Distrelec: From a Rigid Monolith to an Agile Headless Architecture

The Challenge

As a leading B2B distributor, Distrelec had been successful with its established SAP Commerce system but was increasingly hitting the limits of its flexibility. The monolithic architecture, where the frontend and backend were tightly coupled, became a barrier to innovation.

• Slow Development Cycles: Every small change to the frontend, like a new design element or a UX feature, required complex adjustments and deployments in the backend. This was slow, risky, and expensive.
• Limited Personalization: The rigid structure made it difficult to implement modern, dynamic personalization strategies that are crucial for a contemporary customer experience.
• High Dependencies: Frontend developers were constantly dependent on the backend team, and vice versa, leading to long wait times and inefficient workflows.
• Technological Stagnation: The outdated architecture prevented the use of modern frontend technologies and frameworks.

Distrelec needed a radical change to break free from the shackles of the monolith and regain agility in the market.

The Solution

Our approach was to guide Distrelec not just technically, but strategically through this complex transformation. We designed and implemented the transition to a pure headless architecture.

• Architectural Realignment: We completely decoupled the frontend (the user interface the customer sees) from the backend (the SAP Commerce Cloud, which contains the business logic).
• Introduction of an API-First Strategy: All communication between the front- and backend now runs through a clean, well-documented API layer. The backend provides the data and functions, and any frontend can use them flexibly.
• Freedom to Choose Frontend Technology: Thanks to the decoupling, Distrelec now has the freedom to use modern frontend frameworks to create a first-class and fast user experience.
• Team Enablement: We closely coached and trained Distrelec’s development teams so they could fully leverage the benefits of the new architecture — parallel workstreams and rapid iterations.

The Results

The transformation to a headless architecture has revolutionized Distrelec’s digital capabilities.

• Maximum Agility and Speed: Frontend adjustments, A/B tests, and the introduction of new features can now be implemented in days instead of weeks. The time-to-market has been drastically reduced.
• Superior User Experience: By using modern technologies, the frontend is noticeably faster and more responsive. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and an increased conversion rate.
• Efficient Development Processes: Frontend and backend teams can now work completely independently of each other. This eliminates wait times and increases the productivity of the entire development team.
• Future-Proofing: The flexible API-first architecture is not limited to a specific frontend. In the future, Distrelec can easily connect new channels like mobile apps or IoT applications to the same stable backend logic.