Mendix Powers Vision Direct Group towards Digital Transformation
Vision Direct Group rejects ERP packages as too rigid, selecting the Mendix platform on which to custom-build a suite of agile, scalable applications for its rapid-growth business
Boston, USA and London, UK – February 19th 2016 – Mendix, a leading application Platform-as-a-Service (aPaaS) provider, today announced that Vision Direct Group, Europe’s largest online supplier of contact lenses and eye care products, has selected the Mendix platform to custom-build an integrated suite of enterprise applications for its business. The new software applications, which went live on Thursday 11th February, are Mendix Cloud-based and designed to scale and adapt quickly as the market evolves.
Vision Direct Group fulfilled orders for more than 600,000 customers in seven European territories during 2015. The group’s UK customers benefit from next day delivery of stocked products when they order via VisionDirect.co.uk. Customers in all territories receive support seven days a week from specially trained customer support agents based in York, UK and Amsterdam, NL.
With strong growth in all markets and anticipated revenue of more than €50 million for 2015, Vision Direct Group found its existing sales order management, fulfillment, supply management and procurement processes posed a risk to future performance. The company selected the Mendix platform to re-build these processes in-house, as an enterprise suite of interconnected digital applications.
“Vision Direct Group’s future success required scalable, agile, and interconnected systems adaptable to changing product ranges, geographies, and other needs,” said Miklos Parrag, the company’s chief technology officer. “Building our own applications in the Mendix visual modelling environment enabled collaboration with senior management on current and possible future requirements, and also proved faster, more flexible, and more affordable than buying an ERP solution.”
Engaging a lean, agile team of developers and a project manager, Vision Direct Group delivered the entire application suite in just four months. The project included extensive integration with existing systems, such as NetSuite financials, supplier inventories and a courier management system. Given the complexity, Vision Direct Group estimates a traditional code-based development approach would have taken at least three times the effort and time.
“Digital businesses like Vision Direct Group are choosing to build over buy because they see bespoke software development as a source of sustained competitive advantage,” said Reza Warnink, vice president of EMEA at Mendix. “In adopting the Mendix platform, Vision Direct created the precise solution needed today, knowing the applications can accommodate the needs and ideas of tomorrow.”
About Mendix
Mendix, a Siemens business, is the only low-code platform designed to address the full complexity of enterprise software development challenges. Deploying point solutions to departmental problems solves things at a micro level—but if you want to make a significant impact on your business, you need to go bigger and build powerful portfolios that move the needle sustainably and strategically.
With Mendix, enterprises can take on more complex, transformational initiatives by engaging everyone in capturing requirements, forming ideas, and embedding value assessment throughout the lifecycle of the software portfolio.
Focus on the right problems while relying on governance and control to avoid unnecessary risk. Mobilize your organization. Build the change readiness muscle. And when the next big idea drops, turn it into an outcome quicker.
More than 4,000 organizations in 46 countries use the Mendix low-code platform. An active community of over 300,000 developers has created over 950,000 applications – and counting.