warehouse systems, the need to adapt to fluctuating order volumes, and so on. The system they wanted to build and the market would have to connect all relevant stakeholders, including ERP platforms, fulfillers, shipping providers, and the e-commerce stores themselves into a single unit, allowing for seamless and flexible process control, monitoring, and communication.

“We came to NFQ with a vision in mind and a broad MVP scope of what we wanted to achieve with the first version of our product. During several initial workshops, we shaped the technical foundation and went through all parts of the product step by step. The NFQ team was a great sparring partner from day one, helping us to define the scope with a super scalable technical foundation while cutting out complexities that would delay shipping an MVP that would enable us to go live with initial customers. As a superb tech provider, they were then quick to provide us with a detailed roadmap that had the goal of bringing our solution to market on the best possible terms,” Gabriel Thomalla, co-founder and CPO of Alaiko says.

“I am still amazed by the precision and little input NFQ was able to ship the first version of our product. So we didn’t stop there. We have continued to build the product with a dedicated team of NFQ engineers and we are confident that the combination of speed and quality the team is able to consistently deliver is best-in-class and allows us to work towards our vision of becoming the global leader in e-commerce logistics.”

Results:

With a solid blueprint in place, NFQ’s veteran software engineers used a wide range of technologies to deliver an MVP within 6 months. During its first year of operation, Alaiko was able to scale substantially, managing a high six-digit number of orders through the software. The system NFQ built features asynchronous data transfer via queue systems for scaling, active monitoring and alerts for spotting potential issues before they arise, and data reconciliation for critical processes. Today, Alaiko is helping over 100 brands with order fulfilment, and fully integrates with the most popular e-commerce platforms and tools, like Shopify, Billbee, WooCommerce, among others.

According to Gediminas Pukšmys, NFQ’s Technology Lead for Alaiko, quality, as well as speed, was always front and centre during the development process:

“We have multiple stages of quality testing and development, as well as a number of automation tools for ensuring code quality before it goes to the AWS servers. We also continually upgrade our tech stack whenever a worthwhile addition turns up on the market.”

Alaiko’s success of quickly going to market with a stable tech solution was ensured by getting a tech partner at the earliest stage of their business journey. And it is one of many NFQ’s partnerships where concrete business goals and ideas were given the technological shape they needed. Contact us today to learn more about how we can make your ideas run.

LEMONCAT is digitizing the catering industry with a SaaS platform and consumer marketplace. NFQ's software engineers have created and developed the technological base and infrastructure for this startup. Our solutions have helped the company secure millions-worth of investments and launched in 400+ cities while connecting more than 500 catering suppliers within 2 years. 

Our team created the software platform for LEMONCAT and configured its technological infrastructure from the first line of code. The custom software solutions enable process management for B2B catering services and connect suppliers with companies that occasionally or regularly need catering services for events or other occasions. All the end-customer has to do is specify the city, date, type of event, and budget and choose the most suitable offer on the online platform.

Business solution:

The company has service providers on one side of the platform and customers who need catering on the other side. But the traditional online shopping model is not suitable for the latter, as customer needs often change from the initial order. That is why we created a communication-based platform. Suppliers can submit offers based on a customer's initial order, and then the customer selects the ones they like the most and communicates directly with the suppliers until they work out the most suitable option.

Technological solution:

While developing the LEMONCAT platform, NFQ worked on the company’s technological infrastructure, servers, and synchronization with Salesforce CRM using Heroku Connect and provided the client with added-value business solutions via cloud computing platforms and APIs. Amazon Web Services are used for multiple projects within the LEMONCAT platform. One service implemented by NFQ was a smooth migration to AWS from the previously used cloud application platform Heroku. 

Amazon Web Services provided:

For LEMONCAT, we have integrated mixed AWS Managed Services according to AWS best practices. This allows splitting control over processes between the internal business managers and the AWS system in order to transfer some of the procedures to the AWS and move faster, optimize expenses, reduce IT costs, and scale within the LEMONCAT application. 

The LEMONCAT platform uses AWS cost optimization tool  Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances, which delivers a significant discount (up to 72%) compared to On-Demand pricing and provides capacity reservation when used in a specific Availability Zone.

Also, LEMONCAT has integrated services like Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for large-scale object storage and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for easy setup, operation, and scaling of a relational database in the cloud. These tools give LEMONCAT agility, cost efficiency, connectivity, flexibility to expand in line with the volatile business needs.

Using AWS, LEMONCAT was able to continue developing its unique market offering. Later on, the company joined the Caterwings company owned by the B2B Food Group in 2019. AWS services created the conditions for successful and smooth integration of their systems in a relatively short time.

