Learn about E-commerce Competency Center and find out how Sii Poland’s experts help companies gain a competitive advantage in the online sales market

From the very beginning, Sii Poland has been focusing on developing the knowledge and experience of experts in specialized fields. By combining technological and business competencies, Sii is able to offer its clients a wide range of services using a 360-degree approach. One of the internal units of the organization that allows for the development of expert knowledge in its area of expertise is the E-commerce Competency Center.

Comprehensive customer support

E-commerce Competency Center is a unit of Sii Poland specializing in the design, implementation and maintenance of e-commerce solutions for clients from various industries whose business is based on online sales. Our experts advise and implement solutions that stimulate conversion and sales. One of the key advantages of the Competency Center is its team, which consists of more than 200 experts in e-commerce, mobile solutions and UX/UI, who are able to provide comprehensive solutions for commerce. The center offers not only e-commerce store implementations, but also integrations with payment service providers, ERP systems (such as SAP, or Microsoft), CRM (e.g. Salesforce, Microsoft), or PIM (Akaneo, inRiver), analytical tools, logistics services, and warehouses. Clients of the Competency Center can always count on expert advice and audits for choosing the right technologies in the areas of design and development. One of the most important features of the E-commerce Competency Center is the composable commerce approach, which welds together modern technologies such as microservices, APIs and headless commerce. This allows our clients to use the best tools and technologies and customize them to their business needs. What was the path to building a large, stand-alone entity that offers comprehensive e-commerce support?

Ambitious challenges and dynamic growth

The first e-commerce project was to support the work of a service comparing prices from thousands of online stores on the Polish market. Projects related to online sales began to be implemented in 2010. Along with the development of the increase in the number of clients and projects in the area of e-commerce, a strategic decision was made that Sii wants to build and develop the offer of the E-commerce Competency Center to act not only in the area of development, but also consulting and advisory.

In the years that followed, the E-commerce Competency Center acquired clients such as Berlingske Media, with whom we created a trading platform for local shopkeepers in the northwestern part of Denmark to sell their products.

As of today, the E-commerce CC offers one-stop-shop services to its clients, and is able to provide a complete offer from analyzing the client’s processes, advising on what technological solution will best fit the organization, what elements of a given tool will require customization or development. Sii experts address all the client’s needs from consulting, design, development, testing, and then finally implementation to production and maintenance coverage.

Projects that improve the everyday life

— We are proud of the fact that the projects implemented in the E-commerce Competency Center make a real contribution to improving the everyday life of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Thanks to our work, users can easily and safely shop online — emphasizes Marcin Kozłowski, Director of the E-commerce Competency Center.

— I am glad that our work responds to the daily needs of ordinary people, who can, for example, wear their favorite socks bought from the Happy Socks in an online store built by Sii specialists. Purchases made in a large retail chain with home appliances are easily handled by employees thanks to a new Order Processing Module created with our participation. For Urbanista, we created a store with audio equipment, thanks to which customers can enjoy their favourite music. This all is possible thanks to our clients’ products, which are available in stores created by us — adds Marcin Kozłowski.

There are also a lot of R&D topics in the work of e-commerce experts, such as changing the interface of the store, or working on the shopping cart. At first glance, these seem to be simple stores and yet behind them are integrations with systems or streamlining client-side processes. This was the case with our cooperation with Eastend, where, in addition to moving the store to the new Adobe Commerce platform (former Magento), we have created completely new modules that allow for faster order picking.

E-commerce implementations for B2B customers

One of the interesting undertakings carried out by the E-commerce Competency Center is a large project for ABB, in which the team maintains an online store for the company’s partners. This store allows you to order, for example, industrial engines used on ships or mining. On the other hand, for a large company from the energy sector, we have implemented a B2B e-commerce platform, where performance optimizations were required in terms of high traffic load (e.g. a situation where all goods are sold out in 3 minutes). The new platform has non-standard functions of selecting the date of release of goods from the selected warehouse, the ability to fiscalize receipts, verify formal documents necessary to complete the transaction, which has been adapted to the customer’s sales process.

Future growth plans

Currently, the E-commerce Competency Center is focusing on developing a synergy approach of “content” plus “commerce” to achieve the best possible customer experience. In short, this means that when we go to a particular customer’s website and then to their online store, we have a similar experience when it comes to the brand and the related shopping process. The unit also aims to develop further competencies and partnerships with e-commerce solution providers in order to stay on top of the latest trends and innovations in the industry. — We keep an eye on solutions that appear in leading Gartner’s lists, for example. We want to implement new, future-oriented solutions and further develop complementary offerings, i.e. one-stop-shop e-commerce. To this end, we rely on cooperation with other Sii units, such as ITO, which provides first and second line of support, and with marketing, which handles content production or SEO audits. — says Michał Skrzypczak, Delivery Manager at the E-commerce Competency Center.

Recruitment needs and development opportunities

— As the E-commerce Competency Center continues to grow, our recruitment needs also continue to increase — says Angelika Nadolna, Lead Resource Manager at Sii Poland. We currently have more than 200 employees, but we estimate that in about three years, this number will double. We are looking for profiles such as Java, .Net, and PHP developers, but ideal candidates are those who know a specific solution. If we are looking for PHP developers, then knowledge of Magento or Shopware is a plus. If we are looking for Java developers, then knowledge of CMS solutions that are based on Java, such as AEM or Magnolia is a very big advantage, and, if we are looking for .Net developers, then we are looking for people with knowledge of Sitecore, Umbraco, Optimizely — adds Angelika Nadolna.

If you are wondering which elements of your e-commerce are worth improving, check out our offer or contact us.