Gastronomixs: e-business platform on Dynamics and HubSpot

Gastronomixs.com is a digital platform for professional chefs. As a user, you get access to a huge library of ingredients, components and inspiration with which you can always present surprising creations to the guests of your restaurant. Since its foundation in 2012, Gastronomixs has grown to 28,000+ subscribers, mainly in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. But the ambition is great: Gastronomixs wants to grow nationally and internationally. In order to use that growth, we realised a completely new platform together with Gastronomixs and we automated the processes in their back office. Ready to accelerate!

 

For the chef and his guests

Gastronomixs has been receiving very positive evaluations from its users for years. It is an ideal tool for chefs to be inspired and to go one step further for the guests in their restaurants. The continuously growing range of building blocks for dishes, devised by chefs from Gastronomixs and by ambassador top chefs from all over the world, allows users to create new dishes. The concept of Gastronomixs is closely related to how a kitchen is organised in a restaurant: each chef prepares a certain component of a dish, and at the end of the kitchen the composition is ready to be served to the guests.

 

International growth

Growth is needed to continue to develop and add new components to the platform. The Dutch market has already been won to a large extent; the potential therefore lies in the combination of maintaining the Dutch market share and international growth. The new platform is therefore fully focused on multiple languages and countries, and offers the flexibility to take into account culinary and cultural differences per country or region.

 

Pricing models redesigned

Creating a completely new platform offers a good opportunity to also examine the business models. That is why an analysis has been made of the optimal price structure for the chefs and new subscription models have been set up with a view to expansion.

 

Redesign and new brand identity

To arrive at an even better UX, we delved into the data. Quantitative data (what do the statistics tell us) and qualitative data from UX research and interviews with users. This has led to a modernised visual brand identity and a design of the platform that responds even better to the task of orienting chefs and users. For example, the search function has been improved and now operates as the pivot of the website. In addition, the merging of components in collections has been optimised, giving chefs even more freedom to organise their inspiration.

No need to worry about the back office

Together with our sister company Hoppinger Business Solutions, we immediately raised the entire back office IT of Gastronomixs to a higher level. From a headless platform architecture, we have housed the different types of data in the systems where that specific data belongs: content in a CMS, marketing automation and account management in HubSpot, and financial administration in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. With the help of Microsoft Power Apps, an advanced CMS has been created on top of SharePoint to manage the complex content in a clear manner. All these tools are used as cloud-based SaaS solutions. The data is then served to the platform via an integration layer. Thanks to the automation of back office processes, Gastronomixs employees can focus on coming up with new building blocks and providing services to their users. And that's what it's all about!

 

Data-driven growth

With the renewed e-business platform of Gastronomixs, the first step has been taken towards further international growth. User data and data from the back office systems enable the data analysts of Gastronomixs to always respond to how the demand of their users is developing, with an eye for regional and culinary differences of countries where Gastronomixs is active. We look forward to developing the next ambitious steps on the roadmap together with Gastronomixs!

 

 Highlights

•  International e-business platform
•  Renewed brand identity
•  Subscription models set up with a view to expansion
•  Layered Platform Architecture
•  Data integration from different sources
•  Payment flow via Buckaroo PSP
•  Marketing automation and account management in HubSpot
•  Digitisation back office with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Power Platform
•  Financial settlement via Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
•  … and everything cloud-based