Digital Transformation for Baird & Co.

We are delivering digital transformation for the largest gold refiner in the UK, rebuilding and modernising their trading platform.

Executive summary

Enhanced purchase and sales processes for clients and sales team via a visually appealing, user-friendly interface;
Delivered significant business value through process automation, improved platform efficiency, and real-time inventory visibility;
Streamlined order, customer, and compliance management with a unified interface accepting various payment types;
Empowered sales team with a centralised Backoffice application for efficient order, user, and sales process management;
Built a custom inventory management solution to simplify item tracking and reduce human error.

About the client

The client, Baird & Co. is a gold refiner and bullion merchant firm that trades and manufactures mining and precious metals. 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.

Location:

United Kingdom

Domain:

Digital Transformation, Trading

Content

01Challenges
02Team composition
03Our Solutions
04Value Delivered
05Clients Feedback

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 The platform was developed quite some time ago and is currently outdated and non-functional, necessitating a complete rebuild.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:

Rebuild and modernise the platform and move it to up-to-date technologies
Automate manual processes to optimise the resources of the sales team
Implement a custom, high-performance transaction engine to manage orders, products and payments
Create a new, enjoyable UI that aligns with the brand's identity while also giving it a fresh and modern look
Transaction engine should cover all current needs while also providing the necessary bandwidth for platform growth
Develop a real-time inventory management system with full traceability across multiple vaults
Design a new smooth and intuitive UX to improve customer experience
Enable users to make payments more conveniently and faster by integrating a banking solution
Build a working tool (Backoffice app) for the sales team to enable them to manage orders, users and sales processes in one place
Make integration with CMS (Content Management System) to streamline website content management

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

Daily team stand-ups
2 weeks sprints
Backlog grooming
Meetups
Status calls
Demos of developed functionality
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:

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.

The main components of the discovery phase were:

Comprehensive process analysis
Stakeholder consultations
Technology assessment
Regulatory compliance review
Risk analysis
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.

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.

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

Custom inventory management solution

We designed and delivered a fully custom inventory management system tailored to Baird & Co.’s manufacturing and trading operations. The platform provides real-time visibility of stock across multiple vaults, full traceability of item movements (including timing, source, and business context), and detailed audit-ready logs to support compliance. We streamlined order allocation and fulfillment by enabling teams to instantly assess item availability, production needs, and optimal sourcing. The system also includes asset evaluation tools, reconciliation capabilities via unique identifiers, and dedicated support for offline tracking processes - significantly reducing manual workload, operational risk, and human error while improving decision-making and scalability.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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;
Implemented a custom inventory management system providing full traceability across multiple vaults to minimise manual errors and improve tracking accuracy;
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;

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/

Client’s feedback

The most impressive thing is that they listen to the client and adapt their abilities with a passion and a desire to over-deliver.

Pavlo and the entire team at Deepinspire provide an environment that promotes an agile approach to development. An open forum where creative solutions are formed and quickly made real.

From my experience, perhaps the most impressive thing is that they listen to the client and adapt their abilities with a passion and a desire to over-deliver.

David O’Neill

Commercial Director, Baird & Co.

We modernised the operational backbone of Baird & Co., replacing outdated processes with reliable digital systems.

Case studiesView all