We spoke to Peter Ryder, a Data Scientist at CMS Distribution about the company and their latest project with J B Cole.
Hello Peter! Can you tell us a bit about CMS Distribution?
CMS Distribution is a leading specialist distributor, supplying business and consumer technologies in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, France, Australia, China and USA.
We empower remarkable people to exceed customer expectations through the continual pursuit of service excellence and the delivery of the most innovative technologies.
Why did you choose J B Cole as your digital partner?
We initially approached J B Cole to provide a solution that would allow our vendors to interact with our data in a safe way for both parties. We decided to create an external portal — a digital application that was detached from our internal systems where we could share data with vendors.
We partnered with J B Cole on the project because we wanted to use open source software. Their team interpreted the brief and through troubleshooting, created a simplified solution that took the stress out of what could have been a complicated process. Following an initial discussion of our needs, they began to build the vendor portal as a Django application with a React frontend. We’ll be launching this product soon which will allow our vendors to have that real time access to data that we were looking for. It’s been amazing to have a resource and third-party partner like J B Cole that we can bounce ideas off and work with on open source projects in the future.
How does this new digital product add value — both to your vendors as well as CMS Distribution?
The vendor portal built by J B Cole will be a new value added product for our vendors. It allows them to see the products that are selling well, the stock that we have available — all the valuable information that allows them to make decisions on their end. Which, importantly, they’ll have real time access to.
The aim with the vendor portal is to continue expanding on it. If this version goes well — which we believe it will — and the vendor managers are happy with it, we’ll go on to add more accessories and features to the application. We’ve already devised second and third iterations and we’re looking forward to seeing if we can work with J B Cole on.
Finally, what’s been your perspective of working with J B Cole?
We’ve had an entirely positive experience working with J B Cole. If we ever have any questions or issues we can readily access the team to work through them. They’ve been fantastic at keeping us updated and it’s been a very streamlined process that I’ve been very happy with. It’s really been a pleasure working with the team.
To find out more about how J B Cole can add value to your company through digital products, get in touch.