BTC wanted to simplify business operations with its partners, improve communication and automate everyday processes. We developed a B2B portal that gives business partners easier access to information and more efficient communication, while reducing the administrative workload for BTC employees. The result is more streamlined operations and more time for higher-value tasks.
4.7
registered tenants in the first year
BTC is one of the leading commercial property development and management companies in the region, trusted by numerous multinational and regional businesses. Under the BTC City brand, it operates one of Europe's largest business, shopping, entertainment, recreational and cultural centres, located in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The company also manages shopping centres in Novo mesto and Murska Sobota and provides property management services to major Slovenian clients. Logistics is another important part of its operations, with BTC holding a leading market position in food logistics in Slovenia.
With more than one million square metres of properties owned by BTC and its partners, BTC is Slovenia's largest manager of retail and service properties.
Managing properties and working with thousands of tenants – retailers, restaurants and various service providers – involves extensive daily coordination and administrative work.
Informing tenants, sending invoices and payment reminders, and resolving operational issues were becoming increasingly demanding as the business expanded. The volume of routine work continued to grow, along with the associated costs.
BTC therefore recognised the need to automate processes and simplify communication with its business partners. The company decided to introduce a B2B portal that would reduce manual work and give tenants greater independence in managing their day-to-day business activities.
The new solution was intended to provide tenants with:
The main objective was to establish a solution that would simplify cooperation between BTC and its business partners while reducing administrative workload on both sides.
At Creatim, we began by analysing the client's needs and mapping the business processes that the new solution would support.
The portal was designed around four key areas: user experience, user autonomy, technical security, and scalability.
The portal serves a wide range of business partners, making ease of use one of the main priorities during its development.
We designed a simple, intuitive interface that requires no specific training. Users can access information and functionality without unnecessary complexity, including on mobile devices.
The responsive design allows users to access the portal from both desktop computers and mobile phones.
One of the project's key objectives was to reduce business partners' dependence on the employees responsible for managing the system.
The portal therefore allows tenants to manage their own user accounts and assign access permissions to their employees.
This enables tenants to manage portal access independently, without involving the system administrator whenever a change is required.
The result is simpler administration and fewer routine tasks for BTC employees.
As the portal provides access to business information and data relating to individual tenants, security was an important consideration in its design.
We paid particular attention to user identification and authentication procedures, as well as the supporting server infrastructure.
These measures were designed to protect data and prevent unauthorised access or potential misuse.
The portal was designed with future development needs in mind.
The first phase focused on addressing the most pressing operational issues. However, the client wanted a solution that would not be limited to its initial set of features.
We therefore adopted a modular approach that supports the gradual introduction of additional services and functionality.
This provides BTC with a foundation for further portal development in line with its evolving business needs, without requiring a complete replacement of the solution.
We spoke with Robi Pritržnik, CTO of BTC-Phoenix, about the project.
We needed to evaluate the technical solution and determine how to connect all our IT systems in one place while maintaining the best possible user experience. Above all, it was important to choose the right business partner, one that demonstrated the right level of expertise and experience in this field. Creatim was definitely the right choice!
Creatim proposed a solution based on the Symfony framework, which turned out to be an excellent decision because it has a huge community behind it and met all our performance requirements. As for further development, the modular architecture supports all the possibilities. The alternatives were mainly solutions based on completely custom development. Credo CMS had the advantage here, as it accelerated development.
The project Creatim delivered for us has met all our expectations. Above all, the day-to-day users – our business partners – are delighted with it and now use it for most of their business communication with us.
Above all, it was important to choose the right business partner, one that demonstrated the right level of expertise and experience in this field. Creatim was definitely the right choice!
— Robi Pritržnik, CTO
According to the client, more than 200 tenants registered to use the portal within its first year.
This demonstrates that the solution has been adopted in practice and has become part of business communication between BTC and its partners.
Another important benefit of the portal is the reduced administrative workload for BTC employees. With fewer routine tasks to manage, they can devote more attention to clients and activities they previously lacked the time to address.
The BTC project demonstrates how a thoughtfully designed B2B portal can simplify cooperation with a large number of business partners, improve access to information and establish a foundation for the continued digitalisation of business processes.