Overall, for LEMONCAT, the NFQ team has integrated these AWS tools:

• Amazon EC2 – a virtual server in Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud for running applications on the Amazon Web Services infrastructure.
• Amazon S3 – or Amazon Simple Storage Service, a service to provide object storage through a web service interface. 
• Amazon CloudFront – a fast content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to customers globally with low latency and high transfer speeds, all within a developer-friendly environment.
• Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) – a distributed relational database service to simplify the setup, operation, and scaling of a relational database for use in applications. It provides a selection of instance types optimized to fit different relational database use cases and flexibly adjust to changing flows of data volume.
• Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) – this service automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets in multiple Availability Zones and ensures only healthy targets receive traffic. 
• Identity and Access Management (IAM) – a feature that enables you to manage access to AWS services and resources securely. 
• Amazon Route 53 – a highly available and scalable cloud Domain Name System (DNS) web service used to give developers and businesses an extremely reliable and cost-effective way to route end-users to Internet applications by translating names into the numeric IP addresses.
• Amazon Elasticsearch Service – a fully managed service that makes it easy to deploy, secure, and run Elasticsearch cost-effectively at scale. 
• Amazon ElastiCache – a fully managed in-memory data store and cache service which improves the performance of web applications by retrieving information from managed in-memory caches, instead of relying entirely on slower disk-based databases.

NFQ helps disrupt the furniture industry for leading pure-play home & living e-commerce platform in continental Europe and Brazil home24.

NFQ engineers are developing this e-commerce platform as a progressive web application. Our technological solutions ensure smooth service for more than 1 M active customers in 8 countries.

Starting in 2009, home24 is primarily an online retail business and also a data-driven tech company, great at efficiently attracting customers to its websites and connecting them to a wide range of products online. 

A UNIQUE MODEL

home24’s products are marketed on its platform, which comprises two distinct business models.

Firstly, the third party and white label business, which offers a broad assortment to cater to the long tail of the home and living mass market, generating a high conversion. These items are usually not kept in stock, minimizing inventory risk.

And secondly, the private label business, which is vertically integrated and features bestsellers sourced at highly competitive prices directly from selected manufacturers and other suppliers, offering superior margins.

DRIVEN BY A SCALABLE TECHNOLOGY 

home24 has invested in its state-of-the-art, scalable technology platform, including advanced big data analysis tools, to offer its customers the best shopping experience.

At home24:

• Extensive big data processing capabilities empower the entire business
• All business processes are seamlessly integrated end-to-end
• Artificial intelligence know-how leverages big data throughout the value chain
• home24 has an exceptional team of top-notch tech and product specialists

We’re e-commerce experts, so when Hans Natur, the business offering eco-friendly products for children, came to us for an upgrade, we were delighted with the chance to contribute to the German e-tailer’s growth. Since then, technology solutions built by NFQ have helped Hans Natur expand and become more attractive and convenient for its customers.

Business problem:

In 2018, this fast-growing business wanted to update its outdated e-shop, improving its performance and the user experience. While developing Front-end solutions for Hans Natur’s e-shop, our experts also noticed another problem that is familiar to many companies undergoing intensive growth: Hans Natur was using an outdated and inflexible e-commerce platform, which put a technological constraint on business development. To grow successfully, the client needed new Back-end solutions that could satisfy increasing demands.

Technological solution: 

First of all, NFQ’s developers solved Hans Natur's Front-end problem. At the time, the client's e-shop was visually unappealing, outdated, and not very easy for customers to use. Adapting a PWA (progressive web app) solution and making use of VUE page components, our experts built a new, modern, user-friendly Front-end application.

After revamping the e-shop, NFQ’s developers then tackled the Back-end technology problem that was limiting the client’s growth. The e-commerce system that had served Hans Natur for over a decade was no longer able to meet the company's constantly increasing needs. To develop a new Back-end ecosystem solution, NFQ’s experts chose the flexible and easily adaptable e-commerce platform. It can be used to manage orders, user accounts, integrations with third parties like payment and parcel delivery systems, and discount administration.

Seeking optimal Back-end solutions, our developers used advanced product management system. It’s responsible for importing product information from the warehouse management system, adding a visual representation of the required data and adding product information.
 

In building the new Back-end system, NFQ’s IT team faced the following technological challenges:

• The fast-growing business could not stop its e-commerce activities.
• The old and new Back-end systems had to run in parallel for a certain period of time so that if an error occurred in the new system, users could continue shopping in the old one with no disruption until the problem was resolved.
• Data regarding a user’s cart and orders and other information had to be identical on both e-commerce systems in real time. 

