A B2B customer portal: what it should include

A portal for B2B customers moves to self-service the work that currently eats managers' time: reorders, status checks, requests for invoices and statements, account reconciliation. The key differences from B2C are customer-specific prices and terms, several customer employees with different permissions and deep integration with the back-office system.

Here are the features with the biggest return, how to set up roles, which integrations are needed and how to launch in stages.

Why does a B2B company need a customer portal?

A portal lets customers handle routine operations themselves at any time, while managers focus on relationships and new sales. For suppliers with hundreds of regular customers this saves real time and reduces errors from manual order entry.

What a portal gives you:

• self-service — orders, documents and statuses without calling or emailing a manager;
• fewer errors — customers choose from the current catalogue at current prices;
• more repeat orders — repeating a past purchase takes a couple of clicks;
• transparency — order, payment and balance history in one place;
• data — you see what each customer buys and how often.

How to calculate the effect: business process automation ROI.

Which features come first?

First come the features that cover customers' most frequent requests to managers. Usually that means orders, documents and statuses, not sophisticated analytics.

Feature	What it does	Priority
Catalogue with customer prices	Shows a specific customer's prices and terms	High
Quick order and reorder	Order by SKU, from a file or from a past purchase	High
Order and shipment status	Where the order is and when it will arrive	High
Documents	Invoices, statements, delivery notes to download	High
Account balance	Outstanding amount, credit limit, payment terms	Medium
Order approval	A manager approves an employee's order	Medium
Purchase analytics	Volumes and trends by category	Low at launch

Photo: Unsplash

How do you handle roles and permissions inside a customer company?

In B2B several customer employees use the portal: a buyer, an accountant, a manager. Each has their own tasks and rights, and large customers may have several legal entities and delivery addresses.

A typical model:

1. Customer company — one or more legal entities with their details, contracts and terms.
2. Users — customer employees invited by the company's administrator.
3. Roles — buyers create orders, accountants see documents and payments, managers approve.
4. Restrictions — an order amount limit without approval, access to specific addresses and warehouses.
5. Activity log — who created or changed an order and when.

Permissions are checked on the server for every request, or an employee of one company might see another's data. More on data isolation in multi-tenancy in SaaS.

Which integrations are needed?

Without integration with the back-office system the portal becomes yet another place where data diverges. Prices, stock, documents and statuses come from the back office, and orders flow into it automatically.

• ERP or accounting system — prices, stock, orders, shipments, documents, balances;
• CRM — customer record, account manager, communication history;
• electronic document exchange — signed documents;
• warehouse and delivery — statuses and tracking.

More on approaches in 1C and CRM integration.

How do you launch a portal in stages?

Launch a small first version with a few loyal customers, gather feedback and only then onboard the rest. Value arrives sooner and there is less risk of building features nobody uses.

• first version: catalogue with customer prices, ordering, statuses and documents;
• a pilot with 5–10 customers and active involvement from managers;
• then approvals, account balances and order upload from files;
• analytics and recommendations once data has accumulated.

On approaching a first version, see MVP development cost and discovery phase.

In short

• A B2B portal moves orders, statuses and documents to self-service.
• The differences from B2C are customer-specific prices, several customer employees and back-office integration.
• Start with features that cover the most frequent requests to managers.
• Roles and permissions are checked on the server; company data is strictly isolated.
• Launch a first version with pilot customers and evolve it on feedback.