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    Building a modern tech stack for greater control and user experience

    Industry
    Sales & marketing
    Output
    Cloud architecture, Product Roadmapping, UX & design

    Greenbridge Foodservice

    Greenbridge Foodservice links privately-owned foodservice distributors with their large network of independent restaurants, creating meaningful connections between brands and restaurants through their best-in-class marketing and analytics, and a points-based loyalty program that rewards operators. Their commitment and attention to family-owned restaurants was not diminished by the pandemic — the company looked for opportunities to modernize and innovate in order to better serve the market, as they believe independent restaurants and foodservice suppliers are important to the economy and to the livelihoods of people in our communities.

    The challenge

    Greenbridge has an established network of suppliers and restaurants in Canada that rely on their marketing and partnership services to sustain their business. They were ready to serve new regions by scaling their company on the solid foundation of their established capabilities and access.  

    However, Greenbridge’s existing digital platforms were not set up to aid them in scaling their business. With a tightly-coupled architecture and services managed by a third party, the cost of scaling their services on their existing digital platform was prohibitive. Making even small changes to their site experience was costly and time-consuming. Additionally, the intellectual property of their loyalty service was owned by their provider, not by Greenbridge. There was no way to seize the opportunity to scale with this new partner without a new digital experience that would be easier for their internal teams and their customers to use.  

    The pandemic and related lockdowns also had a devastating impact on the restaurant industry. Instead of pivoting away from independent restaurants and distributors, Greenbridge decided to invest further in their support of these privately-owned businesses by building their new platform.

    The discovery process

    Greenbridge and Rangle set an initial goal to build and roll out the platform for existing Canadian clients as a test case before scaling to new markets. The goal was to shift towards a digital process that facilitated more meaningful customer relationships, as well as allow their operations to scale so that they were always ready to capitalize on new market opportunities.  

    To understand the current product and how Greenbridge’s customers and clients interacted with their site and loyalty program, Rangle’s team conducted interviews with customers, distributors, and internal stakeholders to understand the strengths and challenges. We then collaborated with the Greenbridge team to define a minimum viable product (MVP), product vision and roadmap.

    The tech

    With a goal to allow Greenbridge’s team to scale as rapidly and efficiently as possible, Rangle’s architects created a highly decoupled architecture that meant creating front end experiences for Greenbridge’s users no longer required a reliance on heavy backend development work. Using primarily third-party, open source tool sets, the stack is flexible, and not dependent on any single tool. That means the Greenbridge team is free to add or change tooling as their business needs change in the future, giving them the flexibility they need to continue to scale. Moreover, much of the work of maintaining and creating their site and loyalty program can now be done in-house. Minimizing their dependency on third parties to build and maintain their site leaves their teams free to focus on strategy and creating great experiences for their users.

    Improved control, improved user experience

    With a modern tech stack, Greenbridge has greater ability than ever to focus on their network of restaurateurs and suppliers. They now own most of the IP for their site, and the experience itself is much easier for clients to use, with better user flows and an updated look that matches their brand aspirations. They are ready to scale their offering, and equipped with a digital experience that will grow with the pace of their business. They have also adopted more agile workflow processes and have more access than ever to user data that can inform their marketing strategy.
    Above: We designed wireframes and mockups to illustrate the overall functionality and usage of the app.
    When your business has systems that are open source and ready to scale, you have choices available to you — you’re not limited in your choices based on your technology, and you can pivot your business strategy without the technology as a dependency. Working with Rangle opens you up to new scaling possibilities that you didn't have before.

    The outcomes for Greenbridge’s clients

    Greenbridge is ready to continue their partnerships with foodservice distributors, and can be the conduit as a consistent and viable channel to access small, independent restaurants. The Brand Points loyalty program and the new digital platform creates value without the distributors investing in significant marketing or awareness efforts to find independent restaurants.  

    The new platform also creates a better experience for sales representatives from foodservice distributors. They can have easy access to the product on their laptop, tablet or smartphone, and can easily share information with restaurant owners in-person or online. The Greenbridge team can also access the data and insights that matter most to their clients with their new platform, and continue improving their experience to better serve their clients.
    For restaurant owners, the loyalty platform can include analytics to offer recommendations for products based on the orders of similar restaurants. The already robust loyalty program is augmented with these data insights to ensure small business owners can get maximum value from the platform.

    The outcomes for Greenbridge

    With a new digital platform, Greenbridge is no longer limited in their expansion plans by outdated technology. A cloud-based technical architecture, product roadmapping that allows for scale and flexibility, and end to end UX & creative design from Rangle has made the entire user journey for Greenbridge’s clients both easier to use and more enjoyable. As their company grows, they’re also ready to integrate with other third party partners without huge technological dependencies, which will also open new opportunities for their business in the future.