ERP-Driven eCommerce: Automating Complex B2B Workflows with an eCommerce and JDE E1 Integration
W.S. Darley & Co: a B2B Commerce and JD Edwards Integration Success Story
Technologies
The Client
W.S. Darley & Co. is a designer, manufacturer, and distributor of firefighting, defense, and emergency services equipment. Since 1908, they have been dedicated to serving fire and emergency services, and have added military, homeland security, and water purification industries to their customer base as well. Darley builds fire trucks and a variety of pumps including fire, water purification, and fuel transfer pumps, as well as additional emergency and special operations equipment.
The vast majority of Darley’s existing customers were in the B2B space and were previously shopping via catalog, sales representative, or by phone with a customer service representative. Fully integrating with the JDE backend functionality would allow those customers to order online, reducing human intervention on the ordering process, and increasing Darley’s eCommerce sales in general.
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The Goals
- Provide customers with online product details and additional order information
- Reduce human intervention on the ordering process
- Eliminate the need to dual manage data
- Increase sales with current B2B customers using traditional buying methods
- Utilize B2B commerce functionality
Key Results
8% increase
in sales
Sold over
16,000 items
since launch
Streamlined
the ordering
process
Implemented customer specific pricing
Project Highlights
The Challenge
The Darley eCommerce site, eDarley.com, was operating on Magento Enterprise 1 and primarily serving as a B2C shopping destination. Darley wanted to take advantage of their existing JD Edwards EnterpriseOne implementation by integrating it with their eCommerce instance in order to allow for B2B ordering.
In order to meet these B2B eCommerce demands, Darley worked with our team to migrate their Magento instance to Magento Enterprise 2 and fully integrate that site to their existing JD Edwards EnterpriseOne environment.
The Solution
The success of this B2B initiative hinged on establishing a bi-directional integration between the client's new eCommerce platform and their JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (JDE E1) ERP system. This integration was specifically engineered to handle the complexity inherent in specialized distribution, including government contracts, dealer-specific pricing tiers, and personalized catalogs. By leveraging JDE E1 as the single source of truth for all core business data, we automated crucial workflows: accurate, real-time pricing and inventory flowed to the site, and high-volume orders, quotes, and customer data flowed seamlessly back into the ERP. This automation successfully eliminated manual data reconciliation, ensuring unprecedented accuracy and providing a scalable foundation for future B2B growth.The Result
Our team’s experience in Magento, JD Edwards, and integrations, along with some additional design knowledge, paved the way for Darley’s success.
This integration allowed Darley to manage all of their catalog, organizations, inventory, and pricing data in one place.
They no longer have to dual manage because of having information in two separate systems, and nothing needs to be manually entered into both systems in order to make a change.
With this integration, Darley is now able to handle larger volumes of sales and grow their business. Darley can continue to provide state of the art, life-saving gear.
Key Project Benefits:
- Key data components are managed in one system
- Eliminated dual manual entry
- Streamlined the ordering process
- Implemented customer specific pricing.
How We Did It
This project depended on the experience of our certified Magento developers and their knowledge of JD Edwards integrations to:
- Implement a structured implementation and integration methodology
- Determine the Darley site's personas in order to better identify and attract their customer base
- Migrate the current Magento 1.14 site to Magento 2.1.4 to leverage inherent B2B commerce functionality
- Fully integrate JD Edwards backend functionality to allow customers to order online, reducing human intervention in the ordering process
- Define nine detailed integration points and build a full integration to the existing JD Edwards system