One platform for retailers, suppliers and staff KeHE Connect
KeHE Distributors, a $10B organic and natural food distributor with 18 distribution centers across North America, was growing faster than its legacy systems could support. MadeLabs architects and engineers designed and built the system alongside KeHE's team: three purpose-built portals for retailers, suppliers and KeHE's own staff, sharing one source of master data behind a common set of APIs. Supplier onboarding time fell by 30%, labor costs came down, and the retailer platform is now a $2B-a-year channel and growing.
Headline results
What changed for KeHE
- $2B a year
- through the Connect Retailer digital platform, and growing
- 30%
- less time to onboard a new supplier
- 3 portals
- for retailers, suppliers and staff, on one source of master data
The situation
KeHE helps natural, organic, specialty and fresh brands get onto retail shelves and online stores across thousands of grocery retailers. It has grown significantly since COVID, both organically and through acquisitions. That growth was putting real strain on a set of legacy, disconnected systems.
The business goal was clear: keep growing and keep fill rates high, without adding significant headcount. The technology risk was compounding. An aging IT workforce, skills that were getting harder to hire, and systems that were hard to use meant that growth could have become the problem. KeHE's more than 6,800 employee-owners needed systems that would keep pace with them.
KeHE saw custom software as a future competitive advantage. It went looking for software engineering and architecture expertise to design a platform built around its business, with better data visibility, closer collaboration with retailers and suppliers, and business processes automated end to end.
What we did
MadeLabs architects and engineers designed and built the system alongside KeHE's team on a modernization program with one aim: give every group that deals with KeHE a secure, easy-to-use way to do it. That meant retailers, suppliers and KeHE's own staff.
The result is the Connect Platform, three portals built for three audiences. Connect Retailer handles product discovery, purchasing and access to invoices. Connect Supplier streamlines supplier onboarding and gives brands analytics on how they're performing. Connect Enterprise is the back office, where KeHE staff reach transactional and master data securely.
Behind all three sits master data management, so retailers, suppliers and employees all work from a single source of truth. A comprehensive set of APIs governs the whole system. That lets the platform scale, and it links the platform to the rest of KeHE's technology and to participating partners.
Results
- Supplier onboarding time reduced by 30%.
- Connect Retailer is a $2B-a-year retailer digital platform, and growing.
- Master data management gives retailers, suppliers and employees one shared source of truth.
- Extensible data integrations connect the platform to critical systems throughout KeHE.
- Reduced labor costs.
Under the hood
- Connect Retailer
- Product discovery, purchasing and access to invoices: a $2B-a-year retailer digital platform, and growing.
- Connect Supplier
- Cuts supplier onboarding time by 30%, and gives brands analytics on how they're performing.
- Connect Enterprise
- The back office, where KeHE staff reach transactional and master data securely.
- A common set of APIs
- Governs every portal, so new consumers and partners connect through the same controlled interfaces.
- One source of master data
- Retailers, suppliers and employees all work from a single source of truth for product and business data.
Technical detail
- Three purpose-built portals (Connect Retailer, Connect Supplier and Connect Enterprise) on one shared platform, each shaped around a different audience's work.
- Master data management as the foundation: a single source of truth for product and business data, shared across retailers, suppliers and internal staff.
- API-governed by design. A comprehensive set of APIs sits under every portal, so new consumers and partners connect through the same controlled interfaces.
- Extensible data integrations to KeHE's critical internal systems and to participating partners.
- Secure access to transactional and master data for back-office staff through Connect Enterprise.
Related services
- Product development
Three purpose-built portals for retailers, suppliers and KeHE's own staff.
- Integrations
A common set of APIs under all three portals.
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