After carefully planning out the entire process, our developers seamlessly took Hans Natur’s e-shop from the platform based on 10-year-old code to its new e-commerce system.

Results: 

In four years of work with the client, a dedicated team from NFQ has implemented a number of e-shop functionality integrations. And there are already plans for new. Innovative solutions help businesses become even more attractive and convenient for their customers.

NFQ's software engineers built a modern, user-friendly Front-end application and a new Back-end system for Hans Natur. This technological solution has made it possible for Hans Natur to grow, process orders efficiently and ensure the stability of the system. NFQ’s IT experts have developed many attractive features for the German e-commerce firm, helping it create additional value for its customers.

For Baltic wholesale, distribution and logistics leader Sanitex, we created a B2B e-commerce system that covers the entire product delivery cycle – from self-service orders to delivery schedules and the organization of logistics in Lithuania and Latvia.

The system we developed is personalized for each buyer and can handle extremely large user flows. The Sanitex platform works with more than 500 manufacturers and serves more than 15,000 clients.

We’ve given Sanitex – the largest wholesale, distribution, and logistics company in Lithuania and Latvia – the benefits of real-time data updates and synchronization with its BMS and warehouses, as well as individualized pricing plans and individualized delivery schedules.

There’s a lot of logistical complexity in this business since each product needs different transport and delivery. But we take challenges in stride, and the system we’ve built smoothly manages all these processes to help our partner make optimal decisions.

For Lithuania’s biggest passenger carrier Kautra, we built the country’s first digital system for selling bus tickets – Autobusobilietai.lt. It gives passengers a comprehensive self-service experience: from route searches and travel planning to ticket purchases and more.

Since the launch in 2009, even today practically all bus tickets in Lithuania go through that system (an average of 200 000 a month), along with the bus routes, prices, and schedules for practically all the buses on the roads in Lithuania.

In 2020 NFQ software engineers also helped Kautra take another step forward: we built the Autobusubilietai.lt mobile app, which lets travellers buy a tick in just three clicks.

The main goal our team faced, was to make the buying process as simple and fast as possible. An effort was also made to connect the information in the app with the user’s browsing history and habits.

To do that, NFQ’s engineers built the app using React Native technology, which makes it possible to avoid problems when different code is running on different platforms, optimize costs, and ensure speed. Now you can go through the entire buying process in the app practically without reloading the page.

Organisations are increasingly working with digital data. They exchange sensitive information with an increasing number of parties. This creates a lot of new added value while on the other hard cyber security threats occur as well. That is how our partner, dutch startup Zivver has created a solution that secures communications to prevent data leaks in the exchange of sensitive information.

Zivver has multiple products: from Gmail and Outlook plugins to custom web applications and mobile apps – everything a user may need for secure email, file transfer, and video calling, straight from your familiar email program. This enables customers to avoid human errors, encrypt data against hackers and control the information that is sent.

Our .NET/C# engineers helped Zivver to develop its Outlook plugin. On the project management side, we are working on ensuring smooth migration from AngularJS to Angular. Our dedicated team was also helping with product management for the teleconferencing product Zivver Meet and related technology solutions. Zivver will definitely shape the communication security market, that's a fact.

If you are not a user yet, give Zivver a chance to impress you and your clients.

Have a tech challenge to solve in your business? Reach out to us, we can surely help.

Our technological solutions helped to scale of the MyDriver platform for premium limousine services in cities around the world.

The project is powered by SIXT – Europe’s leading car rental company with 600 locations worldwide, revenue of € 2B+ a year, and 180K+ rental cars.

Paprcuts, a startup based in Berlin that produces and sells sustainable accessories made of Tyvek, a thin but strong material known as “synthetic paper”, turned to us to upgrade its e-shop and start sales in France. NFQ Front-end solutions helped Paprcuts create a modern e-commerce platform image that is attractive to customers, while its Back-end development work helped build a multi-channel business model and enter the French market. This is a great example of technological business development solutions and IT experts’ skills bringing companies tangible results. 

Business problem: 

When the company came to us in August 2018, the e-commerce system it was using simply could not cope with the ever-increasing orders for its products, so Paprcuts could no longer grow and expand to other countries. The e-shop it had been using up to that point was also not meeting expectations. The company, which makes and sells modern accessories, wanted a stylish, modern e-shop with a good user experience. Stuck in that technology trap, the startup’s ambition was to launch a redesigned e-commerce system and start sales in France in time for Christmas.

Technological solution: 

NFQ’s team of experts faced the challenge of creating a new e-commerce system and a sophisticated, user-friendly e-shop design for Paprcuts in less than six months.

