Blago Group introduced ETP based on the Agora platform according to the MVP concept

2025: Electronic Marketplace Implementation

In March 2025, the Blago group of companies shared with TAdviser the results of a project for the development and implementation of an electronic trading platform (ETP) in the group. The project was implemented jointly with AGORA, which provided the Blago group with its B2C and B2B platform, on the basis of which the ETP was created. In general, the implementation of ETP made it possible to automate and optimize procurement processes, which is extremely important in the context of high market volatility.

Prerequisites

As shared in Blago, the group of companies is actively working to improve internal processes: the company has its own IT division, whose specialists have high expertise in the development and implementation of IT solutions. These solutions are created both by teams and by external contractors, which allows the company to flexibly approach its tasks.

The optimization of the procurement procedure began with the creation of a unique Tender document in 1C ERP, which is not in the standard package. This development made it possible to record the proposals of suppliers within one document, analyze the proposals, coordinate the selected winners and control the collateral according to the agreed conditions (price, quantity, etc.).

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Фото: Blago Group of Companies

The refinement made the procurement process more transparent, convenient and controlled, but also revealed new growth points. First, most of the data was manually entered by company employees from vendor quotations, which could lead to transfer errors or falsification of data. Secondly, the participation of suppliers in "tenders" was limited: they could join only by invitation and did not have access to the current needs of the company without prior communication with the manager.

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Фото: Blago Group of Companies

For these reasons, it was decided to integrate 1C ERP with the electronic trading platform: there was a choice between entering existing trading platforms or creating your own. The company chose the second option, since the creation of its own platform ensured the maximum adaptation of the platform for business processes companies and seamless integration with the existing 1C ecosystem.

Tasks

Having studied the platform market for creating ETPs, Blago Group decided to introduce an electronic trading platform based on the AGORA platform according to the MVP concept. This IT solution has a ready-made basic functionality that provides a quick launch of the project and easy testing of business hypotheses. The peculiarity is that the ETP can be scaled by adding functional modules as needed.

The project objectives were as follows:

• quickly launch ETP with functionality for effective trading management and capacity expansion in the future;
• Integrate the site with the 1C enterprise ecosystem to ensure single-window operation
• finalize and expand the platform functionality with such modules as supplier rating, supplier accreditation with integration into 1C DOs, as well as integration with external aggregators;

Key functions

The AGORA vendor and integrator adapted the basic ETP functionality to the requirements of Blago by introducing a set of solutions:

• Site Home Page. After authorization of the user, the following functions are available in the personal account according to the trading list on the main page of the system:
  • search string with filter for purchase search by product/service name, industry, region;
  • list of current purchases with indication of category, date of publication, deadline for acceptance of proposals.

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Фото: Blago Group of Companies

• Step-by-step vendor registration. The functionality involves the entry of basic data (name of the organization, TIN, full name, contacts), after which the user gets access to all active purchases, can form and send proposals.
• Vendor accreditation and integration with 1C. This procedure is necessary for full participation in the auction. The ETP functionality allows the supplier to complete the accreditation form and pass the verification for compliance with the internal requirements of the customer to participate in the auction. The data at the supplier's accreditation is transmitted by integration into 1C company "Blago." To synchronize the statuses, the ETP queries the current data from 1C every 60 seconds.

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Фото: Blago Group of Companies

• E-mail mailings and push notifications. The functionality of the site allows:
  • Send purchase invitations to vendors using off-the-shelf templates or creating personalized ones. There is a function for creating a list of recipients and setting the time when the distribution is sent.
  • Automatically send notifications about new purchases and tender results to suppliers via e-mail and web-push messages.

• FAQ. The boxed version was supplemented with this section to make it easier for users to access important information. The administrator can replenish it from the admin panel.
• Clarification requests. This option allows you to communicate through online chat with the employee responsible for bargaining of the Blago Group of Companies in order to quickly get answers to all questions arising during the tender: on the required characteristics of the product, delivery conditions, etc.
• Creation of tender. The functionality allows you to initiate a trading procedure on the ETP directly from 1C ERP in its interface. To do this, Blago employees fill in all the necessary information about the trade in 1C (general information about the procurement procedure, conditions, payment schedule, delivery dates) and synchronize with the site. You can also attach the documentation for the procedure directly to ERP.

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Фото: Blago Group of Companies

• Bid submission and winner review. To participate in the auction, the supplier only needs to pass a simple registration on the site, but if he is chosen as the winner, then he will need to pass a security check - accreditation. To submit a bid, the supplier must manually fill out a form on the site in which information about the goods, quantity, price, transaction currency is entered. This approach makes bidding for suppliers easy, but at the same time allows you to initially form an idea of ​ ​ a potential supplier.

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Фото: Blago Group of Companies

Integration

As part of the project, integration with configurations 1C ERP and Workflow were implemented through the AGORA platform bus. Thanks to this, the process of publishing and considering supplier rates takes place in the document "Tender" developed by the employees of the IT division in 1C ERP. First, the responsible manager creates a draft document in 1C ERP. Further, having received a certain status, the tender document through integration is published on ETP, where it can be seen by potential suppliers. At the end of the collection of proposals for ETP through integration, information about all rates is returned to 1C ERP, where the internal approval process takes place. After checking and selecting the winner in ERP, information through integration is returned to the site and all participants are notified of the completion of the procedure, the winner is sent a letter with instructions on further actions.

Similarly, the process of accreditation of the supplier takes place: already at the stage of submitting an application to the tender, the counterparty can provide all the necessary documents that are loaded into 1C DO through integration, where the counterparties are internally approved. In case of any questions or unreliability of the documents provided, a request may be sent from DO from Blago to the counterparty, which through integration will be published in the accreditation card at the site.

Thus, one of the key results of the project was that for the company's employees the internal processes have not changed, they also continue to work in their usual interfaces, but thanks to integration, the "front" of their actions is ETP on the AGORA platform.

Implementation results

Effects that were noted immediately after site launch:

• The transparency of procurement operations at each stage has increased, which has a positive effect on interaction with suppliers.
• Due to integration, the human factor of erroneous (not reliable) data is excluded when transferring supplier rates to documents. 1C ERP
• Due to the free participation and openness of procedures, the number of suppliers participating in the auction has increased, which increases competition and leads to a decrease in prices for purchased goods and services.
• Due to the automation of procurement processes, the time for collecting supplier proposals has been reduced.

The implemented functionality is just the MVP of a large project for the digitalization of procurement in the Blago Group of Companies, and we are not going to stop there: in the near future there are technical improvements to the site, the creation of a procedure for conducting logistics tenders, the creation of an SRM system and much more. noted in the Blago Group of Companies