Case Study: Building a Scalable B2B Portal for Pacific Cove Property Management

The Challenge: A Clunky, Inefficient B2B Portal

Pacific Cove Property Management (PCPM), a company that manages over 47 buildings and serves over 5,000 residents across British Columbia, needed a major website overhaul. Their existing platform was difficult for both tenants and administrative staff to use.

The previous portal was "clunky" and hard to navigate for all users, and it didn't integrate with PCPM's existing CRM software. This created a number of problems, including:

• Manual Data Entry: Administrative staff had to manually enter data, a time-consuming and inefficient process.
• Poor User Experience: The confusing interface and difficult workflows led to a frustrating experience for tenants, building managers, and other administrative users.
• Lack of Scalability: The system wasn't built to easily add new buildings, which was a major roadblock for PCPM's growth.

PCPM needed a modern, scalable, and easy-to-use solution that could integrate with their CRM, streamline workflows, and support their continued growth. They also had a specific requirement to use Drupal.

The Solution: A Strategic B2B Discovery and Drupal-Based Architecture

Acro Commerce began the project with an in-depth Discovery and Strategy (D&S) phase to fully understand PCPM's complex needs and technical requirements. This process involved a deep dive into every requirement to identify necessary components and architect a streamlined, technical solution.

This D&S phase resulted in a comprehensive technical document that eliminated unknowns before development started. Acro Commerce presented this document to PCPM's leadership, who then used it to vet other development agencies. Ultimately, PCPM returned to Acro Commerce, citing the expertise demonstrated throughout the discovery process as the deciding factor.

The solution proposed by Acro Commerce featured a modern and scalable, decoupled architecture using a Drupal backend and a React frontend. This architecture was designed to be CRM integration-capable, specifically with MS Dynamics, to eliminate manual data entry and streamline operations. The new platform was built using Acro Commerce's decoupled accelerator, Gesso.
 

Gesso’s decoupled architecture was key to the project's success, allowing Acro Commerce to:

• Accelerate time-to-launch: Gesso enabled user experience design, frontend, and backend work to be done in parallel, significantly reducing development time.
• Ensure a repeatable process: Gesso's design system served as a reusable library for all PCPM projects, making future-proofing and scaling easy through an agile, iterative process.
• Deliver a functional MVP quickly: An MVP delivers all critical functionality and a good portion of "nice-to-have" features, allowing for continued feature improvements in agile two-week sprints post-launch.

The Results: A Foundation for a Superior B2B Experience

This project has laid the groundwork for significant improvements to the way PCPM can run their operations and how renters in BC can find their next home.

By delivering a comprehensive technical architecture document, Acro Commerce provided PCPM with a clear roadmap that will result in:

• Superior User Experience: The new portal is designed to be easily navigable for all users, regardless of technical skill.
• Streamlined Workflows: The new system will eliminate redundancies in technology and data, helping to simplify complex workflows for residents and building managers.
• Scalability: The modern, decoupled architecture allows for easy expansion as PCPM continues to add more buildings to its portfolio.
• CRM Integration: The ability to integrate with PCPM's CRM will solve their previous pain point of manual data entry, increasing efficiency for administrators.

This project demonstrates Acro Commerce’s ability to handle complex B2B challenges, from strategic discovery to delivering a scalable technical solution.

Ready to streamline your business operations with a custom B2B portal using Drupal?

If you're facing similar challenges with your B2B platform, contact us today to see how we can help you build a scalable and efficient solution.