Digital Transformation for Baird & Co.

We are delivering digital transformation for the largest gold refiner in the UK, rebuilding and modernising their trading platform.
Digital Transformation for Baird and Co.
Executive summary
  • Enhanced sales and purchase processes for clients and sales team

    Enhanced sales and purchase processes for clients and sales team;

  • Delivered significant business value through process automation, platform efficiency improvements, and revenue generation

    Delivered significant business value through process automation, platform efficiency improvements, and revenue generation;

  • Streamlined order, customer, and compliance management with a unified interface accepting various payment types

    Streamlined order, customer, and compliance management with a unified interface accepting various payment types;

  • Simplified precious metal item purchases via a visually appealing, user-friendly interface

    Simplified precious metal item purchases via a visually appealing, user-friendly interface;

  • Empowered sales team with a centralised Backoffice application for efficient order, user, and sales process management

    Empowered sales team with a centralised Backoffice application for efficient order, user, and sales process management.

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About the client

The client, Baird & Co. is a gold and silver refiner, a bullion merchant, and a manufacturer of investment grade precious metal products. Established in 1967, Baird & Co. is the UK’s largest independent gold trader and the only full-service bullion merchant in the United Kingdom.

Baird & Co. manufactures and trades an array of bullion products for investors, provides guidance on investing in physical precious metals and has extensive manufacturing facilities producing a wide range of industrial and engineering products.

Baird & Co. is a member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA); the London Platinum & Palladium Market (LPPM) and is a winner of a Queen’s Award for International Trade 2018.

About client
Location:
United Kingdom
Domain:
Digital Transformation,
Trading

Content

Challenges 2

Challenges

The client approached DeepInspire with an existing platform for precious metals trading. The platform was developed quite some time ago and is currently outdated and non-functional, necessitating a complete rebuild.

The main client's goal is to rebuild and modernise their platform and improve customer experience. Let's explore the challenges in more detail:

  • Challenges icon 1

    Rebuild and modernise the platform and move it to up-to-date technologies

  • Challenges icon 2

    Automate manual processes to optimise the resources of the sales team

  • Challenges icon 3

    Implement a custom, high-performance transaction engine to manage orders, products and payments

  • Challenges icon 4

    Create a new, enjoyable UI that aligns with the brand's identity while also giving it a fresh and modern look

  • Challenges icon 5

    Transaction engine should cover all current needs while also providing the necessary bandwidth for platform growth

  • Challenges icon 6

    Make integration with CMS (Content Management System) to streamline website content management

  • Challenges icon 7

    Design a new smooth and intuitive UX to improve customer experience

  • Challenges icon 8

    Enable users to make payments more conveniently and faster by integrating a banking solution

  • Challenges icon 9

    Build a working tool (Backoffice app) for the sales team to enable them to manage orders, users and sales processes in one place

  • Challenges icon 10

    Apply effective SEO methods to boost website traffic and enhance online visibility.

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Team composition
& approach

We built a dedicated team of DeepInspire experts, working hand in hand to ensure efficient delivery. The dedicated team is involved in the project full-time and has a deep understanding of the project and business goals.

In general, 8 specialists are involved in the project (the project is currently ongoing).

Experts:

  • Project Manager / Product Owner

  • UX Architect

  • Front-end lead

  • UI Designer

  • Front-end developer

  • QA Engineer

  • Back-end Developer

  • DevOps Engineer

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  • Daily team stand-ups

  • 2 weeks sprints

  • Backlog grooming

  • Meetups

  • Demos of developed functionality

  • Status calls

  • Catch-up calls

Our solutions

Our primary goal is to deliver a comprehensive enterprise-grade digital transformation across different aspects of the company's operations.

Collaborative discussions with stakeholders at Baird & Co. were crucial for getting a complete understanding of their business needs and challenges. These consultations helped us align stakeholders' expectations and the proposed digital transformation initiatives.

We decided to create a business tool that enables multiple entities to accept various payment types through a single, user-friendly interface. The goal is to make managing orders, customers, and compliance easier and more streamlined. Essentially, the system must effectively guide and facilitate both online and offline aspects of the business.

Let’s take a closer look at our solutions:
01
Discovery Phase

The discovery phase served as the bedrock for Baird & Co.'s digital transformation journey. It gave us a deep look into their processes, showing what was working and what needed improvement. This phase was crucial for us and our client to understand the challenges and opportunities in modernising their trading platform.

During the discovery phase, we dug deep into our client's operations to understand how they currently worked and what needed to change, what was working well and what needed fixing. This involved careful analysis, team discussions, and detailed evaluations to pinpoint areas that could be improved.

