Hypercode Blog, Consulting, Page 2

At the end of last year, the CDU group on Bergheim town council brought us an idea from councillor Hermann-Josef Falterbaum: a digital platform where local businesses could offer their products and services. It would help them respond to the pandemic while building a lasting local alternative to major online retailers.

Together with Hermann-Josef Falterbaum and CDU council group leader Christian Karaschinski, we defined the requirements and assessed the platform’s technical feasibility and likely development and running costs. The idea is to combine a digital shop window with local information: a place to browse, discover and shop with Bergheim’s service providers, retailers, restaurants, tradespeople, artists and farm shops, and to take part in town life.

The media coverage shown above and linked below, along with positive feedback from local businesses and residents, shows an appetite for new digital approaches on both sides of the counter. Platforms like this can help businesses reduce their long-term dependence on major e-commerce and social media platforms such as Amazon and Facebook, and build digital business models of their own.

Stefan Grund, managing director of Hypercode GmbH, who advised on the project with his team, welcomes the initiative in his hometown:

The platform initiated by the CDU group on Bergheim town council will support local retail and could become a model for digital transformation. It can help businesses through the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 now, and become a popular, lively digital hub for Bergheim’s 60,000 residents in the future. As a local resident and digital entrepreneur, I’ll be following the project with great interest.

Hypercode GmbH is also supporting other digital projects that respond to the effects of the pandemic. In February, #SHAREYOURSHOW, a video platform for performing artists, launched under our technical direction. We’re currently planning a mobile app for a Cologne start-up tackling the pandemic’s impact on a particular industry.

Further reading and viewing:

• Article: “Bergheim: How Retailers Plan to Make Shopping Easier with a Digital Platform” by Niklas Pinner on ksta.de
• Video: WDR Lokalzeit aus Köln, 22 March, in the ARD Mediathek, from 12:30 (available until 27 March)
• Article: “Digital Platform for Local Businesses Gains Momentum” on cdu-bergheim.de

While many are still discussing how to address the pandemic’s impact on society and the economy, SANOSTRA GmbH für Showinszenierungen is showing how an industry can put digital ideas into practice:

The video platform lets performers share acrobatics, dance and creative sports with a wider audience, directly addressing the difficulties caused by lockdowns and restrictions on events.

A crowdfunded Community Award lets viewers vote for performers and support their favorites. A live-streamed event is also planned, with performances by the finalists followed by the award ceremony.

#SHAREYOURSHOW shows how innovation can continue through a crisis. Artists have already uploaded nearly a hundred high-quality performances, while audiences have cast votes and made donations thousands of times. And the platform is here to stay: once the pandemic is over — hopefully soon — #SHAREYOURSHOW will keep bringing the performing arts into people’s living rooms.

We handled the technical planning and backend and frontend development for the project, working closely with the SANOSTRA team and designer Oliver Schmidt from the start.

Together, we developed the concept through workshops, wireframes and user flows, then built the platform as a mobile-first web app. A Craft CMS-based system brings together registration, video uploads, streaming, voting and crowdfunding for the Community Award. In the frontend, Alpine.js provides lightweight interactions and an easy-to-use interface.

Explore similar platforms and tailored software solutions in our Web Apps & Product Configurators and Custom Software sections.