A system migration under pressure: the right partner at the right time 

The netgo group is one of Germany’s leading IT service providers. With its digital platform, the centralhub, the company offers customers far more than a customized procurement solution. But when it came time to modernize the existing e-commerce infrastructure, the team faced a critical question: How can they switch to a more powerful solution without disrupting ongoing operations?

A solution that adapts to you — not the other way around

The new solu­ti­on nee­ded to be rea­dy within just a few months — wit­hout any limi­ta­ti­ons for exis­ting cus­to­mers. One thing was clear: It had to be fle­xi­ble enough to inte­gra­te seam­less­ly into the cen­tral­hub. The Headless API from ITscope made exact­ly that pos­si­ble: the exis­ting B2B shop sys­tem was con­nec­ted direct­ly, allo­wing pro­duct data, orde­ring pro­ces­ses, and pri­cing logic to run in the back­ground via ITscope. 

“We were able to con­ti­nue seam­less­ly and offer cus­to­mers a ful­ly func­tion­al digi­tal orde­ring plat­form at all times,” says Relindis Agethen, Head of Sales at netgo. 

What IT companies can learn from this project

net­go mas­te­red the migra­ti­on in record time — crea­ting a solu­ti­on that not only works, but con­ti­nues to grow with them. This Best Practice exam­p­le shows how sys­tem inte­gra­tors can moder­ni­ze digi­tal sales pro­ces­ses effi­ci­ent­ly wit­hout for­cing cus­to­mers to aban­don their fami­li­ar workflows. 

About netgo

The net­go group is one of the lea­ding IT ser­vice pro­vi­ders in Germany, with more than 1,400 employees across over 20 loca­ti­ons. The com­pa­ny offers cloud and mana­ged ser­vices, IT secu­ri­ty, IT infra­struc­tu­re, and cus­to­mi­zed soft­ware solu­ti­ons. With the cen­tral­hub, net­go pro­vi­des a digi­tal pro­cu­re­ment plat­form that con­nects purcha­sing and IT pro­ces­ses effi­ci­ent­ly. 

No compromises: Why netgo chose an API-based solution 

net­go wan­ted a solu­ti­on that fit seam­less­ly into exis­ting struc­tures wit­hout requi­ring cus­to­mers to chan­ge their dai­ly pro­ces­ses. “Customers should con­ti­nue purcha­sing through our in-house cen­tral­hub, while the orde­ring pro­ces­ses are opti­mi­zed in the back­ground,” explains Agethen. A stan­dard out-of-the-box solu­ti­on would have eit­her dis­rupt­ed the cus­to­mer work­flow or lacked the requi­red fle­xi­bi­li­ty. 

Headless API — the bridge between systems 

By inte­gra­ting ITscope via a Headless API, net­go found exact­ly what was miss­ing: a way to embed the full func­tion­a­li­ty of a B2B shop into their exis­ting envi­ron­ment — wit­hout repla­cing the front­end. Order data, pro­duct cata­logs, and pri­ces now flow direct­ly into the cen­tral­hub wit­hout cus­to­mers noti­cing any chan­ges. Everything looks and feels the same, but behind the sce­nes the pro­cess is ful­ly optimized. 

For net­go, this meant enorm­ous time savings: no dupli­ca­te sys­tems, no cum­ber­so­me work­arounds — just a direct con­nec­tion to the ITscope ecosystem. 

Flexibility without development overhead 

Building a cus­tom plat­form with full e‑commerce capa­bi­li­ties would have been cos­t­ly and time‑consuming to main­tain. ITscope, on the other hand, offers an instant­ly usable API that is con­ti­nuous­ly enhan­ced. New fea­tures — such as the Apple CTO Finder — beco­me available to all cus­to­mers wit­hout net­go nee­ding to make any adjustments. 

“We bene­fit from every impro­ve­ment ITscope deli­vers — wit­hout any addi­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment work,” says Agethen. This allows net­go to stay focu­sed on its core busi­ness while the plat­form auto­ma­ti­cal­ly grows with mar­ket needs. 