Software engineers at NFQ used Sylius as the framework for the e-commerce system and for an Akeneo PIM product information management system. The new platform has great flexibility, making it easy to divide the e-commerce system into smaller parts. Then several different e-stores can be administered from a single platform. This type of technological solution is especially useful for businesses that want to expand abroad and is perfectly suited for a multi-channel model. In Sylius, NFQ IT specialists programmed and configured processes for product sales, warehouse information management and discount promotion.

Made from eco-friendly material, Paprcuts accessories are not ordinary products, and the startup needed an out-of-the-ordinary e-shop to sell them. NFQ developed a single-page application (SPA) e-shop whose distinctive design and style perfectly reflected the company's offerings, while intuitive navigation delivered a good user experience.

SPA websites always have difficulties with SEO positioning. While it is claimed that search engines know how to interpret and handle SPA content, in practice things are different. In light of that and using a server-side rendering solution, our IT experts adapted the Paprcuts website for search engines.

Results: 

• After preparing a plan and in continuous dialogue with the client, NFQ delivered an MVP version within three and a half months;
• Paprcuts was ready for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas shopping period with a new e-commerce system that could handle growing numbers of orders and with a stylish SPA e-shop.
• Thanks to NFQ’s specialists, Paprcuts was able to expand its business to France, become visible in online searches, and enhance its e-commerce platform with a variety of creative solutions that appeal to Paprcuts customers.

In four years working with Paprcuts, NFQ’s developers have not only built a sales process management system but have also added more useful business features to the e-commerce platform. A great example is gifts for Paprcuts customers. NFQ specialists developed a function that lets the e-shop administrator set a purchase amount after which a customer gets a gift or a discount on their whole shopping cart.

It uses elements of gamification: as shoppers add products to their cart, they can see they are unlocking one or more gifts that were visually hidden at first.

This innovation boosted Paprcuts sales and helped promote less popular products. In the first month after it was introduced, the number of purchases that were started and not completed, also known as abandoned carts, fell by 32.38%. 

From 1.5 mln. EUR by the end of 2019 to 12 mln. EUR of yearly incomes today.  IT solutions we`ve made, helped Arbor Garden Solutions to grow their yearly revenue by 800%. 

Business problem:

Few years ago Arbor Garden Solutions was a company that had everything: high-end gardening equipment, steady sales and loyal clients; but the feeling was that something even greater could be achieved. And the answer couldn’t be more simple: they’ve outdone themselves by selling more goods than expected, spent too much precious time on the business management process, and the present system couldn’t meet increased demand. They needed something fast, fresh and simple. 

Arbor Garden Solutions realized early on that cookie-cutter ERP tools won’t cut it as they’ll interfere with an already successful workflow. So instead of changing habits, they’ve opted for tailor-made software that caters to specific business needs.   

Technological solution:

NFQ spent months observing how Arbor Garden Solutions functions. This included analyzing and trying to understand why their old ERP system isn’t working anymore, talking to employees, and doing our best to build software that works for the client. Nobody wanted to start a revolution. Our goal was an ERP system that improves workflow without making the company commit to huge changes. Think of it as making smart choices within one’s comfort zone.    

Our team took apart and arranged the entire internal flow and business management system, refurbished the e-shop, implemented new analytics tools, and fixed their logistics, effectively shrinking and optimizing the whole website. 

Results:

The 7-month restoration project resulted in less clutter and more clarity, or to be more concrete – an order management system which untied our client's hands to concentrate more on work with direct sales, and leave the technological part to us. 

The result was a UNIFIED system that allows 100% control over every aspect of Arbor Garden Solutions business, which includes anything from analytics/marketing to logistics and production. Our partner wanted to have a clear view of what’s going on in the company. And it paid off with better sales – yearly incomes rose, more employees, and even a new factory to meet increased demands.

“NFQ freed us up so we could focus on direct sales promotion rather than internal processes or micromanaging employees. Thanks to NFQ's IT project managers and engineers, our turnover grew 800%. We’re delighted to have a team we can entrust work to and not have to wonder if it will get done. The numbers speak for themselves,”– says Gediminas Surna, CEO at Arbor Garden Solutions.

The moral? Quality merch is important, but so is the platform that sells it. Arbor Garden Solutions was doing well, but the future had even bigger plans for them.

Tailor-made always feels better. Contact us if your business needs a solution to scale.

We’ve contributed to the success of the largest tour operator in the Baltics, Novaturas by leading them to the digital world with an efficient online sales channel and white-label promotion.

When the German EV charging station company Plugsurfing and Fortum Charge & Drive joined forces to provide services for electric vehicle drivers to ensure the smooth growth of the network, they came to us for a technological solution. 

