Case Study: Galco Transitions from Legacy Systems to Modern ERP, PIM, and eCommerce Platforms
Galco is a leading distributor of industrial and commercial electrical and electronic control, automation and motion, lighting, and power transmission products.
Galco built growth over time, utilizing an in-house system that handled Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), eCommerce, and Product Information Management (PIM) operations, all from one place. However, the time had come for an upgrade.
The Problem: Galco Needed Systems That Grew With Their Business.
While Galco’s custom-built system was initially effective, it was showing its age. It used an outdated greenscreen user interface and was not sufficiently scalable.
As Galco continued to grow, they had trouble finding developers to work on their in-house tools, which were custom-coded in a language that is no longer widely supported.
This necessitated a transition to a more modern system. The company selected a new ERP, Prophet 21, but required an eCommerce and PIM integration that would recreate (and expand upon) the functionality of the legacy system.
Galco saw the transition as an opportunity to streamline their eCommerce experience. The legacy system’s eCommerce features were limited, and Galco needed as much automation as possible. eCommerce orders would need to be converted to warehouse shipments with minimal human interaction, and all three new systems would need to work together to accomplish that goal.
The Plan: Blue Stingray Would Integrate Magento Ecommerce With Galco’s New ERP.
Blue Stingray worked with Galco’s key team members to determine the expectations of the new eCommerce platform.
We determined that Magento Cloud provided the most robust and customizable solution to meet their eCommerce goals. However, custom connections would need to be built to integrate Magento with the new ERP/PIM solutions.
Our team guided the design of these connections and built the necessary code. We also recognized the need for minimal impact on Galco’s team: The rollout of the new systems would need to be seamless.
Implementation: Addressing Bottlenecks and Fine-Tuning The Systems.
In an effort to reduce the operational impact, we planned to roll out the new eCommerce platform shortly before Galco switched to Prophet 21. That meant addressing several bottlenecks:
- The primary bottleneck was the massive catalog size — approximately 4 million SKUs — and the accompanying data inconsistencies expected with a data set that large. All inconsistencies would need to be addressed prior to the transition.
- Blue Stingray would develop the new Magento site in parallel with the other systems. As approaches changed in the development of those systems, Magento would need to accommodate those changes.
- The legacy ERP was also substantially different from Prophet 21, which introduced additional issues.
Blue Stingray worked to develop the necessary connections and maintain data integrity while simultaneously building new features to minimize human work.
The Results: A Successful Transition And Record-Setting Web Sales.
By building custom connections from Magento to Prophet 21, we were able to identify opportunities for workflow enhancement. We focused on minimizing the impact of the transitions to new technologies, recognizing that Galco’s existing processes were built to be streamlined; they would need to be recreated (and where possible, automated) in the new systems.
Ultimately, the transition was a resounding success. Galco has experienced record-setting sales on the web, and their Magento and Prophet 21 implementations are much more robust — and much more capable of supporting the business’s growth.