A smooth transition without disruption 

“We didn’t have time for leng­thy test­ing or run­ning par­al­lel sys­tems. The new shop had to work the moment we swit­ched over,” recalls Agethen. Close col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with ITscope resul­ted in a clear road­map: defi­ne requi­re­ments, con­nect inter­faces, test — and go live. 

To enable the rapid tran­si­ti­on, net­go initi­al­ly opted for a prag­ma­tic inte­rim solu­ti­on. Throughout ear­ly 2024, the ITscope B2B Shops con­tin­ued to run as a stan­da­lo­ne plat­form while the inte­gra­ti­on into the cen­tral­hub was pre­pared in parallel. 

“It was cru­cial that our cus­to­mers could con­ti­nue orde­ring imme­dia­te­ly. The full inte­gra­ti­on came in the second step,” says Agethen. 

In spring 2024, the final inte­gra­ti­on into the cen­tral­hub was com­ple­ted. Individual cus­to­mer por­tals were seam­less­ly migra­ted into the exis­ting envi­ron­ment. “This allo­wed us to make the tran­si­ti­on as smooth as pos­si­ble for cus­to­mers,” Agethen adds. Speed came first — per­fec­tion fol­lo­wed — wit­hout any down­ti­me for exis­ting clients. 

Pragmatic solutions instead of unnecessary bureaucracy 

A key suc­cess fac­tor was the solution‑driven col­la­bo­ra­ti­on bet­ween the teams. Long appr­oval loops? Not at ITscope. 

“There was no wai­ting around for pro­po­sals or com­pli­ca­ted pro­ces­ses — things sim­ply got done; ITscope deli­ver­ed solu­ti­ons quick­ly,” says Agethen. 

This prag­ma­tic approach ensu­red that chal­lenges were resol­ved imme­dia­te­ly, wit­hout delay­ing the over­all pro­ject. The result: the new plat­form went live within just a few months. 

Customers embraced the transition 

The clea­rest sign of a suc­cessful migra­ti­on: netgo’s cus­to­mers con­tin­ued working as if not­hing had chan­ged — just with impro­ved func­tion­a­li­ty. Despite the plat­form tran­si­ti­on, the cus­to­mer base remain­ed sta­ble, with no churn. 

“That was our goal: no sys­tem shock, no unneces­sa­ry adjus­t­ments — just a bet­ter purcha­sing expe­ri­ence,” sum­ma­ri­zes Agethen. 

The inte­gra­ti­on ensu­red that orde­ring pro­ces­ses con­tin­ued smooth­ly, wit­hout cus­to­mers nee­ding to learn a new interface. 

About Relindis Agethen 

Relindis Agethen is Head of Sales at net­go and brings many years of expe­ri­ence in IT sales. She began her care­er at CEMA AG, which was inte­gra­ted into the net­go group in 2021. Today, she is respon­si­ble for deve­lo­ping the cen­tral­hub, sup­port­ing the net­go regi­ons in mar­ke­ting, and working clo­se­ly with tech­ni­cal teams to con­ti­nuous­ly opti­mi­ze the plat­form. 

More efficiency, less effort: The benefits for netgo and its customers 

Customized purchasing portals for every customer 

With the ITscope inte­gra­ti­on, net­go was able to build more than 100 indi­vi­du­al purcha­sing por­tals — each with its own assort­ment, pri­cing, and appr­oval pro­ces­ses. Companies con­ti­nue orde­ring through the cen­tral­hub, but their fami­li­ar struc­tu­re stays intact. 

“We’ve crea­ted a dedi­ca­ted store with indi­vi­du­al con­di­ti­ons for each cus­to­mer. Even within a sin­gle com­pa­ny, dif­fe­rent depart­ments can see dif­fe­rent assort­ments,” explains Agethen. 

Real‑time data instead of manual effort 

Customers can now instant­ly see how many units are available from which dis­tri­bu­tor — pre­cise and up to date. 

“Previously, we only had a rough color‑coded dis­play; now cus­to­mers see exact quan­ti­ties. That’s a real added value,” Agethen notes. 

