McomTech is a Swiss-based Startup providing mcom, a WhatsApp order-taking platform. McomTech is increasing its efforts and aiming to gain more customers in Europe. While the company started out with a first project in Nigeria, there is a need for a better understanding of the business processes of order-taking as part of the sales process of traditional B2B companies in Europe. However, leveraging WhatsApp is a must with over 83% of Swiss internet users aged 16 to 64 using WhatsApp every month, and using it more more to communicate for business purposes and to place orders.

A literature review provided insights into the issues of technology adoption, the importance of strong customer relationships and how social media can improve customer satisfaction. These learnings were combined into a conceptual model from which the interviews were designed and conducted. Data were collected in a mix of interviews with different companies in the food and beverage, construction, and agriculture industries (n=11) and two proofs of concepts. Additionally, existing customers from McomTech were analyzed to understand the underlying characteristics of successful cases better.

The interviews provided insights into different companies' current order-taking and communication processes. The results showed that many wholesale companies still rely on the phone and that many customers prefer a direct and easy-to-use communication channel. They confirmed the low e-commerce adoption and the issues around task-technology fit. Many companies explain the importance of the relationship with the customers and the importance of their ERP systems in the order-to-cash process. Another interesting insight from the interviews was the generational change that can be observed in all industries. The younger generation is taking over ordering responsibilities and looking for digital solutions. The analysis of the existing customers of McomTech showed the importance of the following company characteristics: Order frequency, order complexity and amounts of products ordered during an order. Additionally, personas for potential customers were defined with their main point points around an untraceable order-taking process, a high amount of human errors during data entry and limited scalability without the investment into new digital channels.