WANTED: One commerce platform for sales reps AND customers

Bioventus is a leading manufacturer of cost-effective orthobiologic solutions for bone healing, bone graft and osteoarthritis that are backed by clinical data.

The company launched in 2012 to great success. In 2016, with a growing market footprint, Bioventus needed to establish a single platform for digital interaction with doctors (Bioventus’ primary customers) and sales reps.

Working within existing constraints

Bioventus had 2 constraints on the web channel project:

1. IT couldn’t take on any new work

Brian Poole, Senior Director, IT Enterprise Architecture and Engineering, put it this way:
“We looked at building our own internal application… [but] it didn’t make sense to build our own solution. We run lean, and we didn’t want to jump in and become a dev shop.”

2. Solution couldn’t be CRM-based

“We already had our CRM up and going,” said Brian Poole. “[For the web channel,] we wanted to start with something for our sales force and introduce it for our customers… but we knew that if we started with our CRM, we would end up with customers on one platform and sales reps on another one. We weren’t going to extend access to our CRM to our customers. We didn’t want to do that.”

SAP-integrated commerce built for today’s manufacturers

The templatized nature of the Corevist application and SAP integration would allow Bioventus to stand up separate storefronts for sales reps and customers without reinventing the wheel.

Not only that, but Corevist’s built-in, configurable SAP integration was an ideal fit to cover Bioventus’ business needs across the entire project.

Across a series of focus groups, we asked Bioventus’ sales reps a provocative question: “Why can’t we put this software into production today?” This question helps us uncover the things your users actually want in a web channel solution. It’s how we ensure that Corevist delivers the things your users need, no bloat included.

Our user-driven methodology allowed the project to move fast. Within months, Brian Poole explained, “We had our reps processing real orders in our live production system through Corevist. With that, we got their feedback and started an Agile methodology of adding functionality and additional fields to the application.”

With Stage 1 complete, it was time to extend Corevist Commerce access to customers—i.e. the doctors who purchase Bioventus’ Active Healing Technologies on behalf of their patients. Stage 2 would follow the same Agile rollout methodology as Stage 1—the same methodology we use in all client rollouts.

In Stage 2, Bioventus began rolling out the customer-facing storefront, using the same SAP-integrated architecture as the Corevist Field Sales portal. Doctors received all the browse & buy functionality which was available to sales reps. In Stage 3, they would receive the ability to pay down invoices online.

Enabling doctors to pay online and manage their accounts through Corevist Commerce

With Stage 2 complete, Bioventus began the final phase in the project. They gave doctors access to Corevist Bill Pay, the web A/R solution that’s available on its own, or as part of Corevist Commerce. The Bill Pay portion of Corevist empowers customers to make self-service invoice payments through your preferred payment methods, such as credit cards, ACH transfer, eCheck, invoice, PayPal, and more.

With Stage 3 complete, Bioventus has empowered doctors to manage the entire ordering cycle within Corevist Commerce. “In addition to placing orders on the system, customers can now pay down invoices online within Corevist Commerce,” said Brian Poole.

Bioventus: An Agile path to digital dominance

Here at Corevist, we find that sales reps aren’t always the fastest to adopt eCommerce. They may not see the value in self-service technologies, and they may even feel threatened if it isn’t clear what role they’ll play in the new customer ordering process.

As the numbers show, Bioventus has overcome any inertia. Their sales staff is well-equipped to handle the challenges of a post-COVID economy.

The solution is a great success with doctors as well. Digital revenue from customer self-service is rising, and average order value is trending up as well. Among both doctors and sales reps, total digital revenue has grown 70.3% (first full month compared to last full month).