Own Business Day: METRO creates platform for own businesses worldwide
Worldwide availability, multilingualism and maximum performance for the digital platform of the "Own Business Day 2020" - with COCUS as IT partner for development, rollout & scaling in 42 countries incl. End-to-end operation and service management
Snapshot
The leading international specialist in food wholesale is the contact point for entrepreneurs and self-employed worldwide. Beyond the stationary offering, METRO AG also supports its customers with customised solutions and digitalisation initiatives – from reservation, ordering and checkout systems to tools to increase online presence. This includes, above all, the Own Business Day (OBD), which took place in October 2020 for the 5th year in a row. This time with the support of COCUS.
Development, rollout and scaling in 42 countries of the content platform
Transfer to high-performance cloud-based environment for more than 2 million users / day
End-to-end operation and service management beyond the promotional period
The Project
METRO sets an example in support of own businesses
Independent and self-employed companies in particular often do not have the means to exploit the full potential of digitalisation. In particular, visibility and reach are among the biggest challenges. For this reason, METRO has created the “Own Business Day” to ensure that small and medium-sized companies receive the attention they deserve.
In addition, since 2020, it has become more important than ever to be found online, to acquire customers via new channels and to stay in touch with regular customers. With this initiative, METRO offers self-employed people the opportunity to present themselves in the best possible light, to increase their online visibility and to benefit from exclusive offers. In addition, as part of the initiative, companies could be listed quickly & free of charge on Google in order to be found immediately in the search results.
Challenge & Implementation
METRO and COCUS celebrate Own Business Day 2020 through high-performance platform
Even before October, companies all over the world could skilfully present themselves via www.own-business-day.com. The result: over 2 million website visitors during the campaign week. In order to make this possible and withstand the traffic, a start was already made in the spring together with COCUS to create the technical basis and prepare a transfer to the Google Cloud environment.
The development of the OBD platform, including new features and integration into various METRO systems, was realised within 4 months and operation & service management was guaranteed until after the event date. Of particular interest was the Google fast-track listing, which normally takes several days and requires verification by post.
Thanks to the "Fastlane" provided by COCUS, which was created through the integration of Google Maps and the Places APIs, the listings could be made immediately. This offer was directly taken up by around 44,000 enthusiastic visits.
Also included was the integration of the AI-based Google APIs Vision and Perspective, for example, to automatically detect inappropriate content. In addition, the new Google Cloud-based environment allows METRO to benefit from real-time connectivity and direct data exchange with its data warehouse, where all information converges.
For the provision in 42 countries, not only the performance had to be guaranteed, but of course also a multi-language capability.Thanks to the scalability of the platform, landing pages can be made available in all countries, , incl. a content management system developed by COCUS with which information, articles and campaigns can be written in all relevant languages and companies and consumers all over the world can be directly addressed and kept up to date.
We are delighted to be part of this wonderful initiative and to be at METRO’s side again as a IT partner in 2021.
Delivery
- Agile project management
- Software development
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Cloud Integration
- Rollout and scaling
- Operation & Maintenance
METRO is a leading international wholesaler with food and non-food assortments, specialising in the needs of hotels, restaurants and caterers (HoReCa) as well as independent retailers, serving around 16 million customers worldwide. With digital solutions, METRO also supports the competitiveness of entrepreneurs and self-employed persons and thus contributes to cultural diversity in trade and gastronomy.
More information on METRO’s Own Business Day is available here.
