Dual IBM i Integration: Global Manufacturer Migrates to Adobe Commerce for DTC Sales Growth

The Challenge

Despite being a leader in the industry, Broan-NuTone found that its brand recognition was low among homeowners. They are a well-respected brand among contractors and developers, and many homes have a Broan-NuTone product in them, but homeowners are not as familiar with the brand.

Alongside their low brand recognition, Broan-NuTone had lower sales across all channels than they wanted. They wanted to target the homeowner market via eCommerce, but their many existing sites were built on Kentico, a content management system.

The best way to increase brand recognition and online sales was to move the Broan-NuTone sites from a platform focused on content to a platform focused on sales.

For the Briteskies team, the main challenge was Broan-NuTone's multiple ERPs. Broan-NuTone has two different IBM i environments: one for the United States and one for Canada. One ERP runs COBOL, the other runs RPG. With Adobe Commerce solidified as the eCommerce platform of choice, our team's solution revolved around integrating Adobe Commerce with both ERPs.

The Solution

Briteskies implemented Adobe Commerce and created a custom theme for the shop.broan-nutone.com eCommerce site. The foundational success lay in the seamless integration of the modern commerce platform with Broan-NuTone's two distinct IBM i-based ERPs: ASI for the United States and MacPac for Canada, using FTP to manage data transfer.

We began by importing existing product data and structuring it for the new platform's logic. Crucially, the solution involved the appropriate setup of language-specific sites and geo-targeting using Broan-NuTone's established URL structure: shop.broan-nutone.com/ for US English, shop.broan-nutone.com/en-ca/ for Canadian English, and shop.broan-nutone.com/fr-ca/ for Canadian French. This multi-site and multi-language capability was essential for expanding brand recognition and delivering a consistent, localized experience to homeowners across both countries.

The Result

The Broan-NuTone team's main concern for this project was working with a team that had both Adobe Commerce and IBM i experience. Because their two IBM i-based ERPs hold all of their historical business data, leveraging those systems as-is was non-negotiable. Although our team had heard of these two ERPs, MacPac and ASI, we had not worked with them before. However, our IBM i knowledge meant we were easily able to establish a solid integration between Broan-NuTone's ERPs and their new Adobe Commerce site.

Due to Broan-NuTone's firm deadline, the scope of this project had to be kept relatively tight. This allowed us to hit their deadline while still delivering a fully integrated, custom themed B2C Adobe Commerce site. Leveraging Adobe Commerce has allowed Broan-NuTone to reach new customers, provide a user-friendly eCommerce experience, and grow their brand recognition among homeowners.

Broan-NuTone has signed a managed services contract with our team to continue making improvements to their sites. This project focused on shop.broan-nutone.com, their finished goods site. Moving forward, our team will work with Broan-NuTone to migrate their replacement parts site, parts.broan-nutone.com, and their main broan-nutone.com site to Adobe Commerce as well.

How We Did It

• Implement Adobe Commerce and create a custom theme for the shop.broan-nutone.com eCommerce site 
• Import existing product data 
• Integrate Adobe Commerce with Broan-NuTone's two IBM i-based ERPs, ASI for the United States and MacPac for Canada, using FTP  
• Appropriately set up language-specific sites using Broan-NuTone's established URL structure: 
  • shop.broan-nutone.com/ for US English
  • shop.broan-nutone.com/en-ca/ for Canadian English
  • shop.broan-nutone.com/fr-ca/ for Canadian French