For the challenge, engineers armed themselves with Kubernetes technology and the latest Symfony and PHP versions, used the AWS Cognito service, and distributed tasks using Message Bus powered by Amazon MQ .

The result? Now, there are now over 200,000 such stations all over Europe , the latest Plugsurfing app and RFID charging key facilitates accessible information and quick payment solutions for over 150,000 users (Date: June 2021).

At NFQ, we work for businesses that never lack big ambitions. With our help, our partner, mobile payments platform VillagePod, instead of wasting years on finding the right tools to catch up with the digital transformation, only took 6 months.

The result? The VillagePod mobile payments app for Ireland became a  market pioneer and leader that contributed to Open Banking and the 3DS2 credit initiative in the country.

In just half a year, NFQ software engineers overcame a weighty technological challenge, while ensuring the data integrity that banking systems need. This mobile payment and local business incentive system is the first platform of its kind in Ireland. Launched in 2019, it is now the market leader and continues to successfully develop its range of functionality.

How did we bring the VillagePod idea to life?

• Using the TypeScript programming language with React Native tools, we built a single mobile payments application that works on both iOS and Android platforms. The framework that was used lets the company reuse the TypeScript codebase to develop two platforms in parallel, saving time and resources.
• For smooth data exchange, the engineers used React JS to develop a tablet application as a cash register substitute (POS) for employees of local businesses to handle purchases.
• The system’s back end uses the Event Sourcing (Broadway tool), which is used in banking systems to validate transactions and  Command Bus tools. The system was developed based on Domain Driven Design principles, and we used ElasticSearch to enhance performance.
• An easy-to-use self-service portal and admin portal was created for businesses that connect to the system.
• Investing in quality assurance, the Kappa Team applied a test-driven development model.

NFQ software developers took a challenge to build a platform that could successfully handle growing amounts of data (at the start of June 2019, there were 1 million products, now, in 2021, there are around 20 million) and to do it in 6 months before the marketplace's launch. Thus Smarketer was born.

Smarketer.Shopping is a well-known German price comparison website. Our team, programming in the Kotlin language on an Elasticsearch search engine, built a marketplace on AWS, suited for rapid growth where end-users can quickly and effectively find desired items and compare their prices across different suppliers.

And it worked. The system's unique visitors are growing by an average of 66% every 6 months and continue to grow despite the COVID-19 situation in the market during 2020-2021.

"Smarketer was built with a considerable emphasis on stability and scalability. In the not-so-distant future, we seek to boost the platform's monetization capabilities and make it possible to increase the total product count radically. The level we aim to reach eventually is 100 million products," says Vainius Venclovas, Team Lead at NFQ.

Technological challenge

While developing the Smarketer.Shopping platform, we tackled an important problem. The large file sizes of high-resolution product images were slowing down the load speed of the web platform. Considering that the planned number of products was huge, image processing had to be managed delicately. To import millions of product images every day, the NFQ's engineers took advantage of Amazon Web Services. 

More specifically: when product images are imported, their size is reduced in real-time using the AWS Lambda compute service. Once processed, images are stored in the AWS S3 data warehouse.

And that's just a single small process in a well-designed ecosystem. To mention just a few others:

• Product files are loaded into the system from the admin module. During import, product data in the server is processed and loaded/updated to an Elasticsearch search engine. For the front end of the admin dashboard, CoreUI on the React.js framework is used.
• The open-source language TypeScript is also used to develop the system’s Front-end (an online marketplace portal) with the React.js and Elastic UI frameworks and ReactiveSearch library components.
• To develop the back-end and handle the system`s traffic and logic, our team codes in Kotlin on the Ktor framework.

"In developing the project, the biggest challenge for me personally has been learning how complex the mechanics can be under what from the outside may look like something very simple. And thinking through all the details and situations that could occur," – says Paul-Willem Thum, Senior Team Lead at Smarketer.

When exploring nature on two wheels, customers seek a bumpy ride, but a smooth rental experience. Our clients at Rebike Mobility, Europe’s fastest-growing cross-brand platform for e-bike rentals, new and used e-bikes, came to NFQ for an overhaul of their e-bike rental self-service portal. 

Now, customers are able not only to easily pay for the e-bikes but also extend or cancel their subscription or even purchase bike insurance without having to call anyone.

Our dedicated team’s extensive experience in tweaking e-commerce stores came in handy. Using our own best practices, we built an easy-to-use and multifunctional self-service portal and developed a payment solution for bike rentals. 