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The main components of the discovery phase were:
  • Comprehensive process analysis

    Comprehensive process analysis

  • Stakeholder consultations

    Stakeholder consultations

  • Technology assessment

    Technology assessment

  • Regulatory compliance review

    Regulatory compliance review

  • Risk analysis

    Risk analysis

  • Requirement prioritisation

    Requirement prioritisation

This phase was all about setting the stage for success – aligning our team, planning our journey, and laying the groundwork for a technically sound and visually appealing solution.
02
Transaction engine development and implementation

Working on the product and analysing client requirements, the DeepInspire team came up with the implementation of a scalable high-performance transaction engine that covers all current needs and gives bandwidth for platform growth.

The new transaction engine is the system's backbone, handling orders, transactions, payments, and user balances. It's an up-to-date solution that seamlessly connects to the existing in-house application, giving the new core access to data objects and making the system faster and simpler.

We implemented the transaction engine into Baird & Co.'s trading platform, replacing legacy systems and covering all current needs, while also establishing a robust foundation for future growth.

03
Business processes automation

With automation being a central pillar of the digital transformation initiative, the implementation phase focused on the seamless rollout of automated processes. Our primary goal was to streamline operations, increase efficiency, reduce errors, and free up resources for more value-added tasks.

We identified key processes ripe for automation, designed efficient workflows, developed automation solutions and integrated them into the existing infrastructure. Also, we've conducted training sessions to familiarise Baird & Co.'s team with the new automated workflows, ensuring smooth adoption and maximising efficiency gains.

04
UI/UX Design

We significantly empowered the experience and design concept for the client's trading platform and designed the Backoffice part from scratch.

The streamlining of the client side included creating new responsive designs, adding new content structures, and creating logical user flows for new user experiences. We managed to provide a high performance of UI and a new look and feel for end users. It keeps purchasing and delivery of precious items simple and intuitive.

For the Backoffice side, our UX experts conducted a deep analysis and validation of the client’s needs and designed UX architecture that covers all required flows. Additionally, the UX team built a clickable prototype for a better understanding of the designed solution at the early stages of development.

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Before and After
05
Integration with Barclays

We integrated the Baird & Co. platform with Barclays banking solution to streamline payment processes, reduce transaction times and provide a more efficient trading experience for users. It extends the platform's reach, services, and overall competitiveness in the market.

It is also worth adding that partnering with a reputable banking institution like Barclays enhances the trading platform's credibility. Users are likely to trust and choose a platform integrated with a well-established financial entity.

06
Backoffice Development

Considering a high need for an additional working tool for the sales team, DeepInspire built a Backoffice application that allows managing orders, users and sales processes in one place.

We handled the different user, sales and operational cases while emphasising the security of data and its clear visualisation. Also, the Backoffice app covers compliance, simplifying the process of allowing users to operate with high-value purchases.

We detected the most trigger parts of the sales process, took into account the needs of existing customers, handled usual and edge cases, and, at the end of the day, received a solution combining smart automation and adaptability for each rare case.

07
Website Content Management

To streamline website content management, we integrated strapi.io - the leading open-source headless CMS (Content Management System).Using a headless CMS enhances flexibility, allows for faster development and deployment, ensures adaptability, and supports a more integrated user experience in e-commerce platform development. Also, it future-proofs the platform. As technology evolves, you can easily adapt and incorporate new features without having to overhaul the entire system.

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Deliverables

We helped the client to rebuild and modernise their trading platform and significantly improve customer experience.

The result is not just a refined trading platform but a comprehensive digital transformation that aligns with contemporary market expectations.

Let's take a detailed look at the business value we delivered:
  • Successfully developed two collaborative applications to enhance sales and purchase processes for both clients and the sales team;
  • Delivered significant business value by automating processes, improving platform efficiency, and transforming it into a revenue-generating tool;
  • Delivered a business tool that accepts various payment types for different entities through a unified interface, streamlining the control and management of orders, customers, and compliance;
  • Allowed the clients to seamlessly purchase precious metal items through a new visually appealing and user-friendly interface featuring significantly improved flows for item selection, purchase, and delivery;
  • Empowered the sales team with a centralised platform (Backoffice application) to efficiently manage orders, users and sales processes in one place;
  • Provided the client with fundamental SEO and marketing tracking tools for their website.
If you're curious to explore our solutions firsthand (and maybe even grab a bit of gold 😉), we'd love to welcome you to the official Baird & Co. website: https://bairdmint.com/
Deliverables
Deliverables people
We helped the client to rebuild and modernise their trading platform and transform it into a revenue-generating tool.

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DeepInspire turns 25!

A quarter-century of getting things done right.

25 years of rolling up our sleeves and solving real-world problems.

A heartfelt thank you to our team, clients, and partners for being part of this story!

The journey continues!