Puratos launches Virtual Innovation Center
27 Sep 2017 --- Puratos has launched a Virtual Innovation Center to support their customers in bakery, patisserie and chocolate in creating the best-finished goods, offering know-how 24/7. The Belgian-headquartered company is an international supplier to artisans, industry, retailers and foodservice customers in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors.
As an innovator within the bakery, patisserie and chocolate industry, with the Virtual Innovation Center Puratos expands its services from the existing 81 physical Innovation Centers with 463 experts around the world. No matter where the customer is based, this new platform provides resources and expertise that can help make their business even more successful.
“Innovation is at the heart of our business. This is reflected not only in the quality of our products but also in the innovation of our services,” says Daniel Malcorps, CEO of Puratos.
“With our Virtual Innovation Center, we are proud to offer a service based on state-of-the-art technologies while at the same time keeping the human contact with our experts which no technology can replace.”
The Virtual Innovation Center can provide customers with one-on-one assistance on every aspect of product development.
The support features:
• Live Chat sessions with international and local technical advisors who can provide personalized solutions to customers’ challenges.
• A schedule for the live chat sessions is available here.
• A Virtual Advisor offering customers 24/7 advice on their finished goods.
• A Recipe Database (180+) where customers can find the inspiration to create tomorrow’s recipes.
In addition to these features, the Puratos 360° virtual tour brings the physical Innovation Center directly to the customers’ work space. A virtual walkthrough allows them to explore the center and discover some of the available services of Puratos without having to travel to the location. “We want to help our customers to create the products and solutions that allow their business to become even more successful. The Virtual Innovation Center is instrumental in making this happen 24/7 from anywhere in the world,” says Philippe Arnauts, Group Communication Manager.
The Puratos Virtual Innovation Center can be viewed online here: www.puratos.com/virtual
Philippe Arnauts explains the rationale to FoodIngredientsFirst: “The Virtual Innovation Center provides artisans with one-on-one assistance on every aspect of product development. First of all, when artisans want to create a new finished good they can find inspiration through the Virtual Innovation Center where they can access a database of over 180 recipes.”
“Secondly, while working on a new recipe, problems might occur. In that case, it’s possible to live chat with our expert technical advisors available through the Virtual Innovation Center. They are there to help them solve all challenges they might encounter such as taste, texture, crunchiness, looks etc. If there is no chef available, the visitor will be able to ask the Virtual Advisor for support,” Arnauts explains.
“This Virtual Advisor is a chatbot that is live 24/7 and can get answers to issues one may experience while creating bakery, patisserie or chocolate items. The visitor needs to let the Virtual Advisor know which finished good they’re working on and what problems they encounter. He will give them several suggestions to help.”
“Finally – we believe these digital tools can provide additional support, but of course we also keep our physical centers at the disposal of our customers. There, they can get training, tasting sessions, concept development and other support. It’s the combination of digital technologies with real, human contact that creates the most added value for our customers,” Arnauts concludes.