Merging several tech stacks, we based the e-commerce platform on the Symfony framework while adding Shopware 5 functionality and developing the front-end using JavaScript. We’ve used Docker throughout the development process, and we’re happy to be involved in migrating the platform to Amazon Web Services as well.

“In addition to self-service functionality, we’ve also implemented the usage of coupon codes, synced with multiple advertisers. It’s been a great ride (pun intended) so far, and we’re already working on additional upgrades that will help Rebike Mobility keep up with the needs and wishes of their customers,” says Karolis Stanelis, Tech project lead.

Check the platforms here: https://ebike-abo.de/and here:https://rebike.com/de/.

Our technological solutions let users of the Eoltas.lt e-shop quickly find the auto parts they need in the system's huge selection of over 1.5 million products from 85 different manufacturers.

Our developed digital e-commerce platform and multi-channel B2B solution with integration of the TecDoc Catalogue and the Microsoft Dynamics Axapta business management solution enabled Eoltas to offer real-time searches of auto parts and successfully grow its franchise internationally.

The part of the Eoltas.lt e-shop that users see, the front-end, is just a small part of the overall platform. Its back-end hides a sophisticated microservices architecture designed to process the immense amount of data on this e-shop system in an instant and display it to the customer right away.

Technological solution

• To speed up the platform, our software engineers built 14 applications that automatically interact with one another, of which only 2 have a Front-end solution to output aggregate data to the end-users – eoltas.lt and b2b.eoltas.lt.
• The rest of the applications operate in the Back-end, compiling information about products and their status, orders, dynamic pricing, inventories, logistics, and importing and exporting data.
• All of that was programmed in PHP on the Symfony framework with Sylius, Akeneo PIM and Elasticsearch solutions, using a MySQL database service and RabbitMQ for message queuing.

The largest provider of postal services in Lithuania, Lithuania Post boasts a history that spans a century. A decade ago, to keep up with the changing demands of almost 800,000 monthly customers, the company became the first in Lithuania to offer a network of parcel terminals appropriately called LP EXPRESS. They needed a reliable tech solution to coordinate the dispatch and delivery of parcels between distribution centers, couriers, and customers. This is where we came in.

Business problem:

In today’s world, more and more people prefer shopping online to buying in person, which results in an increasing number of packages delivered each year. Even a massive fleet of couriers going door-to-door can’t keep up with the expectations of customers that want fast delivery and, ultimately, convenience.

To stay ahead of the curve, in 2011, Lithuania Post asked us to develop the software crucial for running the LP EXPRESS network – a blended parcel terminal and courier delivery solution.

The extensive last-mile delivery infrastructure was meant to provide more reliable and convenient services to the public while reducing logistics costs, increasing delivery efficiency, and helping Lithuania Post to stay sustainable amidst the e-commerce boom.

Technological solution:

Starting from scratch in 2011, we wrote every single line of code that composed the initial LP EXPRESS backend. Over the years, we developed hundreds of projects and subprojects that addressed the needs of businesses (primarily e-commerce stores) and end-users and integrated them into the parcel terminal network.

One of the biggest challenges was refactoring the initial system and updating the old, hand-written code on Symfony components. Our team also dockerized the LP EXPRESS app, which laid the foundations for easier work on this system in the future. 

Our engineers built and kept developing the LP EXPRESS data center, which handles key info about every parcel that is sent through the system, be it via parcel lockers or couriers. We also were responsible for the maintenance of the software running on courier PDAs.

While the entire project scope was growing, we continued working on our part on integrating new parcel terminals and developing a web service for Lithuania Post business clients. One of the latest projects for us to implement was the development of the back office part of the LP EXPRESS digital system. Used by the logistics team of Lithuania Post, the system keeps track of every parcel from label creation and warehousing to delivery.

Results:

In 2020, NFQ integrated the parcel terminal network with the new Lithuania Post logistics center. Now LP EXPRESS is part of the Post’s smart, fully automated parcel distribution system where the only manual task is courier delivery. 

The tech stack of LP EXPRESS cannot be easily described, as the parcel terminal network is a hybrid of the legacy PHP platform and the new Symfony components. At NFQ, we affectionately call the project ‘a test we all had to pass’, and all new engineers joining the project face a challenge of the best kind.

Last December, together with partners, our team finalized our part for the Front-end integration of the LP EXPRESS self-service system into the Lithuania Post infrastructure. We handled smooth transitioning, gradually preventing an increasing amount of users from using the old system, redirecting important links from the old system to the new website. It was an important milestone of the project, much like handing over a child we raised to the capable hands of Lithuania Post IT specialists. 

