For more than 50 years, BRUXSAFOL Folien GmbH has been a specialist provider of high-quality self-adhesive functional films for the construction and automotive sectors. The company, based in Hammelburg, offers a portfolio that includes solar protection films, safety films, paint protection films, and car wrapping films for professional applications.

BRUXSAFOL primarily supplies specialist companies and resellers across Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. The company is particularly well known for its strong technical consulting, modern in-house training concepts, and outstanding customer service.

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When you hear the word “film,” what comes to mind? The sandwich wrap from a gas station? The overhead projector from your old school? Or perhaps remembering not to forget aluminum foil on your next shopping trip?

What you probably did not think of is a high-performance material that drastically reduces the energy consumption of buildings, makes facades waterproof yet breathable, or absorbs sound better than a double-glazed window.

Technical adhesive films are among the biggest drivers of innovation in modern industry. Today, the market generates an estimated 50 to 70 billion US dollars annually, roughly the same as the global film production industry.

Speaking of global: as a specialist in adhesive films, BRUXSAFOL supplies businesses on (almost) every continent. In the coming weeks, the company’s new B2B shop will go live, a project we have spent the last two years developing.

Why the development was anything but a standard project is revealed in this case study. Doreen Petersen, E-Commerce Manager at BRUXSAFOL, shares her experiences from this major project.

The Core of the Matter: An ERP from the Last Millennium

Two years of development time for a B2B store? Was the German Chancellor perhaps right after all with his comments about work ethic in our country?

Not at all, for two reasons.

First, the BRUXSAFOL store was neither a relaunch nor a migration, but a completely new development. The company abandoned its previous shop back in 2018 due to increasingly severe technical problems. In recent years, customers placed orders via telephone, email, or messaging apps. However, this circumstance alone does not justify 24 months of work.

But then there is the ERP system used at BRUXSAFOL, which over the years has found its way into virtually every area of the company, from warehouse logistics and order management to customer administration and accounting, including all incoming and outgoing invoices.

How many years are we talking about?

Twenty-eight.

Just two more trips around the sun and the ERP could apply for a historic vehicle license plate. That's old for a car, and for software, a release year of 1998 is practically the IT Stone Age.

Back then, nobody knew what an app was, the cloud was merely another vocabulary word from school, and Windows was little more than a GUI running on top of MS-DOS.

How many updates, modifications, custom code lines, and workarounds the ERP has accumulated over more than a quarter of a century is something not even its original developer knows anymore.

Nevertheless, the new store had to be fully integrated into the system. After such a long time, an ERP becomes virtually irreplaceable, and that is precisely why the development work took a little longer.

But let’s start from the beginning, because before the integration could begin, a few additional steps were necessary.

1. B2B System Selection: Why Shopware Was Chosen

The team at BRUXSAFOL knew that connecting the ERP and the store would become a major challenge. Therefore, special attention was given to selecting the right platform, and significant time was invested in research.

Ultimately, the choice fell on Shopware for three main reasons.

First, the platform is ideally suited for demanding B2B projects. Even a highly technical store such as the BRUXSAFOL shop—where products are sold both by the roll and as custom cuts in inches or meters—can be reliably implemented with Shopware.

Second, as a highly open platform, Shopware offered the best chances for fully integrating the legacy ERP. Because when it comes to system integration, it is usually far more efficient to adapt the shop to the ERP than the other way around.

“Customer service has always been extremely important to us. The new store is therefore not simply intended to digitize orders or accelerate processes. Much more importantly, it gives our team more time for what has defined BRUXSAFOL for years: personal consultation, technical support, and direct communication with our customers.”

Third, BRUXSAFOL simply felt well advised during its discussions with Shopware. Every question was answered competently, uncertainties were quickly resolved, and Shopware even had a recommendation for the right agency.

2. Agency Selection: Why Strix Was Chosen

The initial contact between BRUXSAFOL and us came through a recommendation from Shopware.

However, a recommendation alone does not secure a project.

Doreen Petersen explains why BRUXSAFOL chose Strix:

“The professional impression that Shopware left on us continued seamlessly with Strix. Every technical question was answered confidently, and before the project had even started, I already had my personal point of contact. From the very first moment, it was simply a good fit — professionally and personally.

What ultimately convinced me were two things. First, how well prepared Strix was for the project. Even before the official kickoff, we received extensive documentation. On paper, the store was practically already finished and only needed adjustments in the details.

And then there was the moment when the IT specialists from our ERP agency joined a meeting for the first time. I couldn't follow every technical detail of what the developers were discussing, but one thing was obvious: these were people talking to each other who knew exactly what they were doing.”

“After the first conversations, I simply felt: this is the right fit. Not only professionally, but personally as well. These were not service providers trying to sell us something, but people who genuinely understood what mattered to us.”

