Please find our order attached.

From Thomas · installer, HamburgMon 08:02

Hi, same as last week, with a few changes. Could you get this into the system?

order_week44.xlsx · 38 lines

In his van, an installer photographs his handwritten order list and sends it from his phone

Business transformation for manufacturers, distributors and retailers: margin from better pricing, then zero-touch orders.

Book a call See what retyping costs you

Work we have led, in figures

  • €150M+contract value won and grown across EMEA with ASOS, Zalando, bol.com, Philips and Unilever
  • 27,000+B2B customers in Europe and the Americas on the platform we lead at Ravago
  • 4 marketslaunched across Europe in 14 months at de Bijenkorf

Led by Maurice Smedts, founder

What retyping orders costs you

Every list a buyer emails in is typed into the ERP again, line by line, by someone who could be helping that buyer instead.

Hours are the easiest cost to put a number on, so try it with your own figures.

Margin and growth take more than one sum. They start from a map of your business, set out below.

Your order desk, in a year

€93,600

a year spent retyping orders

1,200 orders × 10 min × 12 months = 2,400 hours. 2,400 hours ÷ 1,600 hours per FTE × €62,400 = €93,600, about 1.5 FTE.

Example figures. Change them to yours; nothing is sent or stored.

Where to act first

We map your business around the moment a customer orders. Pick an objective and see where to act.

The order quadrant. Before the order: find and win, which the customer sees, and plan and prepare, behind the scenes. After the order: fulfil, behind the scenes, and serve, which the customer sees.

Find and win

  • Price by customer value, not by habit
  • Cross- and upsell from what they already buy
  • Show customers the full catalogue

Plan and prepare

  • Cost to serve per customer
  • Price changes live in days, not months

Fulfil

  • Fewer rush orders and split shipments

Serve

  • Fewer credit notes from price disputes

How we deliver

The objective comes first. These four practices are how we reach it.

Platform & commerce strategy

Dealers expect their own prices and a reorder in two clicks; shoppers expect the stock online to match the store. Your ERP was not built for either. For a dealer portal, a customer platform or omnichannel retail, we set the vision and the roadmap: build or buy, which customers and channels move first, and how agreed prices and the full catalogue reach every customer.

You get a platform roadmap your board can approve.

Dealer portal · account 20418Your prices
ArticleDescriptionYour priceQty
10.442Press fitting 22 mm€1.8450
10.517Ball valve ¾″€8.2012
22.090Pipe clip 28 mm, 100 pcs€14.604
3 lines · €248.80 excl. VATOrder 3 lines
Sample dealer portal: a dealer reorders three lines at their own prices, 248.80 euros excluding VAT.

Product operating model

Many companies still run IT as a project factory: an annual budget, a fixed scope, a handover. We help you move to persistent product teams that own an outcome, such as one stock figure across web and stores or the launch in a new country, with a portfolio that business and IT decide together.

You get the operating model, its governance and the first team.

Portfolio · Q1 2027Decided by stores, online, IT and finance

Now

One stock for web and storesTeam omnichannel

Collect in store in 2 hoursTeam omnichannel

Next

Returns in any storeTeam stores

Webshop for AustriaTeam international

Later

Order status answered by AITo be staffed

3 persistent teams · portfolio review every quarter
Sample product portfolio of a retailer for the first quarter of 2027, in columns now, next and later.

Operational AI & automation

We start where the work is manual and repetitive: order lists in an inbox, supplier invoices, quotes checked against agreed prices, a price change rolled out across every customer agreement. A pilot works on your real documents and data, a person checks every line it flags, and you see the measured result before anything scales. Service companies use this practice for invoices, claims and forms.

You get a pilot on your own documents, with its measured result.

Invoice inbox → draft entries08:04
SupplierAmountStatus
Freight carrier€1,240.00Read
Packaging supplier€386.50Read
“cleaning Oct.”, no PO€910.00Check
Energy supplier€2,145.60Read
36 of 38 invoices read2 to check by a person
Sample pilot result: supplier invoices read into draft entries; 36 of 38 read, 2 flagged for a person to check.

Interim product leadership

When the work needs a leader more than advice, we step in as interim CPO or product lead for a platform, a margin programme or a market entry, own the roadmap and run the cadence: a working session every week, a sponsor review every two weeks.

You get a senior product lead for as long as the work needs one.

Sponsor reviewThursday · 45 min
  • Pilot with 20 customersDecided
  • Price update to all accounts, week 3 of 6On track
  • Punch-out for the top 40 customersTo decide
Next review in 14 days
Sample sponsor review agenda: one decision taken, one item on track, one to decide.

