Seamlessly Connecting ERP and E-Commerce 
with Sana Commerce Cloud

As a key player in the aftermarket industry, Alliant Power faced challenges that demanded precision and efficiency. Their outdated e-commerce platform couldn’t keep up with the complexity of managing remanufactured parts, core charges, and a wide range of specialized products. The old system lacked product information, photos, and dynamic functionality, making it static and less engaging for customers while adding extra manual work for the team.

When they moved to Magento, the problems only grew worse. Online orders plummeted from 60% to 25%, and the system struggled to handle the unique needs of their business. It became clear they needed a platform capable of managing these complexities while providing a faster, more reliable experience for their customers.

Alta Cycling Group is a premier cycling company that owns and operates the brands Diamondback, Redline, and iZip. Based out of Washington State, they sell their bicycles and accessories to a network of retail dealers.

Alta Cycling Group had a mission: they needed to find a B2B e-commerce provider that would communicate effectively with their soon-to-be-deployed new ERP, Microsoft Dynamics.

Their previous ERP and B2B e-commerce solutions were not in-sync; there was concern that their webstore was not accurately reflecting stock-levels as shown in the ERP. The IT department was spending considerable time maintaining and updating the legacy site, inhibiting them from taking on more advanced projects.

Alta Cycling Group wanted an elegant and integrated e-commerce site that could provide an easy way for venders (their business customers) to purchase bicycles and equipment through a dedicated e-commerce portal.

Man riding an Alta Cycling bicycle - Sana Commerce Case Study Alta Cycling Group
Their requirements were:

• The e-commerce solution must be in-sync with Microsoft Dynamics
• The store needed to provide up-to-date inventory and order status
• The webstore must have a dedicated customer portal
• The store should have a modern and contemporary design
• The store should be able to be managed by the sales team with minimal IT oversight.

Alta Cycling Group, after deciding upon Microsoft Dynamics as their ERP, weighed several different B2B e-commerce platforms. The most important element for them was that the platform needed to seamlessly integrate with their new ERP, ensuring that customers could see accurate stock and order data.

Ultimately, they decided on Sana Commerce. While other e-commerce solutions were able to interface with their ERP, Alta Cycling found that this level of connectivity was not sufficient for B2B e-commerce.

Sana Commerce’s complete integration with their ERP partner proved the decisive factor in their decision.

Unlike mainstream e-commerce solutions that interface with ERPs – inefficiently replicating ERP data on the e-commerce platform, Sana Commerce integrates directly with a client’s ERP. In the case of Alta Cycling Group, this meant that Sana would use Microsoft Dynamics as the single source of truth: all stock data, order tracking, and invoice history would be directly pulled from the ERP and shown on their webstore in real-time.

This real-time accuracy ensured that their buyers could make purchases on the e-commerce site while being confident that the stock they saw and purchased was readily available. In other words, what the buyers saw was what Alta Cycling Group actually had on hand.

Alta Cycling Group successfully deployed Sana Commerce as their e-commerce solution along with Microsoft Dynamics as their new ERP.

Alta Cycling Group deployed their e-commerce solution as an invite-only web shop for their buyers. Buyers could create customer accounts where they could see accurate pricing and inventory, place orders, track order status, and pay invoices.

Prior to Sana Commerce, Alta Cycling Group’s B2B solution required extensive oversight and management from the IT team – straining resources. However, once Alta Cycling switched over to Sana Commerce, they were able to manage their B2B solution through their sales team, thanks to Sana Commerce’s intuitive UX. This has empowered the sales team to provide more responsive and timely service to their buyers, while freeing up the IT team to deploy resources to new projects.

A key result achieved through switching to Sana Commerce is site stability. Thanks to Sana Commerce’s modern architecture and direct ERP integration, Alta Cycling Group can be confident that the site will provide a sterling and error-free customer experience – one that allows customers to accurately see inventory, place orders and make payments on their website, and track their orders in real-time.