“Especially hel­pful is the infor­ma­ti­on about inco­ming stock and expec­ted deli­very dates. This allows cus­to­mers to plan their orders more effec­tively, wit­hout unneces­sa­ry queries or long wai­ting times.” 

Successful scaling: Growth through optimized e-commerce processes 

After the rapid switch to ITscope, net­go first focu­sed on sta­bi­li­ty — and busi­ness con­tin­ued wit­hout inter­rup­ti­on. Soon it beca­me clear that the new solu­ti­on not only enab­led smooth ope­ra­ti­ons but also unlo­cked new growth potential. 

Throughout the year, net­go expan­ded its e‑commerce busi­ness and won new cus­to­mers for the cen­tral­hub. Platform usa­ge increased ste­adi­ly, with more orders pro­ces­sed month after month — under­li­ning the effi­ci­en­cy and appeal of the new setup. 

This deve­lo­p­ment shows that inves­t­ing in an API‑based pro­cu­re­ment solu­ti­on not only enab­led a smooth tran­si­ti­on but also ope­ned the door to long‑term opportunities. 

“The fle­xi­bi­li­ty we gai­ned through ITscope is pay­ing off — and this is just the begin­ning,” says Agethen. 

Everyone benefits from high‑demand features 

A stand­out fea­ture in the rede­si­gned por­tal is the Apple CTO Finder, which allows cus­to­mers to con­fi­gu­re cus­tom Apple devices direct­ly in the shop. 

“We didn’t ori­gi­nal­ly have this on our radar, but demand was huge. Our cus­to­mers use it inten­si­ve­ly — so we included it as well,” says Agethen. 

This is one of the key advan­ta­ges of ITscope: becau­se the plat­form is con­ti­nuous­ly enhan­ced, net­go auto­ma­ti­cal­ly bene­fits from every new func­tion — wit­hout addi­tio­nal effort. Improvements, new inte­gra­ti­ons, or opti­mi­zed inter­faces beco­me available automatically. 

“We don’t need to retro­fit any­thing or place spe­cial deve­lo­p­ment requests — ITscope evol­ves the plat­form, and we bene­fit,” says Agethen. This dyna­mic gives net­go con­fi­dence that their e‑commerce solu­ti­on will remain future‑proof. 

Conclusion: Modernize successfully without disrupting operations 

A system migration without compromises 

net­go has pro­ven that upgrading to a modern e‑commerce plat­form doesn’t requi­re com­plex tran­si­ti­ons or long migra­ti­on pha­ses. By inte­gra­ting ITscope via API, the switch was seam­less — wit­hout requi­ring end cus­to­mers to chan­ge their fami­li­ar workflows. 

“We didn’t just imple­ment a new solu­ti­on; we set up our sales envi­ron­ment for long-term sca­la­bi­li­ty,” says Agethen. 

API‑First: The foundation for flexible IT infrastructures 

Choosing an API‑based solu­ti­on pays off. Instead of rely­ing on a rigid plat­form that will even­tual­ly reach its limits, net­go stays fle­xi­ble and can con­ti­nue deve­lo­ping the cen­tral­hub. ITscope inte­gra­tes seam­less­ly into exis­ting IT eco­sys­tems and pro­vi­des com­pa­nies with a powerful foun­da­ti­on for effi­ci­ent digi­tal procurement. 

ITscope as a partner in digital transformation 

System inte­gra­tors loo­king to moder­ni­ze their digi­tal sales pro­ces­ses often face chal­lenges simi­lar to net­go: exis­ting struc­tures must remain int­act while pro­ces­ses beco­me more effi­ci­ent. ITscope pro­vi­des a solu­ti­on that can be tail­o­red indi­vi­du­al­ly — as a stan­da­lo­ne plat­form or ful­ly inte­gra­ted via API. 

With con­ti­nuous deve­lo­p­ment, auto­ma­tic updates, and strong dis­tri­bu­tor inte­gra­ti­on, ITscope offers the foun­da­ti­on for a future‑proof IT sales envi­ron­ment. For com­pa­nies see­king to moder­ni­ze pro­ces­ses wit­hout com­pro­mi­sing work­flows, this is a solu­ti­on that grows with their needs — just as it did for netgo. 

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