How we work: look, test, build

  1. An order desk employee with a headset at two screens, one order line highlighted; the warehouse through the window

    Look.

    We start with the people who do the work: leadership, the customer desk, the stores and the shop floor.

    Output: a ten-page executive brief that sets the direction.

  2. At a wholesaler's counter an installer tries a reorder screen on a tablet while someone notes what he does

    Test.

    We weigh value against effort and test the riskiest idea with real users before you commit budget.

    Output: a backlog in order of impact, which you can change as you learn.

  3. A buyer selects an order line in a customer portal on a laptop, a printed price sheet beside the keyboard

    Build.

    We stay through delivery, until people on the floor use what was built.

    Output: a platform in daily use, with an owner in your company for each part.

Start with one objective

In 30 minutes we show where it sits in your business and what we would test first.

Book a call

Work we have led

The cases behind the figures: what the work was and how it was measured. Materials distribution is the platform we lead at Ravago; the other cases come from roles held by our founder.

Work we have led: the platform we lead at Ravago and results from roles held by our founder
SectorWorkMeasureResult
Logistics and commerce servicesFrom warehousing to commerce servicesVision 2020 written with the CEO, the Shipwire cloud fulfilment platform brought to Europe and Managed Commerce launched.Total contract value€150M+
Materials distributionFrom ERP ordering to a digital platformDiscovery, platform architecture and delivery across Europe and the Americas, with pricing governance and change for sales teams used to phone and email.Customers on the platform27,000+
Retail & e-commerceMulti-market platform rolloutOrder management architecture, checkout and coordination of internal squads, remote teams and vendors across time zones.Markets launched4 in 14 months
Checkout conversion+12%
Industrial manufacturingDigital commerce strategyStakeholder interviews, a review of the platform stack, and procurement integration paths validated: API, EDI and AI.DeliverableRoadmap and integration paths

Who we work with

A sales lead presses a blue pin into a map of Europe to mark the next market
A sales lead marks the next market on a map of Europe.

Mid-size and large companies that make, move and sell products

ManufacturersQuotes and price lists kept by hand; dealers order by emailDealer portal
Distributors and wholesalersPrice changes take months; customers buy a fraction of the rangeCustomer portal
Retailers and e-commercePrices and stock differ per channel and per countryOmnichannel

For AI and automation

Service companiesInvoices, claims and forms read and retyped by peopleDocument pilot

Not a fit

A deck to fileStrategy without the budget to act on itNot for us
Founder
Maurice Smedts
Based in
's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands
Working in
Europe and the Americas
Experience
14 years in B2B and B2C commerce
Sectors
Manufacturing, distribution and retail

We have run what we advise

Our founder, Maurice Smedts, has run commercial teams, built B2B and retail platforms and led their product teams.

At Docdata, Maurice co-wrote the company’s Vision 2020 with the CEO: the move from warehousing into commerce services, which shaped the later acquisition by Ingram Micro. As Commercial Director EMEA he brought the Shipwire cloud fulfilment platform to Europe, launched Managed Commerce and won and grew the accounts of global brands. At de Bijenkorf he led checkout and order management through the move into new markets.

Since March 2021 Maurice has been Ravago’s interim Head of Digital through Sure Digital. The platform we lead at Ravago serves business customers across Europe and the Americas. At Ingram Micro and at Ravago he turned infrastructure built to run the business into new revenue. Today he leads the commercial domain of Ravago’s zero‑touch order programme.

  • Career

  • Ingram Micro, formerly DocdataCommercial Director EMEA; Vision 2020, Managed CommerceAccounts included ASOS, Zalando, bol.com, AkzoNobel, Philips, Nutricia, Unilever, Huawei and Xiaomi
  • de BijenkorfCheckout and order management; international expansion
  • Ravago, since 2021Interim Head of Digital through Sure Digital; commercial domain of zero‑touch ordering

  • How we work with you

  • EmbeddedInside your team, 2 days a week or full-time
  • Cross-domainProduct, technology and commercial operations
  • CommercialPricing, sales and new revenue as well as operations
  • IndependentNo fee from any software vendor

Book a 30-minute call

Tell us your objective, or the email that still arrives. We reply within one business day and say plainly whether we are the right fit.

Your order
1 × First call, 30 minutes€0.00
Total€0.00

No pitch deck.

Where you are stuck, and what kind of help you are looking for.