Currently, nearly 300 LP EXPRESS parcel terminals operate 24/7 in 84 Lithuanian cities and towns. More terminals are planned. This decade-long story of us working together only makes us wonder stronger: what's next?..

When you think about knitting and handicrafts, you probably think about the traditions first, and not the technology and innovation. However, Prym – one of the oldest industrial family businesses in Germany dating back to 1530 is living proof that modern and forward-thinking is the key to endless history and worldwide market leadership.

One of the works of our engineers on the Pi team is a complex e-commerce platform all about sewing, crocheting, and knitting. Prym was developed together with the partners from Nexus United. Software engineers are now up to customizing the platform and transforming it to a globally scaling platform from a current MVP version.

In less than 2 years, our baby swoodoo became the leading travel search engine in Germany. The market at the time saw it as the best solution for the sector, and KAYAK acquired it in 2010.

Leveraging <20 years of experience in e-commerce solutions, our answer to the retail revolution is STOVENDO

We help the retail industry get through turbulence.

As a retailer, you have two options: to remain a passive bystander in the market until technological disruption ejects you from the industry, or dare to deploy a new-generation trading model – along with the STOVENDO omnichannel trading process management platform. It’s our proprietary technology that ensures a consistent and seamless customer experience via any trading channel – online or offline.

How can we help you? 

• Our Omnichannel conception mitigates the turbulence you face in the retail industry. 
• We’ll enable cross-channel journeys for your customers with good predictive analytics. 
• Our “hybrid” offer of R&D, real-life expertise, and technology will consolidate your efforts.

More:www.stovendo.lt

We like challenges, so when Šiaulių bankas approached us, we were delighted to have the opportunity to upgrade the online banking and mobile app of one of Lithuania's largest banks. 

Our experts analyzed and researched user habits, planned the interfaces and design, and provided Front-end programming. The solutions developed by NFQ help Šiaulių bankas to attract new, technologically driven customers and keep the bank’s existing users loyal. 

Technological solution:

NFQ’s team had two goals: to upgrade Šiaulių Bankas’ app and its online bank. “To bring the mobile app and internet banking portal up to date, we put a lot of effort into researching and analyzing diverse age groups and used the resulting insights to create the user interfaces,” says Eivinas Norušaitis, the Head of UX and Design at NFQ.

The decision was made to adapt the dashboard for mobile devices and abandon the flawed practice of fitting the desktop version onto a smaller screen. The mobile version is now not only much more user-friendly, cost-effective and attractive, but also intuitive to navigate. The new design is not only not shocking, but also pleasantly surprising for older users. In updating the Šiaulių Bankas app, NFQ drew on best practices and templates for Android and iOS apps, focusing on user expectations and experiential design.

"We always strive to be closer to our customers and their needs, which is why we have set high quality, security and usability standards for the update of both the online bank and the mobile app. Clients must be offered innovative, yet simple solutions for everyday financial matters, " said Andrius Kamarauskas, Director of the Daily Banking Department of Šiaulių bankas. 

Results: 

NFQ delivered a user-friendly design system that makes it easy to move dashboard elements around – thus bank staff can update online content without the help of specialists. “Whatever the project or product being developed, we always take all target audiences into account, both external users and system administrators,” NFQ's Head of UX and Design notes.

NFQ’s experts have found that the average consumer tends not to delve into the technical details, and that having a multitude of choices often causes confusion. Hence some of the app's features were deliberately hidden, for simplicity. About 80-90% of users should find their way in the app’s wizard perfectly well. An alternative solution will help the other 10-20% with all the ins and outs.

Another enhancement is the revamped payment form, which is a key feature in internet banking but had some problems before. The payment forms are now more logical and user-friendly, and a "single payment form" solution has been introduced.

For Šiaulių Bankas, along with its partners, NFQ developed a modern app that is solidly minimalistic and unified across all platforms and updated its internet bank. The site was cleaned up, both technologically and in design terms, keeping in mind that users want to enter as little unnecessary information as possible.

We provided a full tech team for Makalius, the largest online travel agency in Lithuania. The result of our work was acknowledged with the “Best e-Commerce Platform” award at the 2017 LOGIN festival.

Makveža, UAB, the owner of the MOKI-VEŽI brand, which only had physical stores at the beginning of 2020. In two short weeks, NFQ’s business development and IT experts not only helped the company to enter the e-commerce space, but also laid solid foundations for the MOKI-VEŽI omnichannel business model. Today, the company enjoys double-digit sales growth as well as greater visibility and competitiveness of its brand.

