A syreta success story with Diakoniewerk Austria

An online shop that does justice to its products

For more than 145 years, Diakoniewerk has been making an important contribution in the social and healthcare sector and sees itself as a partner for people in different life situations - for people with disabilities, for older people, and for children and young people. In 20 workshops and four food-service operations, people who do not have it so easy in the labor market contribute their skills and experience and, with great joy and enthusiasm, produce one-of-a-kind items of the highest quality. The products made range from decorative items to clothing and sustainably produced foods.

For the optimal online distribution of these lovingly made products, Diakoniewerk brought syreta on board as a partner. After a few preliminary talks, the collaboration between Diakoniewerk and syreta was finally sealed in 2021 with the go-live of the relaunched web shop.

During development, special attention was paid to simplifying order processing and ensuring a seamless connection between the systems.

With the features implemented by syreta and custom-programmed interfaces, an optimal environment was created for selling the handcrafted products, and internal processes were massively simplified and shortened.

E-commerce with social added value

What sets the Diakoniewerk project apart from many other web shop projects is the context: behind every product sold there is not an anonymous supply chain, but the work of people who often have few opportunities in the regular labor market. Decorative items, clothing, sustainable foods – all handmade in 20 workshops and four food-service operations, with a standard of quality that speaks for itself.

For syreta, this was a special task: to build a web shop that does justice to these products – that tells their story, builds trust, and makes the purchasing process so smooth that the focus remains on the product and its origin.

System integration as the key to efficiency

A web shop alone does not solve internal problems. What mattered in this project was the seamless connection of the systems involved: orders received online must flow into Diakoniewerk’s internal processes without manual intermediate steps. Custom-developed interfaces ensure that exactly that works – reliably and automated.

The result: less administrative effort, shorter lead times, and a platform that remains stable even as order volumes grow. Especially for an organization like Diakoniewerk, whose core competence lies in the social and craft sectors and not in IT, this is a decisive advantage.

Growth through trust: from shop to partnership

The collaboration between syreta and Diakoniewerk began in 2021 with the relaunch of the web shop – and has been continuously developed ever since. In 2023, the nursery shop followed as a standalone expansion: another digital sales channel for products from the workshops’ green sector.

This shows how sustainable customer projects work: not as a one-off implementation, but as an ongoing partnership that grows with the customer’s requirements. Diakoniewerk is now one of syreta’s long-standing customers – and the video, which lets those responsible speak for themselves, provides an authentic insight into what has been created.

To present this flagship project, we have now brought the main people responsible at Diakoniewerk in front of the camera and asked them to tell us more about the successful implementation. Roll film!