Structural Context
Vohkus operated a large-scale B2B commerce environment with approximately 400,000 SKUs and over 170 active companies. The platform was built on Magento 2 using a third-party B2B adaptation layered over Open Source.
Pricing was calculated externally via shared middleware connected to the ERP, then imported daily and indexed per company. Deployments were manual. Architectural ownership was fragmented across systems.
Engagement began as targeted intervention and evolved into full structural re-engineering.
Architectural Challenge
The existing architecture introduced multiple structural weaknesses:
- Pre-calculated company pricing imported and fully indexed
- Rule logic distributed across global, company, and import layers
- Limited transparency in pricing composition
- Middleware dependency shared across multiple external clients
- Manual live-server deployments without rollback control
Pricing recalculation could take overnight or multiple days. Import instability required manual intervention. Deployments regularly failed and changes were not reliably tracked in source control.
Operational reliability was constrained by architectural design.
Defined Intervention
Following initial stabilisation, the platform was rebuilt on Adobe Commerce using the native B2B module.
The re-engineering included:
- Full frontend rebuild
- Checkout customisation for company-specific T&Cs tracking
- ERP integration rewrite with two-way order synchronisation
- Removal of third-party middleware
- Real-time pricing engine redesign
- The pricing engine was restructured to calculate markup dynamically at request level, using cached rule retrieval rather than indexed company prices. Category-level markup with SKU-level overrides now operates in real time.
Supplier logic was engineered to support:
- Preferred supplier hierarchies
- Cost calculation strategies
- Stock selection rules
Adobe Commerce B2B capability was extended to support:
- Multi-company user assignment
- Shared catalog synchronisation (“From Public”)
- Sequential multi-stage approval flows
- Custom quote line item injection with controlled product lifecycle
Magento became the single operational control layer.
Governance Continuity
Deployment governance was reset through:
- Version-controlled workflows
- CI implementation (initially TeamCity, later Adobe Commerce Cloud pipeline)
- Structured staging validation
- Weekly controlled release cadence
Manual live edits were eliminated. Deployment downtime reduced from hours to under one minute. Over four years, only three incidents required recovery — each resolved within approximately 30–60 minutes.
Ongoing engagement includes:
- Code review oversight
- Architectural impact assessment
- Controlled feature sequencing
- Backend architectural ownership
Attempts to transition development externally resulted in cost overrun and structural regression, reinforcing the necessity of embedded architectural oversight.
Structural Outcome
Vohkus now operates on a stable Adobe Commerce B2B foundation with:
- Real-time markup pricing architecture
- Defined supplier logic control
- Elimination of middleware dependency
- Structured deployment governance
- Centralised architectural ownership
Pricing recalculation reduced from overnight/days to instant execution. Deployment stability improved materially. Internal confidence in the platform increased, enabling broader commercial promotion.
The environment now evolves within defined boundaries rather than structural uncertainty.
