Efficient and fast B2B/B2C platform for an international brand

Fast White Cat / Case studies / Efficient and fast B2B/B2C platform for an international brand

What was our task?

Our client, a brand that is part of a large group of food companies, contacted us because he was looking for a new business partner who would maintain the company’s sales platform and integrate with SAP. The existing large international service provider did not meet expectations, both in terms of content and communication. The platform had several websites in different languages serving two markets – Swedish and Danish.

How did we approach this task?

Knowing that our Partner’s store did not operate at a satisfactory level, we had to start with an audit, which showed that the platform had been neglected by the previous supplier in terms of technology. The audit helped us assess which elements should be improved before we decide to move to integration with SAP. Work on this project was quite complicated due to the fact that we had no documentation of previously performed activities because the previous service provider did not leave any documentation.
We presented the audit results to our Partner and together we decided which elements we needed to perform and in what order – we started with those that we treated as highly risky. Additionally, we drew attention to an important aspect – the low quality of the code and the lack of good practices that we found on the platform.

How did we accomplish this task?

Part 1 – good practices

We updated Magento from version 2.3.4 to the latest version (2.4.4 at that time) and verified the changes and removed errors that hindered the proper operation of the platform (including incorrect indexer configuration, which caused unstable operation of the store, and cache configuration, which slowed down page loading). . We also recommended changing the infrastructure.
We carefully analyzed the code and eliminated those elements that were closely related to the existence of specific websites, because the previous code was closed to development and inheritance in websites. The code created by the previous service provider did not meet the principles of good practice and was poorly readable in some places, so we corrected it.
We removed modules that were unnecessary and caused chaos in the backend. We also got rid of incorrectly overwritten files that increased the risk of the store not working properly.
We took care of the security of the platform by installing all the necessary security patches.
We made a lot of changes on the frontend to take care of the UX of the platform, which so far did not meet market requirements. In many places, there were no translations suitable for a given language mask, which we also took care of. There was also a lack of standardization of the store. The previous supplier created code for a specific website, so the user experience on other websites left much to be desired.

Part 2 – integration with SAP

We designed the integration from the Magento side – we approached this task without the documentation we needed, which the previous supplier did not leave, even though the task required us to build integration with SAP, based on the processes that were used in the integration with Navision, i.e. the one that existed earlier. However, our experience allowed us to estimate the work and meet the requirements.
Since the client’s infrastructure is not located on our premises, we had to implement a custom solution that uses native Magento solutions to ensure that orders reach SAP. The client’s infrastructure did not allow for the necessary updates to use RabbitMQ.
We also worked on a solution enabling data transfer from Magento to SAP – customer numbers, order numbers, etc. Due to the fact that the products in the stores did not have a single, unique number such as SKU or EAN (one product had two numbers corresponding to Denmark or Sweden but only one SAP ID), we had to prepare security that verified the website for which the information was sent. product update and only update that specific product. Without this solution, the system updated only one of the products, the one that was first on the list during the update.
Despite the lack of the necessary documentation and complicated work with an international team, we completed the project on time, when the other brand platforms also had their live integration with SAP.

Working on this project was quite a challenge for Fast White Cat.

Firstly, we cooperated with a large, international team, which required us to plan our activities very carefully in order to finalize the project on time despite the different working hours.

Secondly, the difficulty was the fact that the previous supplier did not provide the necessary documentation of the previous integration with NAVISION on which we were to rely when designing the integration with SAP, so we had to rely entirely on our experience and knowledge of the technology. Thanks to this, we consciously and gradually led to a successful go live!

Anna the Wise

Project Manager

How it works, i.e. the effect

You can do a lot in less than a second – but only if you have almost ten years of experience behind it. Thanks to this, we have created for our client a store that will attract any number of end customers and during the global promotion period it generated 144,065 orders, at the most decisive moment giving over 3,850 orders in an hour, i.e. over 64 orders per minute, i.e. one order in less than a second .

Moreover, users placed subsequent orders around the clock – even in the middle of the night, which clearly shows that proper care of the customer’s store requires full commitment 24 hours a day. Even a few minutes of a non-functioning platform will generate severe losses for the brand.

That’s why, regardless of the size of the store we implement or maintain, we always work from the beginning so that, if necessary, it will be able to accept as many orders as possible and not generate losses.

Development?

At Fast White Cat, we work to ensure that our Partners’ stores not only constantly improve their capabilities, but also stay ahead of the competition. Check how we will cope with your challenge!

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