Ironware benefits with a running properly and stable Magento Connector for Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Ironware (Papendrecht, the Netherlands) specialises in exclusive door, sliding, rails and furniture technology. The company has been around for over 13 years and has grown into a serious player in the technical industry. Ironware chose Tinx-IT at the time because of its reputation, foreign experience and Microsoft Gold certification. The Dynamics Navision partner Blisss already has good experiences with the Magento E-Commerce connector from Tinx-IT. Read the complete interview with Jan Hofwegen, owner of IJzerwarenwinkel.org/Ironware.

Jan Hofwegen has a mechanical engineering background and founded Ironware in 2007. Ironware not only focuses on the sale of exclusive door, sliding, guide and furniture technology, they also offer services such as assembling products, providing training to professionals and supervising projects in construction and industry. Ironware has a showroom in Papendrecht where expert advice, demos and training are given. The focus is on reducing technical complexity. Ironware sells to the end-user and to the professional market, with the trend increasingly shifting to B2B, previously 50 percent B2C and 50 percent B2C.

Serving customers better by optimising processes

To serve customers better, “do it right, the first time”, it is of great importance for Ironware to continuously organize processes more efficiently with the most recent and advanced software. For example, the stock and warehouse system were fully automated before the integration process started. Entering an order manually in Business Central took too much time and Magento did not have the right functionalities to automate the manual order. The ERP system Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with the Tinx-IT connector does have the functionality of automatic order processing, which is why this option was chosen.

The philosophy of Jan Hofwegen is that software should be used for what it is good at. For example, Magento is the shop window of the webshop and behind the scenes, it is Business Central. So, anything that has anything to do with ERP, such as: sales price, title, packing slips, Ironware does that in Business Central. The most important added value of this choice for Ironware is being able to work more efficiently, better automating the processes, no longer having to manually enter orders and that qualitative data can be reliably sent back and forth.

Search for the right integration solution

Jan Hofwegen: “We looked for a solution that can synchronize orders and item management. We searched on the internet for suitable integration players in the market. Your connector came across as the most stable and was Microsoft Certified. You want a reliable party, a partner for the longer term and not a plug-in that pulls the plug after a year. After we started with the connector, we started the ERP implementation at the same time. Because it is of course useful if you have a partner who also has some experience with Tinx-IT. If there is no experience at the Business Central side, it becomes a lot more difficult with integration processes. Short lines that know each other and who are good at what they do is more important in a good integration process.”

”We searched on the internet for suitable integration players. The Tinx-IT Magento connector seemed the most stable to us and as a company, you are Microsoft Certified”

Using Tinx-IT connector
Ironware uses the following functionalities of the Tinx-IT connector: Order synchronization, item creation/update and stock synchronization and offers from Business Central.

Jan Hofwegen: “I like the connector. The Tinx connector ensures that Ironware does not have to link manually and that people do not have to manually enter orders internally. The Tinx-IT connector is very much needed, because if the company is growing fast and there is no connector that automatically reads orders, then the chance of errors increases when processing orders manually, not to mention the extra time it takes.”

Goals for the coming years

Jan Hofwegen: “Ironware is now in a consolidated growth phase. Keeping up with this growth is quite tricky. The growth is in both offline and online trade. The webshop generates many quote requests. Offline trade is increasing, but it also requires customization. It is therefore very important that everything that takes place or can take place online takes place as effectively and efficiently as possible. More and more project applications come in via offline channels, partly because of our range. Due to these developments, Ironware currently has a greater focus on offline commerce. We are now busy professionalizing, such as simplifying and automating our CRM system. If you want to remain a “frontrunner” in the webshop world in general and our niche market in particular, you have to keep developing. We try to grow in a dosed manner every year, above the national average. We are working on making complex technical products easier and more accessible. For example, we now work with ‘grouped’ and ‘bundled’ products in Magento. We see that we can support our online consumers (B2C and B2B) even better to buy technical products online because they often do not yet know exactly what or which products they need. We try to improve this with ‘configurables’ in Magento.”

”If you want to keep up with the webshop world, you have to keep developing”

Tips for Tinx-IT

Jan Hofwegen: “One point for improvement that Tinx-IT immediately picked up is that if orders went to ‘cancelled’ and those orders were later paid for, they offer the option of sending a reminder link. This allows a customer to pay later. The connector did “pick up” the orders, but then had the status “cancelled” and did not want to be transferred to orders. This has now been resolved and works as I would like it to.

What I like about Tinx-IT is that when the system is running, it runs properly and stable. We don’t need to get in touch with you a lot if something goes wrong. I think that’s a strong point. I learn a lot from Tinx colleagues: René, Sven and Bob. You are a professional party with skilled people in the office, switching is super-fast and good. When I call, there is always someone who can help me.”

“Tinx-IT is a professional partner with skilled people in the office, switching is super-fast and good.”

Solutions provided:
Tinx-IT E-Commerce Connector for Magento