Business problem:

The expectations of retail customers are growing rapidly. While price is important, a smooth shopping experience is an equally significant factor in buying decisions. In addition, shoppers expect a flawless experience when buying through both physical and digital sales channels. For example, many shoppers take features such as the same-day pick-up of e-store purchases or information on product availability at the nearest physical store for granted. To create a unique shopping and brand experience for ever-demanding clients, retailers need to make sure that their products, customer service, as well as shipping and return options span across all sales channels.

The integration of several sales channels into a unified shopping experience is called omnichannel commerce. Statistics show that investing in this sales model pays off: omnichannel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel, while omnichannel companies reap customer retention increases 91% higher than multichannel competitors.

Entering the world of e-commerce, UAB Makveža needed a solution that would meet all buyer expectations. In just two weeks, our IT and business development experts prepared the MVP for the customer-friendly and feature-rich MOKI-VEŽI e-shop, which laid the foundations for the company’s omnichannel sales approach. A retail consultant app, developed by NFQ experts specifically for multichannel sales, was a great addition to this new approach, helping to track sales statistics, provide quality advice to customers and integrate customer experience shopping in physical stores and online. 

Technological solution:

First, we built the basis of MOKI-VEŽI e-commerce — a functional e-shop. NFQ software engineers used the modern Sylius framework and product management system Akeneo PIM to develop the e-shop. Our team sought to deliver a product that caters to the customers’ every need, so we gave the e-shop multiple useful features:

• Based on the advanced ElasticSearch engine, the e-shop’s search function filters products by 8 criteria, such as name, price, discount size, stock quantity and others. This way, the system offers the customer a product that best suits their needs.
• Customers can choose the most convenient delivery method: purchases can be delivered to their home address or picked up on the same day at the MOKI-VEŽI store of their choice.
• Customers can see information about the stock quantities of the selected item in all stores.
• To promote the e-shop among customers, NFQ experts proposed applying e-pricing and special discounts for certain products in the e-shop. This business development solution encourages MOKI-VEŽI buyers to choose shopping online and consolidates the omnichannel sales approach.

MOKI-VEŽI was also the first in Lithuania to use the multi-channel retail consultant application developed by NFQ. This unique tool allows MOKI-VEŽI consultants to collect a wealth of useful customer data during a consultation in a physical store. Using the app, the consultant is also able to better serve the customer by providing all the necessary product information: properties, videos and stock quantities in stores and warehouses.

The NFQ consultant app also helps to retain contact with customers that have visited a physical store but have not completed a purchase. The consultant may offer such customers to send more detailed product information by e-mail or SMS. Therefore, a person who has left a physical store empty handed is still a potential lead. The message sent to the customer includes, in addition to the main information on the product, encouragement to purchase the item and a shortcut button to do it 'here and now' online.

Results:

• In just two weeks, a team of NFQ IT and business development experts developed an MVP and Sylius framework-based e-shop with the Akeneo PIM product management system.
• The MOKI-VEŽI e-shop is full of customer-friendly functions: a choice of delivery and pick-up options, information about product stock quantities in stores, an advanced product search engine and others.
• NFQ retail consultant application helps to collect customer data, track sales statistics, and optimize the sales process by connecting in-store shopping with electronic channels.
• NFQ solutions promote the growth of Makveža, UAB, and the company's visibility in the e-commerce space. For instance, according to SEO, the MOKI-VEŽI e-shop is in the TOP 35 of Lithuania’s e-sellers.

Our information system boosted staff productivity by 30% at Detalita, one of the largest Lithuania’s auto part retailers and wholesalers. The solution also expanded the company’s presence in foreign markets.

We developed a sales management system that helped Lithuania's leading electronics wholesaler Ogmina boost efficiency while growing sales in previously hard-to-reach areas. It covers marketing, logistics, procurement, employee scheduling, and much more.

IMK.lt was one of the very first e-commerce businesses in Lithuania.

Our work helped the company double its turnover with no increase in sales staff and achieve one of the best customer satisfaction rates in the market.

In 2007-2010, we built a travel search engine called swoodoo. The project combined a number of technologies that were quite complex at the time. The world leader in online travel KAYAK acquired the advanced, easy-to-use swoodoo system in 2010, becoming one of our most prominent success cases. A dedicated NFQ team of 40 engineers has been developing KAYAK till 2018 when the company acquired our business unit in Kaunas, Lithuania.

We helped build the CityBee platform to start the largest Eastern Europe's car-sharing business. It's integrated with telematics data, and mobile providers that include 24/7 real-time monitoring to manage huge amounts of data, and is scalable for any country.

This e-commerce accelerator for e-shops, search engines, and other large-scale portals is our own proprietary technology. HomeToGo, Babymarkt.de, and many others use this solution to facilitate over 800 downloads every day.