The Challenge

Lapp USA decided to implement an eCommerce site as all of their competitors had one but they did not. When Lapp USA decided to address the demand for B2B eCommerce ordering in the US, they initially looked at utilizing the same solution as their parent company in Germany. Because of ordering and business process discrepancies between the US and Germany, that solution was not going to work for Lapp USA. Instead, they began looking for a B2B ordering solution in the US, eventually deciding on Magento Commerce, part of Adobe Commerce Cloud.

Utilizing Magento would provide the Lapp USA team the ability to manage their own catalog and run their own website, which the alternate solution would not have accommodated.

The Solution

To provide Lapp with an eCommerce site that satisfied their unique business requirements, an SAP and Magento Integration was necessary. The success of this integration relied on the Briteskies team to: 

• Use experience and expertise to estimate the server settings since Lapp USA had never sold anything online before and there was no precedent for anticipated site traffic
• Implement a full global SAP integration between Magento and Lapp’s SAP system located in Germany
• Organize and rebuild catalog data within Excel so that it can be more easily loaded into Magento using URapidFlow
• Implement a multi-channel order history module that allows customers to easily reorder and gives the entire organization access to order data
• Incorporate Lapp’s pricing with Magento’s requirements by making Magento do multiple things at the same time: calculate a price per-thousand-feet as well as per foot, evaluate quantity breaks, and apply group pricing when necessary
• Use a CSV load process to load all addresses associated with an organization into Magento, allowing the front end user access to pricing, items and availability, and billing and shipping addresses that are specific to their organization

The Result

Thanks to the flexibility of the Lapp USA team, as well as Briteskies' methodical and organized approach to the project, this implementation went very smoothly.

Establishing a weekly status report, testing plan, training plan, and go-live checklist were crucial to the success of this integration.

Lapp Group now has a Magento eCommerce site that is seamlessly integrated with their parent company’s existing SAP system and is optimized to handle Lapp’s various cut charges, surcharges, and pricing specifications.

This new eCommerce site is now set to provide information that customers previously had to call into customer service to receive. Item price and availability, as well as order status, is now accessible online. Because Magento is now handling those inquiries, sales staff is free to sell instead of acting as order takers or customer service.

Key Project Benefits:

• Increased B2B ordering capabilities
• Integration with SAP
• Improved Admin functionality - can manage catalog and website content without IT involvement

In addition to all of these features, by leveraging Magento, the Lapp USA team can manage their catalog and website content themselves, which provides them the flexibility they need to continue providing great service to their customers.