The Marketplace has been a key project for our family of brands for some time now. And we are so excited to share that we are now entering the home stretch toward development completion.
Marketplace is a unified ecommerce shopping platform that will bring GracoRoberts, Silmid, and SkyGeek together in one place.
Customers will be able to:
Instead of launching all three businesses at the same time, the Marketplace will be released in stages.
GracoRoberts will be the first business to use the new platform.
At launch:
Later phases will add:
This phased approach helps the team identify and fix issues before expanding to the other businesses.
The current target launch date is August 24
The team is working hard to meet this date, but some work is still in progress. If the timeline changes, everyone will be notified by email.
The focus is on launching a high-quality system, not simply meeting the deadline.
The internal development team is finishing several important systems and preparing to hand them over to RED TECHNOLOGY (the external software development partner).
Key items include:
API (Application Programming Interface) = a tool that allows different software systems to communicate with each other.
Once RED receives these systems, they can begin their part of the work.
The teams will then hold regular Developer Triage meetings to review issues and coordinate fixes.
Triage = reviewing, prioritizing, and resolving problems.
The Storefront is the website customers will use.
The team is finalizing the connection between the storefront and live inventory data.
This is important because it enables:
A few software bugs still need to be fixed before this work is complete.
The Enterprise Portal is the central system for managing product information and specifications across the businesses.
The portal is currently:
After that work is complete:
The Quality team will begin specification mapping (spec mapping).Spec (Specification) = detailed information about a product, such as:
Spec mapping = organizing and linking this information so customers can:
Business Analysts (BAs) help connect business needs with technical solutions.They are:
Next week, the GracoRoberts Operations team will begin testing important document processes in Crescendo (the business workflow system being used for these documents).
Documents being tested include:
A document that confirms a product has been tested and meets required standards.
A document showing the results of testing performed on a product.
The team will also test:
The goal is for Operations to formally approve these processes before launch.
A document sent before products arrive, letting the customer know:
The ASN build is complete.
A Commercial Invoice can now be generated.
This is an official document used in international shipping that includes:
Some functionality still depends on work being completed by each business unit.
SAP is enterprise software system currently used by SkyGeek and GracoRoberts (classified)for business operations such as inventory, purchasing, and finance.
SAP-related tasks have been handed to Vision33 (our specialist vendor), and the team is waiting for updates.
We are also creating documentation that tracks every part of the build and shows how different systems connect, helping make sure nothing is missed as each business joins the Marketplace.
The teams have clear next steps. GR Operations is testing the paperwork (document) workflows, Quality is getting ready to organize product details once the main portal is cleaned up, and our developers are handing off the big technical pieces to our partner team, RED, to keep things moving.
If you read only one section, read this one.