Opportunet.net, a website dedicated to business transfers in the Grand Est region

Opportunet.net

The website opportunet.net is a platform designed for business owners wishing to sell their company and for business buyers. This platform publishes business sale offers.

Objectives of the Redesign

The redesign of the Opportunet site has several objectives: 

• The necessary technical upgrade from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9;
• Providing a UX and UI experience that meets current standards, with an emphasis on the mobile experience;
• Improving the platform’s accessibility level;
• Offering an enhanced experience for account creation and posting ads.

This site allows:

• Publishing business sale ads, either directly by the seller or via the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) or a third-party advertiser (specialist transfer/sale advisory firm) if the seller wants to keep the transaction confidential.
• Buyers to browse ads, request to be connected, and save search criteria to receive alerts.

The site features listings located in Alsace, Lorraine and Champagne-Ardennes.

Scope of the Redesign

The redesign project for the Opportunet site involved: 

• The phase of detailed functional and technical specifications;
• A UX design phase;
• The UI design phase, including creative direction, which was kept distinct from the CCI guidelines;
• The technical development of the platform using Drupal 9;
• Frontend theming via a blank theme atomically integrated with Storybook;
• Development of connectors for sharing ads and retrieving information from registered users;
• Migrating content, in particular all the ads;
• SEO and performance optimization;
• Deployment and maintenance.

UX Approach and Interfaces

The main focus of the UX design effort was the journeys of sellers and buyers, the site’s main user groups. We conducted, with the CCI Grand Est project team, workshops on:

• Defining proto-personas;
• Designing the main user flows; 
• Design studios for wireframing the site’s full set of prototypes;
• User testing, including implementing feedback.

The UI team, while required to keep and modernize the logo, chose to completely redo the UI guidelines, prioritizing the platform’s necessary efficiency. The use of impactful iconography aims to help users identify the platform, especially due to the lack of a strong brand. We also chose not to weigh down the site with flat photography, as it often undermines page load performance.

Functional Architecture

Opportunet is made up of four main modules: ad management, the client area, an events module, and a statistics module.

The “Ads” module allows sellers to post their sale ads. It covers: 

• Posting sale ads;
• Searching for and browsing sale ads;
• Notification workflows for advertisers and site administrators;
• A “basket” or “favorites” feature so buyers can select ads of interest.

The “Client Area” module allows sellers to manage their offers and buyers to find their favorites, namely: 

• Create an account;
• Access their account to edit login information and password;
• Manage their ads (for advertisers);
• Find their “favorite” ads (for buyers);
• Find “saved searches.”

The creation of an “events” module interfaced with CCI France’s Webfactory and the BPI’s Pacte Transmission portal: 
This module retrieves event information from the CCI Grand Est Drupal sites and displays them on the Opportunet platform.

The statistics module extends the collected data (compiled in a technical view and available for download):

• Number of sellers;
• Number of ads (filtered by CCI or department);
• Number of buyer account creations;
• Number of seller account creations;
• Number of ads online;
• Number of connection requests;
• Number of businesses sold;
• Number of businesses sold via Opportunet;
• Average transaction amount.

Archiving and resuming publication workflows
An ad archiving system is provided to keep a copy of ads deleted by CCI advisors during periodic cleanups. The workflows themselves have been completely rebuilt and are configured with the content moderation module.

Technical Architecture

The site runs on a classic monolithic instance of Drupal 9. The theme uses Emulsify, which allows for the use of components from Storybook and Webpack. Additionally, we developed 11 custom modules to meet specific functional needs (statistics, ad export, saved search favorites or migration of favorites from the old site) as well as to connect the site to the services listed below.

Connectors

• With GRC Grand Est for user accounts.
• With BPI France for the ads – The ads are automatically published on the French Public Investment Bank’s website – https://reprise-entreprise.bpifrance.fr. A standardized XML feed is generated when ads are published and sent to the BPI site, which consumes it and displays the business takeover ads.
• With the Territorial CCI Webfactory sites for events as well as with the new portal developed as part of the Pacte Transmission.

Performance

Special care was taken with the site’s rendering performance, in addition to Drupal’s internal caching. We didn’t need to configure Varnish since the results already met the project’s requirements, though we remain in a monitoring phase.

Result

Initially scheduled for late May 2022, the site was completed and tested in July, and finally went live in October.
It appears to have been very well received by the public.

Go-live: October 6, 2022.
URL: https://www.opportunet.net/

Client Testimonial – Daniel FOEHRENBACHER, Digital Project Manager, CCI Grand Est: 
“We undertook the redesign of the Opportunet site with the Bluedrop teams and we are truly very satisfied with the final result.
From the start of the project, we have worked closely with the agency staff who knew how to listen to us, understand our needs, and propose solutions to improve the site and the user experience.
This true partnership that developed throughout the project allowed us to avoid many pitfalls and achieve a result that meets our expectations.
Thank you again to the Bluedrop teams for their professionalism and responsiveness.
...and go OM! Peuchère!!!”