A European industrial equipment manufacturer was losing clients to competitors who offered modern customer portals as a built-in part of their service. With no self-service layer and an overloaded internal team, the company turned to Xpand Portal, and launched a fully branded customer portal integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in under a month.
Problem:
The company had built a solid reputation for product quality over 15 years. But in recent years, a new competitive dynamic emerged: buyers in the B2B manufacturing space began expecting the same digital transparency from their suppliers that they enjoyed as consumers, real-time order tracking, instant access to invoices and certificates, and self-service communication channels.
Competitors had moved quickly. Several of the company's key accounts mentioned, during renewal conversations, that they were evaluating vendors who provided purpose-built customer portals as part of their offering. For this company's operations and sales teams, this translated directly into churn risk
Resource constraint
An internal build was estimated at 24+ months and €180K. A ready portal solution that connected to their existing ERP was the only realistic path.
Competitive pressure
Customers openly compared the company's manual communication to competitors offering real-time self-service portals, creating a perceived quality gap.
Operational friction
Account managers spent 2–3 hours per day manually answering order status questions and resending invoices and shipping documents by email.
Fear of obsolescence
Leadership understood a portal was no longer optional. It was becoming table stakes. Delay meant risking key accounts to more digitally-capable rivals.
Solution:
The company implemented Xpand Portal, connecting it to their Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central environment via the certified Xpand Portal Connector. Rather than building custom software, the team was able to configure the portal using Xpand's low-code approach. Activating only the modules they needed and branding the interface to match their corporate identity.
The entire rollout from initial configuration to live customer access took less than 8 months.
Customer Order Management module gave clients real-time visibility into their open orders, shipment tracking, and item availability, all pulled directly from Business Central without manual input from the internal team.
Receivables Management module allowed customers to view and download invoices, track payment status, and access delivery documentation at any time, eliminating 80% of inbound document requests.
Role-based access control ensured each customer could see only their own orders, invoices, and certificates – meeting GDPR requirements out of the box and building trust with enterprise buyers.
Automated notifications alerted customers to shipment status changes, invoice issuance, and document uploads – proactive communication that previously required manual effort from the account management team.
Branded interface and SSO made the portal feel like a natural extension of the company's own product – not a generic third-party tool – reinforcing the vendor relationship rather than fragmenting it.
Within two months of launch, the operational impact was measurable. Account managers recovered significant portions of their working day, which were redirected toward proactive client development rather than reactive status-update communication.
More importantly, the portal became a differentiator in renewal conversations. Sales teams were able to demonstrate, in live demos, a level of digital transparency that matched or exceeded what competitors offered – turning a weakness into a selling point.
-
Up to 45%. Reduction in inbound status and document requests
-
+18%. Improvement in customer satisfaction scores
We stopped losing deals over the portal question. Now it's one of the first things we show prospects and customers tell us it's the most convenient supplier interface they use.
— Head of Sales, industrial equipment manufacturer
The modular nature of Xpand Portal also means the company can extend the platform as its needs evolve. Planned next steps include enabling customer support ticket submission via the Customer Care Management module and exploring B2B payment integration, further deepening the self-service experience without requiring new infrastructure investment.
Request a demo at: bd@xpandsoftware.com | www.xpandportal.com