A formula to drive change

Brenntag owns 500 warehouses worldwide which are used to store and distribute chemical products. Though the company is forward-thinking and guarantees safe and sustainable operations, it still largely operates like a traditional B2B company – with many orders made via telephone and e-mail. DigiB launched in Amsterdam in 2017 after Brenntag met with strategic consultant Roland Berger. The corporate start-up was founded to stand apart from its parent company and act as a platform for working on new design innovations as well as allow Brenntag to be more efficient and prioritise their customers’ experience.

As DEPT®, we came on board to facilitate Brenntag with the design and development of new platforms, Brenntag Source and Brenntag Connect. Brenntag Source is an innovative tool that helps to boost the company’s internal efficiency by ensuring that data can be easily shared across the company’s offices in 72 countries. Each branch operates as a standalone business, so Brenntag Source allows them to retain a local presence within each market and enables Brenntag to use its purchasing power more effectively to reduce spend. It’s a relatively simple innovation, but it illustrates perfectly the incredible potential digital transformation offers.

Brenntag Connect, on the other hand, is a customer-facing platform providing consumers with the option to order products digitally with access to individual documentation, historic purchasing data and other self-service components. And since its launch six months ago, Brenntag Connect has received over 1,800 customer registrations and is due to launch in America and Asia in Q1 2020.