— Doreen Petersen, E-Commerce Manager at BRUXSAFOL

3. Implementation: A Project in Three Phases

Once BRUXSAFOL gave the green light, development did not begin immediately.

Every sensible project starts with:

Phase 0: Audit and Preparation

Successful system integration depends above all on data quality. This creates work for both sides: us and the client.

Our job was to document exactly which data is needed where within the system, in what format it must exist, where it originates from, and to which ERP module it must be returned.

Step by step, this creates a network plan that can sometimes appear as complex as the dispatch planning of a logistics company: cargo, destination, travel time, stopovers—all of these concepts can be applied quite well to system integration.

Meanwhile, Team BRUXSAFOL took up the digital broom.

Over more than 50 years of company history and 28 years of ERP operation, enormous quantities of duplicates, obsolete records, and data errors inevitably accumulate.

This may sound like frustrating extra work, but it is an important task.

Just as a warehouse without properly maintained inventory records is virtually useless, a database also loses its value if it is not regularly cleaned up.

The right mindset is therefore not, “Do we really have to do this?” but rather, “In terms of performance and clarity, we are doing ourselves a huge favor.”

Phase 1: Implementation

Based on this solid foundation, the technical implementation followed.

As mentioned several times already, the bottleneck proved to be the ERP integration. Here, we relied on cooperation with the IT team of the software company that originally developed the system.

The integration could only be carried out iteratively. We completed one step, then the software company's team handled the next.

This sounds laborious, but there is simply no other way with such a heavily customized piece of software.

Every individual component must be thoroughly tested because it is impossible to predict purely in theory where connections, redundancies, and dependencies within a legacy system may have unexpected effects.

What matters here is not only diligence and expertise, but also comprehensive documentation.

Doreen Petersen comments:

“Strix documented every single step, every function, and every feature thoroughly—not in inaccessible technical jargon, but in a way that was so clear and understandable that my team and I can work with it without difficulty. What we received is not merely a project report that nobody ever looks at again, but a complete reference guide that genuinely enables us to help ourselves when problems arise.”

“Documentation sounds dry at first—but in day-to-day business, it is worth its weight in gold.”

— Doreen Petersen, E-Commerce Manager at BRUXSAFOL

Wait a moment! Where is the third phase?

It's happening right now.

Every IT professional knows that you never simply unleash a system at full speed into the real world.

Phase 3: Live Testing

The store is already live and fully operational, but it is not yet accessible to all customers.

At the moment, selected business partners are testing it and providing feedback.

For BRUXSAFOL, it was important to ensure a diverse testing group. After all, a modern automotive customization business in Hamburg has very different requirements for a B2B store than a family-run craft business in Nüdlingen.

“Our customers work in very different ways—from specialized craft businesses to international partner companies. This diversity is exactly what the store should be able to reflect in the future.”

— Doreen Petersen, E-Commerce Manager at BRUXSAFOL

So far, customer feedback has been consistently positive. Convenience, ease of use, and fast processing are particularly well received.

Very little now stands in the way of the full launch planned for July this year.

However, even more is already in the pipeline.

Next Steps

The shop currently runs with all the core functions a B2B store needs.

Over the coming months, we will expand it with additional convenience features.

To give you an idea: at the top of the to-do list is an availability traffic light system.

Green means the product is in stock.

Yellow means the desired product is currently unavailable, but equivalent alternatives are available.

And red should ideally never appear.

By the end of the year, the store is also scheduled for internationalization—first for Europe, then for Asia and the USA.

Additional improvements include more payment methods and shipping options.

In short, all the things that are not strictly necessary for a functioning store, but ultimately help create a truly excellent purchasing experience.

To Be Continued...

At this point, we cannot yet present hard numbers.

Of course, we remain in close contact with Doreen Petersen and will update this article as soon as new information becomes available.

To make sure you do not miss any updates, the best thing to do is subscribe to our newsletter.

Until then, one thing is already clear:

BRUXSAFOL is on exactly the right path to further improve its already outstanding customer service.

When orders no longer have to be taken manually over the phone, there is significantly more time for consulting, troubleshooting, or simply a friendly conversation.

For new customers, placing their first order becomes much easier, and fully digitalized millennials no longer have to suffer through a phone call.

And what can you take away from this?

Above all, that you are welcome to contact us if your legacy ERP system has so far prevented you from taking the step into e-commerce.

Because if the BRUXSAFOL case demonstrates one thing, it is that even the most ancient legacy system can be fully connected to a modern online store.

We would also be happy to show you what else we can do for your business.

Visit our services page to learn more, or explore our partner page to see what we have already achieved with Shopware—and what we can achieve for you.

In any case, we look forward to hearing from you.

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This project is built with our technology partners: